Using spellings of familiar words this Barefoot Computing unplugged computing activity for younger primary children introduces algorithms as rules that are followed, and which may require decisions and exceptions. From the Barefoot Computing project, this short lesson asks children to deduce spelling rules uses...

This activity from the CS4FN team at QMUL is a metaphorical introduction to Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and the difficulties of working at the command line.

The whole-class activity uses a game called spit-not-so. The winner of the game is the first to choose, from a...

An excellent activity from CS4FN to train students’ eyes to spot errors in code. This would form a useful starter activity.

Scratch is widely used in primary schools to teach children basic programming. This resource goes deeper, making use of the familiar Scratch environment to take students deeper into programming concepts such as:

• Algorithm design
• Parallel and sequential instructions
• Event-driven...

Students will understand the concept of steganography and will create a bitmap image. They will explore colour depth and know how to convert a custom image to binary. They will be able to decode binary images and use pattern recognition to identify abnormal data.

These resources are set in the context of the...

A CS Unplugged series resource aimed at younger students but also works well with A level students. The document contains student activities covering constructing Steiner trees, greedy algorithms and solving traversal problems.

This resource features a number of links to other resources relevant to the topic of networks, protocols and security. The Stone Tablet activity itself is an unplugged activity where students model how packets are transferred across a network. It also includes the possibility that some packets do not arrive at...

This series of three lesson activities uses Scratch to create animations that tell a story, and can link to studies in English.

A starter Scratch file partially tells the story of the Great Fire of London. Additional resources are provided allowing children to improve the animation.

Using some short...

This resource consists of two presentations on the structure of the CPU.  As well as detailing the different components e.g. ALU, registers and buses it compares different types of processor and different architectures e.g. CISC vs RISC. This topic is dealt with in more detail in the second presentation.

...

A useful handbook for setting up a student-led STEM club, with exemplars from three schools.

It is increasingly recognised that giving students opportunities to act as ambassadors and mentors for STEM subjects outside of school can be of great benefit to the individual, their institution, and to the broader...

This document is a Computing at School community resource that covers the laws of Boolean algebra. It consists of a student worksheet and answer sheet. It is very suitable as a revision resource.

Using a set of simple ‘swap puzzles’, this CS4FN activity helps students to learn, fundamentally, what an algorithm is and how they can be made more efficient. Students are encouraged to create algorithms for solving the puzzles which can be used by future players to win, with no understanding of the game, in as...

To play a simple game called Hexapawn, an ‘artificially intelligent’ computer is created made entirely from sweets. The game is like a mini version of chess; the rules are explained fully, and a playing board drawn. The ‘machine’ then ‘learns’ how to improve its playing of the game by trial and error and by ‘...

This resource contains two sets of triominoes, based around the theme of internet security. A simple set with only 4 cards, where three definitions and their key words need to be matched. The set also has two extra definitions and key words to act as distractors from the actual answers, an extension might be to get...

This infographic gives a clear overview and summary of the progression of the Teach Computing Curriculum through each key stage and year group from the beginning of key stage 1 through to the end of key stage 4 with suggestions for post-16 options.

The Teach Computing Curriculum resources contain everything...