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.

This lesson activity introduces children to HTML. They learn that webpages are constructed using HTML and investigate the code used to create an example website. They then use the free 'web remix' software, Mozilla X-Ray Goggles, to change aspects of the page. An extension activity encourages remixing of popular...

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...

A detailed presentation from Ben Houghton, data scientist at Barclays PLC. It is good introduction to Big Data and the three Vs (volume, variety and velocity). Other topics covered are machine learning and its use in fraud detection, legal and data privacy challenges and technology bottle necks caused by...

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...

A highly technical overview of how sound is represented in a computer, how digitising sound changes the quality of it and how reducing the sample rates can effect the resulting audio. The resource also comes with a number of sound samples to illustrate these concepts, along with both Python and Scratch programs to...

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...

This activity introduces children to the Kodu games programming environment through tinkering. They are asked to experiment with an existing game code, and also to start from a blank screen.

Guided...

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...

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 activity combines computing and maths to look at algorithms. Children are challenged to solve missing number problems in number sequences, using logical reasoning. Additional challenges are then presented, and children are asked to share not just the answer, but the approach they took to solving the problem...

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...

This is one of a series of resources from the Institution of Engineering and Technology, produced in association with Fairfield Control Systems, exploring the theme of waterways.  This resource involves designing and making a programmable electronic system to control a flood barrier.

Because of climate...

This resource looks at various ways at how digital images and sounds are quantified in such a way that the computer can store and interpret them. This looks at the effects of digitising different types of data, and the effect that this has on both the size and the quality of the resulting files. It may be necessary...

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 programmable device that can be used as a musical instrument in a class performance.

In this activity pupils will design and create a programmable device that can...