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...

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...

Combing satellite and ground-based imagery, this cross-curricular learning resource for primary teachers explores planet Earth from a range of perspectives.

The activities are intended to build map skills and recognition of many physical geography features in familiar and unfamiliar locations. Mathematics...

In this multi-lesson project pupils design and code a computer game. It uses a rainforest theme but can be adapted to any topic, with learners of varying age or ability.

The project includes:

• Decomposition of the elements of a game
• Designing the game
• Creating assets for the...

In this activity, children work in pairs to learn and set each other challenges using the Rapid Router software.

The challenges include the use of Loop, If and Repeat Until commands, asking children to consider how they can automate a process and create efficient code. The activities focus on driving a...

In this, the final activity of a sequence of eight, children are asked to use their knowledge to create a challenge using Rapid Router, solvable using Python. It will ask their partner to use procedures, increment variables and apply different methods of control flow.

The resource includes an overview of...

Lesson 8 in a series of lessons using Rapid Router, the game-like environment for learning programming. This session takes loops and repetition further, and includes reusing statements and nested loops.

The resource includes wall displays, worksheets, model answers and assessment sheets.

The 5th lesson in the Rapid Router series adds complexity to algorithms, raising the level of challenge and building on familiar contexts from earlier activities.

Also included are wall displays, teacher and peer assessment sheets, worksheets and model solutions.

This extension activity features in the upper-primary Blockly course, by the Rapid Router team at Code for Life. It explores the limits of generalised solutions, introducing children to the idea of algorithm testing and debugging. Children are asked to apply logical thinking to different problems, and analyse what...

This activity makes the leap from Blockly to Python programming. The 'grocery van driving challenge' is reduced from previous lessons to allow students to concentrate on syntax and correct coding using a limited set of instructions. Matching of Blockly and Python code is encouraged to assist the transition.

In the 4th lesson of a series for lower primary school computing, children use the online Rapid Router environment to learn more about algorithms. They learn that there can be more than one algorithm to achieve the same outcome, and that these can be selected according to efficiency. They further debug sequences in...

This Rapid Router lesson uses the Blockly language to develop ideas about selection, repetition, and conditionals. Children progress from specific instructions to spot patterns that can be made into generalised solutions. This important step helps learning about abstraction and pattern generalisation, two...

This activity in the Rapid Router series takes children further in their transition to text-based programming in Python.

By creating Blockly programs and comparing them to the automatically-generated Python code, children are encouraged to identify code which matches. The complexity of the problems is...

This lesson, in the Blockly Rapid Router series, challenges children to create their own maps which are then offered to classmates to solve. Creating the maps requires logical...

This lesson recaps some of the learning from the Key Stage One Blockly course on Rapid Router. It touches on repetition in programs, and requires children to create an algorithm challenge that requires loops to solve it efficiently. The challenges are in the context of programming a groceries delivery van.