In this lesson, learners of all ages get an introductory experience with coding and computer science in a safe, supportive environment. This lesson has two versions.

**Option 1: Blocks**

The first option uses drag-drop blocks. This version works best for:

- Students on mobile devices without keyboards
- Younger students (6+ because the tutorial requires reading)
- International students

We recommend this for international students because JavaScript syntax is not translated and for the first Hour of Code, the translated blocks provide a better introduction.

**Option 2: JavaScript**

This option teaches the same basic concepts, but because it uses both drag-drop blocks and JavaScript, the students need to be able to type on a keyboard. For older students on computers, learning JavaScript can be fun and provide an additional challenge. This version of the tutorial is also great if you have some students in your class who have already learned some coding. It is recommended for ages 11+.

In this lesson, learners of all ages get an introductory experience with coding and computer science in a safe, supportive environment. This lesson works well for any students old enough to read (ages 6+). Younger learners will probably not finish the tutorial, but will have lots of fun working through the puzzles for an hour. High school students will mostly finish the tutorial and have some time to play on the free play level at the end.

**Tutorial Summary:** This tutorial is designed to quickly introduce the App Lab programming environment as a powerful tool for building and sharing apps. The tutorial itself teaches students to create and control buttons, text, images, sounds, and screens in JavaScript using either blocks or text. At the end of the tutorial students are given time to either extend a project they started building into a "Choose Your Own Adventure", "Greeting Card", or "Personality Quiz" app. They can also continue on to build more projects featured on the code.org/applab page.

**Age Appropriateness:** The tutorial is designed for students over 13. Because it allows students to upload custom sounds and images, young students should not use this without supervision. To protect students privacy, if your students are under 13, they will not be able to use this tutorial unless you first set up accounts for them in a section you manage.

**Checking Correctness:** This tutorial will not tell students whether they completed the level correctly. Encourage students to use the target images and directions provided in every level to know if they are on the right track. If students want to move on past a particularly tricky level they can simply click "Finish" and continue on.

Have fun completing your Hour of Code with App Lab!

In this lesson, learners of all ages get an introductory experience with coding and computer science in a safe, supportive environment. This lesson has been designed for learners of all ages but does require reading. This activity requires sound as the tool was built to respond to music.

This activity will begin with a short review of "My Robotic Friends," then will quickly move to a race against the clock, as students break into teams and work together to write a program one instruction at a time.

At some point we reach a physical limit of how fast we can send bits and if we want to send a large amount of information faster, we have to find a way to represent the same information with fewer bits - we must **compress** the data. In this lesson, students will use the Text Compression Widget to compress segments of English text by looking for patterns and substituting symbols for larger patterns of text.

In this lesson, students are introduced to the need for encryption and simple techniques for breaking (or cracking) secret messages. Students try their own hand at cracking a message encoded with the classic Caesar cipher and also a Random Substitution Cipher. Students should become well-acquainted with idea that in an age of powerful computational tools, techniques of encryption will need to be more sophisticated. The most important aspect of this lesson is to understand how and why encryption plays a role in all of our lives every day on the Internet, and that making good encryption is not trivial. Students will get their feet wet with understanding the considerations that must go into making strong encryption in the face of powerful computational tools that can be used to crack it. The need for secrecy when sending bits over the Internet is important for anyone using the Internet.

Students will learn that events are a useful way to control when an action happens, and can even be used to make make multiple things act in sync. In programming, you can use events to respond to a user controlling it (like pressing buttons or clicking the mouse). Events can make your program more interesting and interactive.

This lesson is intended for classrooms that want to show the entire How AI Works video series in a single day. It is not intended to be taught in sequence with the other lessons in this unit, which introduces each video one day at a time.

Students follow along with each video by matching vocabulary from the video, then answering a reflection question about each video. The lesson plan and slides are very sparse and open-ended to allow for improvisation and customization to fit your classroom.

This lesson centers around the How AI Works: What is Machine Learning? video from the How AI Works video series. Watch this video first before exploring the lesson plan.

In this lesson students are introduced to a form of artificial intelligence called machine learning and how they can use the Problem Solving Process to help train a robot to solve problems. They participate in three machine learning activities where a robot - AI Bot - is learning how to detect patterns in fish.

This lesson can be taught on its own, or as part of a 7-lesson sequence on How AI Works. Duration: 45 minutes

This lesson centers around the How AI Works: Neural Networks video from the How AI Works video series. Watch this video first before exploring the lesson plan.

Students learn how neural networks work. They first discuss an example of an experience that recommends things to you. They then use a widget that recommends videos based on one person. Students watch a video explaining neural networks. They use an updated widget to adjust the weights of each person. Finally, students discuss the need for diverse perspectives when creating recommendation systems.

This lesson can be taught on its own, or as part of a 7-lesson sequence on How AI Works. Duration: 45 minutes

This lesson centers around the How AI Works: Privacy and the Future of Work video from the How AI Works video series. Watch this video first before exploring the lesson plan.

In small groups, students conduct research using articles and videos that expose ethical pitfalls in an artificial intelligence area of their choice. Afterward, each group develops at least one solution-oriented principle that addresses their chosen area. These principles are then assembled into a class-wide “Our AI Code of Ethics” resource (e.g. a slide presentation, document, or webpage) for AI creators and legislators everywhere.

This lesson can be taught on its own, or as part of a 7-lesson sequence on How AI Works. Duration: 45 minutes