The Cyber Robotics Coding Competition (CRCC) is an online tournament for students of all levels to participate in and learn about STEM, coding, robotics, and technology career paths. CRCC enables teachers, schools, and districts to engage students with technology and develop STEM awareness while they compete in the gamelike competition. Powered by CoderZ, an online STEM education program using virtual robots, the tournament is cloud-based, can be accessed from any computer, and uses simulations of virtual 3D robots that perform complex tasks and missions. By learning to program and strategizing their virtual robot to participate, students compete within their class, grade, school, district, and state to progress to the finals. Schools can participate for a modest fee that includes engagement in the tournament over six weeks (bootcamp, competition, and qualifiers); three hours of teacher orientation and training; class, school, and state leaderboards; in-school finals; finals participation; and awards and prizes for champions.
Girls Who Code, an international nonprofit organization working to close the gender gap in tech, has announced its 2023 Summer Programs, freevirtual opportunities for students in grades 9–12. As part of Girls Who Code’s commitment to providing students with resources about the many pathways into a STEM career, this year’s programs have been updated to include curriculum options on Gaming and Data Science.
The Kano Harry Potter Coding Kit is aimed at fans of the Harry Potter universe, and as such, all the games and interactions are “magic” related. Although the kit is app-based and works with laptops and tablets, it also has a real-world feature in the form of a Harry Potter-style wand, which is built out of the box as part of a challenge and then acts as a way of interacting with the games.
With the help of computational thinking resources, students will be deciphering problems and forming solutions in no time. By learning to solve problems using this technical mindset, students are preparing for bright futures where they can combine creativity with computational thinking for ultimate innovation and success.