This resource was designed by The Economist Educational Foundation to support PA’s Raspberry Pi competition 2020. However, it can also be used by schools that are...

This short activity for primary school computing uses art to introduce the concept of abstraction. During a ‘guess what’ game the children are asked to represent a word on a card using drawing or modelling – in doing so they unconsciously concentrate on just the most important aspects of the idea they are...

This cross-curricular computing / ICT activity helps children to understand decomposition. They choose a poem and create an animation using Scratch; this encourages them to think deeply about the poem, and to explore the tools available. Children break the poem into pieces (decomposition), then plan the animation...

This is one of a set of resources designed to allow pupils to develop their knowledge and skills in computing, art and design.  This resource, which could be delivered across two separate lessons, involves using software on...

In this lesson pupils will use audio editing software and apply their skills to record and edit an interview with friends or family members about their experiences of technology when they were growing up.

Pupils will develop an understanding of the reasons for interviewing and how to carry out, record and...

In this resource learners will use Scratch, to debug and then improve a program to move Autosub6000 around the ocean floor, photographing samples found.   The remote movement will be controlled through a keyboard’s arrow keys initially and then the children will be challenged to create a program which will move...

This lesson or enrichment activity investigates recursive algorithms using Fibonacci series.

It begins with an engaging maths magic trick ‘how to fake a super brain’ that uses a special property of Fibonacci numbers, and proceeds to look at the Golden Ratio in nature and its ‘beautiful’ properties.

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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...

A set of simple scratch ‘debugging’ activities that children can use to apply their understanding of programs and codes.  Children are shown a series of faulty programs which are based around the water cycle.  They are then supported to use logical reasoning to locate and fix the bugs within them.  Notes for...

This resource focuses on giving the students an understanding of what the internet is and then teaches them how search engines work using an unplugged and kinaesthetic approach. In the final session, the operation of a search engine is modelled.

Peter Gaynord is the author of this resource.

This cross curricular activity includes science content from Year Four of the primary curriculum. It introduces programming and control, linked to the outside world through sensors - in this case, the computer's built-in microphone or a peripheral microphone. Programs are written using Scratch (online or offline)...

This activity involves planning and block coding a whack ‘em all style game with a score and timer in Scratch, using selections and variables. The lesson focuses on exploratory learning, giving the pupils time to explore and work out for themselves how to create the code needed for their game. 

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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 find other micro:bits in a class treasure hunt.

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

This workshop investigates how images are stored as data, and shows the difference that ‘bit depth’ makes to the quality of images and number of colours. It begins by looking at paintings and how, using only paint, images were difficult to edit – however digital images are much easier. Pupils with access to photo...