Programming Basics: Downloads and Teaching Resources

Other Programming Websites

There are many other great programming websites. Here are some links to some free sites that teach basic programming skills.

Simple Code Editor

If you want to write and run your programs without visiting the Programming Basics website, you can download the Simple Code Editor. The download consists of a zip file that you should decompress somewhere. Then double-click the "Simple Code Editor.html" file to start the code editor.

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Beginner Lessons and Exercises

This is a zip file of the text of the beginner lessons and corresponding exercise files. The lessons are stored in a plain html format that makes them easy to modify and print out. The exercise files contain the extra images and code needed to run them directly on your own computer without needing to connect to the Internet.

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Programming Games in Scratch

Tutorial and exercise handouts for an activity that teaches how to program some simple mini-games in Scratch. This material is separate from the other Programming Basics content and is intended as a standalone presentation. Students do not have to be familiar with the Programming Basics content to follow these lessons.

Making Web Pages

Resources for teaching a class on making web pages. This material is separate from the other Programming Basics content and is intended as a standalone presentation. Students do not have to be familiar with the Programming Basics content to follow these lessons.

Computer Graphics and Animation Using JavaScript and HTML5 Canvas

A presentation on how to write programs that do simple graphics and animation. This material is separate from the other Programming Basics content and is intended as a standalone presentation. Students do not have to be familiar with the Programming Basics content to follow these lessons.

Interactive Storytelling

A presentation and handout about programming interactive stories in Twine. It contains some light content on the theory of interactive narrative.

Making a Game with Unity

A handout that students can follow to make a simple game in Unity.

Making Transit Card Keychains and NFC

An activity that demonstrates how technology can be infused into fashion and art to create some keychains, pendants, or other jewelry that can interact with cellphones.

Guide to Creating Your Own Exercises

This guide describes how to create your own exercises that are similar to the ones available on the website. It gives an overview of how the Programming Basics website handles graphics. It also describes how to use the attachments and libraries functionality to hide exercise resources. The instructions are technical in nature and are intended mainly for instructors.

Snake Munch

A sample program that demonstrates how a small game can be written in JavaScript. The program uses some features of JavaScript that are not described in the beginner lessons such as: arrays, creating simple objects, OR, for loops, windows, graphics, keyboard input, and comments. As an exercise, here are some possible modifications that you may want to make to the game: create a different layout of walls, make the game go faster, change the graphics for the snake, make it possible to have the snake go off the end of one side of the screen and then appear on the other side.

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