High school students can code too! As a high school teacher, I know this is true. And if you teach Grade 9, 10, 11 and 12 with B.I.T.E credits, you can get your students coding with these awesome websites and programs for free!
These programs and websites will give students the opportunity to try out coding and work with various programming languages like Java and Python. Some programs like Code Combat and Code Avengers encourage users to play video games while they learn the basics of coding at the same time.
Alice
Alice is a desktop app developed by Carnegie Mellon. More advanced than other programming tools for kids, Alice teaches the fundamentals of programming in a 3D setting. This makes it ideal for teens. While working in the app, students can see the code behind the projects they create on the screen. Programming concepts are learned while students create animated movies and basic video games that they can then share on the internet. Note: Java runtime is needed for Alice.App Inventor
Hopster Coding Safari
Platform: IOS
Cost: Free with in-app purchases
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Coding safari is a unique coding app that can teach children as young as two years old the fundamentals of coding! With a focus on pre-coding skills like problem solving, decomposition and computational thinking, Coding safari is engaging and educational. We love this game for the littles coders on your list!
Kodable
Platform: IOS
Cost: Free basic version + Kodable Pro $6.99 a month
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The Fuzz family crash-lands on Smeeborg and needs to explore the many mazes of their new planet. To help them get through each maze and collect coins, kids use programming logic to drag and drop commands. Kodable introduces students to the foundations of computer programming through the step-by-step instruction games, if/then statements, and loops. What really sets Kodable Pro apart is the added resources, lessons, and guidance for parents helping their student learn.
App Inventor
App Inventor is a cloud-based tool maintained by MIT. Much like the popular coding app Scratch, App Inventor has drag-and-drop coding blocks. However, App Inventor includes all methods, functions, and coding elements that a student would need to create an Android app. This makes it ideal for middle school kids and up. Students can build apps right in their web browser. The website offers support, but there are no step-by-step instructions to guide students, another reason the tool is best for older nts.Codecademy
Codecademy
Codecademy is an interactive online tool that teaches coding fundamentals, Ruby, PHP, jQuery, Python, JavaScript, and more. The tool is set up on a split screen so students get to see the code and the changes as they happen at the same time. The sophistication and scope of this online tool makes it better suited for older students, middle grade and up.Khan Academy
Khan Academy
Like Codecademy, Khan Academy Khan Academy is an interactive online tool better suited for middle grade students and above. Khan Academy teaches coding fundamentals using JavaScript and ProcessingJS. Students will learn how to create animation, games, and drawings through programming. They’ll learn how to make web pages using HTML and CSS. Students can then share their creations with other students and learn from each other.
Froala
Froala is the next-gen WYSIWYG HTML Editor, which is simple to integrate for the developers, and its clean design makes you feel excellent. It offers a high-performing JS text editor that is easy for developers to use.
Froala has 170+ Bootstrap-based design blocks to help you build beautiful modern websites. You can use it for free in your mobile and web projects. Also, the powerful API is designed to make the text editor easy to interact with and customize. Froala’s editor is available in every framework, and it supports backend technologies that make the work even easier for the developers.
Froala is used across 100 countries and multiple languages, including Asian and East languages. The JavaScript editor is compliant with WCAG 2.0, WAI-ARIA, and Section 508. You will get high-quality code, which means LTFCE, or you can say Legible, Testable, Flexible, Compliant, and Economical.
Get each functionality at your fingertips by using shortcuts that you can activate by specifying some keyboard commands. It works the same in Internet Explorer, Safari, and other browsers. It has a modern design, retina-ready view, themes, intuitive interface, SVG icons, Opoups, custom toolbar, custom style, Iframe, full-screen mode, and a lot more.
Froala’s editor is a fast, lightweight, and plugin-based application. It takes advantage of HTML 5 standards. Get all the features of CKEditor and TinyMCE with an elegant UX for $199/year.
Free Resources That Help Kids Learn to Code
CodeKarts (4+; iOS/Android)
A pre-coding game for preschoolers, players learn to develop observational skills, concentration, and logic by guiding a car through various tracks.
