This report from Ofsted looks at low level classroom disruption. Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector (HMCI) raised concerns about low-level disruption in schools in his Annual Report 2012/13. As a consequence, guidance to inspectors was tightened to place greater emphasis on this issue in routine inspections. In addition...

The Big Ideas: the future of engineering in schools report, supported by the Royal Academy of Engineering, reflects the views of leading engineering education experts and key stakeholders such as employers, parents and students. It proposes that students should be explicitly taught about engineering and the...

This resource looks at binary data and contains an Excel workbook with macros to enable recolouring/checking the colour of cells. A series of binary numbers are given in a rectangular grid of cells on the left when the workbook is first opened. Students are required to recolour the original binary grid, to show the...

This brief article taken from CS4FN looks at how a user authenticates themselves to a computer could be used as the starting point for class discussions around passwords, security, biometrics and other related topics concerning how users...

Blending Instruction with Technology is a book that offers educators guidelines and solutions for implementing blended learning in today's classrooms. There has been a strong push by many...

Andrew Robertson is a computer engineer working at Queen Mary, University of London on music signal processing. 

This unplugged activity, from the CS4FN team at Queen Mary University of London, helps learners to understand variable assignment and operations. They use the idea of variables as boxes as the basis of a group activity, developing their use of logical thinking to trace variables through programs.

The...

This unplugged activity from Peter McOwan and Paul Curzon mingles computer science with biology. A group activity is used that mimics the firing of neurons within the brain. These trigger other neurons to fire – these can be compared to AND gates in logic circuits.

The ‘brain in a bag’ kits used in the...

The BrickPi is an add-on board for the Raspberry Pi. It is used to interface with Lego Mindstorms sensors and motors to create robots and other projects. This small collection includes practical tips to get started.

The British Beauty Council, STEM Learning and Careers and Enterprise have collaborated to develop a series of four videos showcasing a range of careers across the beauty and STEM sector. The films highlight opportunities in cosmetic science, fragrance, sustainability and technology and feature influential voices...

In this project students learn to build a robot buggy using a Raspberry Pi. It contains detailed tutorials that cover:

• How to setup a motor controller board with two motors
• How to control motors using Python
• How to build a robot chassis

These activities are aimed at ...

The BrickPi is an interface between the Raspberry Pi and LEGO Mindstorms or EV3 sensors and motors, a portable power source for the Raspberry Pi, and a case that allows you to attach LEGO motors, beams, sensors, and other parts.

This resource includes guidance on setting up and programming the Raspberry Pi...

In this activity, students create colour images from satellite data. This allows them to study how different surfaces reflect different wavelengths of light, how coloured images are created using an RGB model, and how band combinations can be chosen to examine a particular landscape effectively.

The cs4fn magazine is a magazine on the fun side of all things to do with computer science. The authors write up computing research in a fun and accessible way that puts across their enthusiasm for the subject. Unplugged computing, computational thinking and practical applications of computers in many areas are...

The booklet was created for a 2008 Artificial Intelligence workshop series. It is part of the cs4fn project which aims to inspire students of all ages about computer science.