Karel Adventures
- Level Elementary School
- Number of Lessons 49
- Grade 6th
Karel Adventures introduces students to programming in the JavaScript Karel coding environment. Students learn about sequences and control structures as they follow Karel on fun-filled adventures.
See the full syllabus for all topics and activities, or explore the course to try it out.
UNITS - 7 (49 lessons)
Introduces students to the Karel coding environment by having them explore, modify, and write simple movement programs.
Teaches sequencing and basic control structures as students program Karel through a rabbit-chase story involving walls, bridges, and painting.
Introduces if statements, if/else statements, and while loops as students guide Karel through a space-themed adventure involving asteroids, fires, and tracking a target.
Assesses students' mastery of while loops and if statements and challenges them to design their own original Karel adventure.
Advances students' control-structure skills, including if/else statements, while loops, for loops, and nested conditionals, through an Egyptian-themed adventure.
Teaches functions, top-down decomposition, and custom colors as students combine control structures to solve multi-step park-themed challenges.
Assesses students' ability to combine for loops, while loops, and if statements to complete a culminating Karel programming challenge.
Explore a sample lesson from this course!
Students learn to program Karel the dog through four story-based adventures. They start with sequences of commands in The Rabbit Chase, learn if statements and while loops in Lost in Space, add for loops and nested conditionals in Quest for the Rosetta Stone, and write functions and plan solutions with top-down decomposition in A Day at the Park. Along the way, students complete evaluations and create their own Karel Adventure story.
Karel Adventures combines all of the lessons from Karel Adventures 1 and Karel Adventures 2 into a single course. Students complete the Karel Adventures 1 adventures and evaluation first, then continue into the Karel Adventures 2 adventures and evaluation.
Students start with drag-and-drop code blocks and have the option to switch to text-based JavaScript as they gain confidence, so the course supports both new coders and students ready for a challenge. Teachers also get lesson slides, problem guides, solution references, and printable Karel command sheets in English and Spanish to support every lesson.
Karel Adventures is designed for upper elementary students in grades 5-6, and no prior coding experience is needed. The course includes 49 lessons, totaling about 24 hours of instruction. Most coding lessons take 15 to 30 minutes, with longer projects and evaluations of 90 minutes to 3 hours.
Karel Adventures is aligned to state computer science standards and CSTA standards.
