Hello Ruby consists of a catalogue of unplugged activities for pupils to learn about computing and coding without devices. These STEM activities include computational thinking concepts such as decomposition, pattern recognition, thinking algorithmically and debugging problems.

Welcome to the first KS1 Programming page. Here you will find a series of four activities that introduce children to a fakebot (printed version of a Bee-Bot). Each activity has a session plan with directions and examples needed to support your child as they learn about algorithms, programming, debugging...

This STEM Learning magazine aimed at all primary teachers contains articles and interviews looking at ideas, hints and tips for teaching science, mathematics, design and technology and computing at primary level. Articles include: 

• How to effectively teach mathematics skills for science to increase...

Our first activity introduces children to the fakebot (a printed or drawn Beebot). It allows your child/ren to explore through play what something can or cannot do. This is known as tinkering.

Please see the session plan for further guidance. 

This week's activity continues to use a fakebot (a printed or drawn Beebot) to create numbers. 
Many of the concepts and approaches built into this lesson support computational thinking (problem solving):
• They use decomposition to break down the numerals into sections, making it easier to write the...

This week we continue to use a fakebot and review the terms ‘algorithm’ (a set of steps, instructions or rules) and ‘debugging’ (fixing an error) as the children learn to create instructions for a programmable device. We make the fakebot travel around shapes and then stars.

Please see the session plan for...

This final activity allows your child/ren to create their own fakebot mat. This activity brings together the vocabulary and skills from the last three lessons whilst having lots of fun, commanding the fakebot to complete various challenges.

Please see the session plan for further guidance.

Starters for STEM consists of lots of easy to run activities suitable for children from 4-11. Designed for parents to use at home they help children develop their science, technology, engineering and maths skills. These activities are easy-to-resource and provide children with the stimulus to talk about the world...

This collection of resources provides activities for children aged from 4-11, using the theme of exploring Mars as the context. The six activities for each age group of children, allow them to find out more about the...

The European Space Agency’s (ESA), new robotic rover Rosalind Franklin will explore Mars and send back data vital for human exploration in the future. This resource provides activities for different age ranges, which are:

4-5

In this activity, the children are introduced to robots...

VEX 123 STEM Labs activities offer ways to link physical computing and robotics to STEM and computing. These one-page exercises are designed to be easy to follow, for independent application for pupils. Each activity is designed around a ‘Play’ based concept to apply the computer science skills and concepts pupils...