Inspire CT

Mini Lessons

A collection of lessons that teachers can use to introduce computational thinking concepts to students of all ages, grade bands, and experience levels.

Mystery Objects

In this activity, students will describe a series of mystery objects, use their observations to evaluate what the object is and does, and assess whether people are able to achieve tasks without using the object.

Computational Thinking Practices

How can you integrate what humans are good at and what computers are good at in your classroom? This resource has the answers.

Integrated Units

These curricula were created through a collaborative effort between the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) and teacher leaders from Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) and Hopkins Public Schools (HPS) who participated in professional learning around Computational Thinking practices.

A person sitting with a laptop in from of him. They're holding a pen and wearing headphones while looking at the laptop screen.

Social Emotional Learning and Computational Thinking

Grades 3-5 | Through eight lessons, students investigate different SEL themes to explore how people can understand the feelings of others. Students then plan a story based on a theme and bring it to life by coding and showcasing projects with one another.

Urban waterfall

Literacy and Computational Thinking

Grades 3-5 | Through seven lessons, students use the computational thinking practice of abstraction to observe the natural world, determine the main themes in text, and code an interactive digital collage to illustrate their ideas.

Girl playing with gears to create shapes on paper

Math and Computational Thinking

Grades 3-4 | Over the course of five lessons, students apply the computational thinking practice of algorithmic design to draw geometric shapes and polygons and measure their perimeters by coding in Scratch.

We want to thank the teacher-leaders and District representatives who have worked with us over the years to build our shared understanding of Computational Thinking and create resources for classroom use. The Science Museum of Minnesota also wants to express our gratitude to the Cargill Foundation for their longstanding support in STEM education.