Curriculum guides

01 About the program

Cool Beans Tech is a free learning platform for students ages 10 to 15. Students learn real technology and business skills by building projects of their own, one small step at a time, while their teacher follows every student's progress and helps at the right moment. It runs in any web browser and was built in a real after-school program.

02 Projects at a glance

Project	Subject	Length	Standards
Build Your BlockA website that's actually yours: a whole block of houses, shops and hangouts.	Computer science	10 weeks of 60 minutes about 10 hours in all	2026 CSTA PK–12 Computer Science Standards
Creator ModeA real business: a channel, then a food truck, a spinner shop and your own idea.	Personal finance and entrepreneurship	16 sessions of 60 minutes about 16 hours in all	National Standards for Personal Financial Education
Curly Brace CrittersA one-of-a-kind critter drawn and animated with nothing but CSS.	Computer science	1 mission of 45 minutes 45 minutes in all	2026 CSTA PK–12 Computer Science Standards

03 How students learn

Learn by making

Every idea is learned by using it to build something the student cares about.

Small steps

Steps take a few minutes each, so progress is steady and every student can start.

Their own pace

Students move through steps at their own speed; the teacher opens each session when the class is ready.

No two alike

Everyone learns the same ideas, then makes choices that make the work their own.

Mistakes are clues

Plan it, build it, try it, make it better: getting it wrong is part of the work.

04 How progress is checked

Every project gives feedback at each step (each guide says how), and in every project:

Teacher review

Key work goes to the teacher, who approves it or sends it back with what worked and what to try next.

Exit tickets

Each session closes on one question, posted by the teacher and answered live.

Reflections and check-ins

Students say what they made and how it's going, in their own words.

Reports

A progress page for each student, and a program report of how many students worked on each standard, with a spreadsheet.

No grades or scores

Feedback is about the work, never a number, so students keep trying.

05 Support for teachers

• A lesson plan for every session: a warm-up, a timed agenda, words to know, what to watch for and a closing question
• Slides for every session, to present on a projector
• A live class map: who's building, who's done and who needs help
• Hints and notes for one student or the whole class
• Sessions open when the teacher is ready, so a class can stay together
• A printable certificate for every session a student finishes

06 Safety, privacy and access

• Students sign in with a made-up username and a secret word: no email, real name or age is ever asked
• Only the student and their teacher see their work: no sharing between students, no public profiles
• No ads, no trackers and nothing sold
• Runs in a web browser on Chromebooks, laptops and tablets, with nothing to install, and shared devices are cleared at sign-out
• Designed for access: keyboard navigation, visible focus, readable contrast and calmer motion when a device asks for it
• Free for schools and programs

07 Standards

• 2026 CSTA PK–12 Computer Science Standards (middle school, grades 6–8)
• National Standards for Personal Financial Education (grade 8) Standards © 2021 Council for Economic Education and Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy. Reproduced for noncommercial educational purposes.

Each project's guide maps its sessions to the standards they work on, word for word. Alignments are our own reading of where each session fits, not an official alignment by the standards' authors.