2026 Fall Pilot Program: Buy PD, Get Curriculum Free!
Students bring their coding and creative ideas to life through immersive virtual reality projects.
CS Connections is aligned to the CSTA 6-8 Computer Science Standards, providing opportunities for learners in Grades 5-8 to deepen their understanding of algorithms, variables, functions, conditionals, and responsible computing within our full K-12 computer science curriculum. Lessons and projects foster creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving in line with grade-appropriate CSTA expectations.
Provides pacing suggestions, key vocabulary, discussion prompts, and differentiation tips to support student choice while ensuring alignment with learning goals.
These student-facing slides walk students through each phase of the project and include embedded prompts, key concepts, and workbook activities.
Helps teachers support students, model expectations, demonstrate creative possibilities and accurate use of the code.
Supports debugging during instruction and offers a reference point for students building their own projects.
Aligned to the project's learning objectives and includes grading criteria for creativity, collaboration, and technical proficiency.
Students use workbooks (print or digital) to record their project ideas, explain their coding choices, and reflect on what they've learned.
Computer science essentials is the set of core concepts every student should meet in middle school: programming with logic (variables, conditionals, loops), how computers work, working with data, digital ethics, and collaborative problem solving. Several curriculum providers offer a course by this name. Hello World's CS Connections with VR for grades 5-8 teaches those essentials through projects students build in immersive virtual worlds, aligned to CSTA 6-8 standards.
Middle school is where students move from computational thinking to actual programming: writing code, debugging, working with data, and building projects. It's typically offered as a semester or full-year course, an elective, or an exploratory rotation. In CS Connections, students program with logic, learn how computers work, and examine digital ethics while building 3D worlds.
Because it's a point where students can decide whether CS is "for them." Students who have a positive, hands-on CS experience in grades 5-8 are far more likely to take CS in high school, and the pool of students who do is more diverse. Middle school CS also builds reasoning habits that transfer to math and science. See our middle school computer science curriculum page for the full picture.
Before: CS Breakthroughs with VR (grades 3-5) builds coding and data foundations. After: CS Dimensions with VR (grades 8-10) goes into algorithms, cybersecurity, and data analysis, or students move to text-based coding in Web Development or Intro to Python.
Ethics is a core topic, not an add-on. Students examine how technology affects people, what responsible use looks like, and how their own creations might impact others, alongside Hello World's student Code of Ethics. It sets up the deeper AI ethics work in AI History Museum.
Yes. Middle school CS is most often taught by math, science, or technology teachers. Hello World's curriculum is scripted for a first-year rollout, and professional development plus a PD specialist supports the teacher all year.
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