The Raspberry Pi team have put together over 200 coding exercises for CoderDojo.
Whether you want to make websites, games, programs, or robots you can get started by working through these fun and easy to follow projects.
Scratch – A great place to begin
Scratch is a free tool for learning coding. Aimed at young learners, it uses visual drag-and-drop blocks to create games and programs to build real coding concepts.
HTML, CSS, JavaScript – Web and apps
HTML, CSS, and JS are the languages of web sites and applications. Use them to build pages, add text and images, apply styling, and create user interactions.
Python – Deep programming
Python and other programming languages are used for powerful operations. From big data to artificial intelligence, Python is a heavy lifting language for serious programmers.
Other coding resources
Online
- Ages 7 – 10
- Mozilla Thimble – Code playground w/exercises
- Hour of Code – Solve problems with code
- Scratch – Drag & drop game maker
- App Inventor – Drag & drop app maker (Android only)
- Read more about teaching young kids code
- Ages 11 – 18
- Programming Basics – General programming basics in a wide array of languages. Developed by CoderDojo Canada’s Dr. Ming-Yee Iu.
- Code.org (free)
- CodePen – HTML/CSS/JavaScript playground
- Dash by General Assembly (free)
- Codecademy (mostly free; some services paid)
- NodeSchool – JavaScript Programming tutorials
- Treehouse (1 week free; then paid)
- CodeSchool (some lessons free; most paid)
- Lynda.com (free to TPL members; generally paid)
- DeVry Bootcamp (Free Web Development resources and tutorials) – intermediate
- Guru99 (Software learning library across topics like Linux, Java, PHP, SQL, Ethical Hacking and more)
In-person coding groups (Toronto)
- Maker Kids (offers numerous programs, camps and classes for kids in a variety of subjects)
- Maker Festival (annual festival showcasing all sorts of tech and ‘maker’ companies: robotics, science experiments, RC drones…)
- Dames Making Games (member-supported feminist gaming community; many free events)
- Hand Eye Society (a video games arts organization; their Game Curious program is to get people who don’t normally play games to become first-time game makers)
Books & Articles
- Hello Ruby (a kids book to teach computer literacy and introduce coding)
- No Starch Press titles, like Javascript for Kids, Python for Kids
- Help Your Kids With Computer Coding
Learn to make games
- Unity Engine; Unreal Engine (two of the most popular, (mostly) free engines for professional, 3D games)
- Stencyl game maker (freemium: main version free; additional features paid)
- Twine (simple tool for making story-based games, in a Choose Your Own Adventure style)