This Barefoot Computing resource builds on the ‘Maths quiz with selection’ learning activities which should be undertaken first.

It involves improving an existing Scratch maths quiz and adding score-keeping using...

A learning activity guide, from Barefoot Computing, for teachers in primary schools. It provides structure for an introductory programming session using Scratch. The activity involves tinkering within the Scratch environment - initially using existing Scratch projects then moving on to the creation of new projects...

ScratchJr is an introductory programming language that enables young students to create their own interactive stories and games. Students snap together graphical programming blocks to make characters move, jump, dance, and sing. Students can modify characters in the paint editor, add their own voices and sounds,...

This Barefoot activity for young programmers exploits the sequencing and timing of joke-telling to help students learn good programming techniques. After planning an animation using a storyboard technique they then code it using the Scratch Jr app, and debug it. Tips for supporting the less able, as well as...

A Barefoot Computing introductory programming activity for lower-primary children learning computing. Using the iPad app Scratch Jr, children are given the opportunity to develop skills by tinkering with existing programs as well as creating their own. Children might be offered the chance to tinker with other basic...

A resource from the CS4FN bank produced by Queen Mary and King’s College, University of London. Students will be able to link the algorithms that they have learned and the relative complexity expressed in Big O notation. The resource consists of a series of slides, program files with solution, an activity sheet and...

This activity allows students to investigate how images are produced from data streams by using first a spreadsheet and then an image-processing program. They then go on to see how the usefulness of such a monochromatic image may be enhanced by using lookup tables and calibration. The materials used focus on the...

This Barefoot Computing primary school resource helps children to Understand how search engines work. By acting as a ‘web crawler’ and collecting information across a small selection of web pages, they learn what in data is indexed by search engines and how this is used when a search query is received. As well as...

This interactive online self-driving challenge from Siemens can supplement robotics education in computing. It enables pupils to programme a car to drive around a circuit without a driver, the circuits getting more complex as the challenge progresses.

Self-...

In this activity, children work in pairs to learn and set each other challenges using the Rapid Router software.

The challenges include the use of Loop, If and Repeat Until commands, asking children to consider how they can automate a process and create efficient code. The activities focus on driving a...

In this, the final activity of a sequence of eight, children are asked to use their knowledge to create a challenge using Rapid Router, solvable using Python. It will ask their partner to use procedures, increment variables and apply different methods of control flow.

The resource includes an overview of...

Lesson 8 in a series of lessons using Rapid Router, the game-like environment for learning programming. This session takes loops and repetition further, and includes reusing statements and nested loops.

The resource includes wall displays, worksheets, model answers and assessment sheets.

The 5th lesson in the Rapid Router series adds complexity to algorithms, raising the level of challenge and building on familiar contexts from earlier activities.

Also included are wall displays, teacher and peer assessment sheets, worksheets and model solutions.

This extension activity features in the upper-primary Blockly course, by the Rapid Router team at Code for Life. It explores the limits of generalised solutions, introducing children to the idea of algorithm testing and debugging. Children are asked to apply logical thinking to different problems, and analyse what...

This activity makes the leap from Blockly to Python programming. The 'grocery van driving challenge' is reduced from previous lessons to allow students to concentrate on syntax and correct coding using a limited set of instructions. Matching of Blockly and Python code is encouraged to assist the transition.