Students first evaluate existing alarm systems and learn about a burglar’s attitude towards them using a video featuring reformed criminals. They are then briefed to create a working door access and alarm system using a BBC micro:bit and selected input and output components such as LDRs, reed switches, buzzers and...

Reducing energy usage in the home saves money, increases energy security and reduces the need to burn unsustainable fossil fuels. The first step in doing this is monitoring how much energy is...

A complete unplugged activity for a lesson in how data packets travel across the internet, and how the complete message that they contain is reassembled. The activity also has provision for students to film themselves participating in the process and explaining the stages that everything goes through. There are...

Mobile app development is an engaging way for students to learn programming and interface design as many do, indeed, "love their smartphone".

This complete learning package teachers the origins and development of the smartphone, helping them to appreciate the amount of technology packed into their pocket. It...

Using the context of the Nintendo Wii, this starter activity develops an understanding of the terms system, input, process, output and signal, and asks students to identify these features in some common products which are shown in the presentation.

There is a high demand for engineers in the UK and engineering is one of the most in demand jobs globally. From apprentices to technicians; graduates to postgraduates, engineers are needed at all levels, in a wide range of sectors.

This leaflet provides guidance for teachers, with key points about...

An introductory resource to App Inventor for students aged 11- 14 years. App Inventor is a visual programming environment that allows students to build mobile apps for smartphones and tablets. This resource contains a teacher presentation and worksheet to support the students in their development of a simple 'spot...

In this full scheme of work, designed for a series of two-hour double-lessons, students develop a Mars Rover for NASA based on a standard VEX design. They learn about the components of a robotics system including control units and data communications, and work through a design process towards a prototype. The VEX...

This one-hour lesson examines the design of IoT algorithms, considering how individual devices execute algorithms as code, allowing them to work together. The key aims are to develop computational thinking while raising awareness of the potential for future careers and enterprise.

The lesson starts with the...

This activity from the Computer Science for Fun (CS4FN) team at QMUL is an introduction to algorithms suitable for those in upper primary school. A ‘self-working’ magic trick is shown – this is a trick that works every time, as long as the process is followed exactly. No understanding of the trick is needed by the...

Designed for students who have advanced through Scratch and are ready for additional challenge, this resource explores Build Your Own Blocks (BYOB) as a tool for learning modular programming using procedures. 

After examining, briefly, the history of the computer and the Turing Test as a measure of their...

This is one of a series of resources to support the use of the BBC micro:bit. This resource focusses on pupils designing, programming and using a BBC micro:bit to complete the mission challenge to find out more about the planet Mars.

In this activity pupils will make use of the BBC micro:bit to design and...

This uses a motor, a sparkle and a marble to imitate a lighthouse. It can be made harder by incorporating LDRs.

These paired activities, from Paul Curzon of the CS4FN team, offer an interesting slant on search algorithms and their relative efficiency.

Students are asked to consider sufferers of ‘locked-in syndrome’, a condition that leaves a healthy mind inside body that is, often, completely paralysed. If the...

This resource provides a set of videos and a practical investigation aimed at supporting working scientifically in the classroom and relating science to real world experiences. In the first video Professor Brian Cox joins a teacher in a classroom to demonstrate the setting up and carrying out of the experiment. In...