Program by Design is an innovative project for computing education that combines motivation with principles. On the surface we use engaging contexts—our “hello world” program is an animation, and students have the opportunity to program games, mashups, phones, etc.—while teaching a principled and scalable approach to computing. We have spent over fifteen years developing this curriculum, and have offerings at the middle-school, high-school and university levels (roughly, ages 10 and above). Our material is even used for in-house corporate training. As we discuss in more depth, we set out to address fundamental problems that students face. This has led to a series of innovations in programming environments, programming methodology, and programming languages.

Our widely-attended workshop series has been suspended because we now invest our energy in our sibling project, Bootstrap, which is designed for younger students (starting around age 12). That material is a perfect setup for ours. Meanwhile, you can still get access to all our materials, which remain in constant development.

Our Project comprises faculty and graduate students at several universities including Adelphi, Brown, Cal Poly, Northeastern, Northwestern, Utah and WPI, with support from several other universities as well as industrial organizations.

The Project is primarily funded by the US National Science Foundation and Google.

Overview What the Project is about
Events Our free workshops
Materials Books, software, etc.
Dual Credit How high-school students can earn college credit
Who The people behind the project
Sponsors Thanks to the funding sources who keep this project active!