CodeSpark Academy (5-9; iOS/Android/ Kindle Fire/Windows)
With over 1,000 fun activities and a simple-to-use interface, CodeSpark Academy is the perfect app to introduce kids ages 5-9 to programming.
Scratch Jr. (5-7; iOS/Android/Kindle Fire/ChromeBook)
With ScratchJr., children ages 5-7 can program interactive stories and games to solve problems, design projects, and express themselves creatively on the computer.
Move the Turtle (6-12; iOS)
Using visually engaging graphics, kids can implement various programming concepts to direct a virtual turtle and complete unique tasks.
Swift Playgrounds (8-12; iOS)
Swift is a programming language for developing Apple iOS programs and apps. Especially useful for beginner programmers (even those with no Swift experience) Swift Playgrounds lets kids work at their own paces with visually appealing and educational challenges.
CkeckiO ClassRoom is a great additional teaching tool where coding is intertwined with playing games. It supports Python and JavaScript programming languages and allows teachers to create their own classrooms, add students and configure a course which they consider fitted.
CheckiO contains more than 200 exciting missions and over 300 000 creative solutions to them which everyone who solved their task can easily view. The games itself doesn’t contain any studying courses that’s why CheckiO can be easily used as an extra resource for the class that already exists in real-life and needs more practice. A teacher here can oversee how his students are working on their solutions, what are their questions and comments, which tasks they solve easily and where they get stuck as well as they can create their own missions for their students and check how unique are their solutions.
Visual Studio Code
Visual Studio Code, also known as VS Code, is an open-source code editor by Microsoft. It is a cross-platform text editor that can run on any device, either on Linux, Windows, or Mac.
This text editor is focused on increasing the developer’s performance. Features like auto-completion, system debugging help to improve the developer’s daily tasks.
Of all the code editors on the list, it is probably the closest to being an IDE. Although it is compelling, it requires considerable time during start-up, which is the only cons of this text editor. However, while using it, VS Code is quick and able to handle quite a few exciting tasks, such as fast Git commits or opening and sorting through multiple folders’ worth of content.
VS Code has a built-in terminal and built-in Git support, making this text editor one of the best text editors in the market. It can be customized according to your need. Through VS Code extensions, you can install many features, and you can perform all the works that can be performed on an IDE.
Brackets
Brackets is a lightweight, open-source, yet powerful, modern text editor. Brackets understand web design that makes it easy to design in the browser with focused visual tools and preprocessor support. It is crafted from the ground up for web designers and front-end developers.
One of the Bracket’s best features is that it has an integrated live preview server that launches a new Chrome tab showing the current page, and that does not require a manual refresh when you change a file and as you type.
Another feature is that JS lint is enabled by default in brackets that will check your Javascript code upon saving, with its results displayed as a panel below the main editing window.
Although there is autocompletion support in the bracket, it is not perfect.
Sublime Text
Sublime Text is a lightweight application that makes it easier for the developers to work on it, and despite being lightweight, it is a lot lighter on the number of features it offers. It was majorly built with a Python API for the development teams who are slogging hours on coding all today.
It has several keyboard shortcuts, making it more flexible for the developer to use the different functions. It supports cross-platform integration and has been optimized for quick speed and easy to use interface. It is available for a free trial period, after which the developers have to pay $80.
Atom Editor
Atom is an open-source code and text editor for Linux, Mac Os, and Microsoft Windows. Atom supports embedded Git Control and the plugins written in JavaScript.
One of the outstanding features of Atom is that it allows you to share your project progress with friends. Using Teletype for Atom (from sharing knowledge to teaching) will enable developers to work together on the same project. One of the difficult things for developers is to collaborate while working on the same ideas. Atom enables this operation right from your text editor.
You can customize Atom in any way as per your requirements. In Atom, Everything is customizable via CSS or JavaScript. If you want a feature that doesn’t exist, it’s effortless to start writing your package.
Conclusion
Coding is one of the most important skills that kids can learn. If your kids want to learn to code or launch their first website then check out the infographic below for some of the best coding programs and online courses for high school students as well as free coding for high school students.