Students often find it difficult to understand the related concepts of acceleration and speed. Making use of the BBC micro:bit on-board accelerometer, this playful activity allows students to get an intuitive understanding through hands-on activity.

The simple game requires that students maintain...

Machine learning is a system where rather than a computer programmer deciding the best way to sort, organise, classify or use information, the computer program develops its own set of instructions (algorithm) based on information that users feed it.  Scientists at the...

Python is a freely available programming language. This resource contains six sections:

The first section, Getting started, begins with a simple description of how to download and install a Python compiler onto a computer. The screenshots in the resource use a compiler called IDLE. There...

This learning resource is an introduction to programming with Python. Versions are included for Python 2.7 and Python 3. The fundamentals of programming are covered: • Arithmetic operations • Data types • Control flow As well as some more advanced techniciques including the use of: • Regular Expressions • Files •...

This resource has been developed by the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) and the BCS Academy of Computing. It will seek to consolidate learners’ understanding of modern information systems concepts, through study of web technologies, including HTML.

Whilst this resource has been designed to be used as a...

This resource consists of a ten page student workbook and some associated resources. The workbook is designed to be used with Key Stage 3 students over a number of lessons, to introduce them to the concept of algorithms, to make them used to following instructions given as an algorithm and to start producing their...

This activity, available in three different programming languages, requires students to ‘dry run’ written code and work out what it does. This is a useful skill for programming, which tests their understanding of assignment and subsequent changes to variables within programs. They step through code and analyse the...

This activity includes a game-based approach to measuring reaction speed. Fast reflexes are vital to astronauts who may need to deal with rapidly escalating incidents and high-speed projectiles.

The effect of distraction on reaction speed is investigated – students collect multiple readings and take averages...

Made up of two complementary activities, these resources from the CS4FN team go deeper into theory about search algorithms.

The first activity involves the teacher leading a magic trick using some normal playing cards. In the subsequent explanation of the trick, students are asked to consider the pseudocode...

This longer-duration activity involves prototyping a low-power lighting system. It could be used in an off-timetable workshop or across a series of lessons.

Students are challenged to work through the whole design process, and to place a micro-controller (in this case a BBC micro:bit) at the centre of the...

This is a resource aimed at students aged 11-14. It is one of a series that support the use of the BBC micro:bit in the classroom. The pack contains several lesson plans, presentations and student handouts. The first ‘unplugged’ lesson introduces students to how programmable systems work, the second they are walked...

The BBC micro:bit is a great tool for carrying out surveys that involve quickly counting and recording one or two variables. Using the button inputs provides a simple interface to the device allowing, for instance, quick tallying of the numbers of two different types of bee around a plant. Other examples might...

This activity, suitable for a multi-lesson sequence or a single extended session, challenges students to design and prototype a simple motion-sensing alarm. The device is intended to prevent theft or the accidental picking-up of a bag.

Motion is sensed using the accelerometer built-in to the BBC micro:bit,...

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...