This edition of the Computing at School newsletter focuses on Computational Thinking, and contains articles covering:

*The importance of computational thinking

*...

This report, commissioned by the Royal Academy of Engineering (the Academy), explores the ways schools can create better and more engaging learning opportunities for would-be engineers.

This report identifies four principles that underpin the kinds of teaching that are most...

This resource presents a number of case studies of schools which took part in the Thinking like an engineer project from 2014 to 2016.

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...

A podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). In this recording, Richard Hollingham talks to expert seismologist Brian Baptie from the British Geological Survey, who uses musical software to find out if earthquakes are getting more frequent.

Another...

In this puzzle students are presented with a series of shapes. The shapes fit together to make a rectangle. Clues are given in the form of length scale factors, area scale factors and volume scale factors. Students are required to place scale factors which have the same value adjacent to each other in order to...

This resource gets students to look at how a product could be redesigned to require less packaging. Companies are being encouraged to develop ‘environmentally-smart’ retail packaging design. In this activity, students are challenged to redesign a familiar product so that it has less (and more sustainable) packaging...

In this resource students are asked to calculate the bearings and distances a ship will need to travel in order to complete a voyage from Cairns to Brisbane via a number of sample sites.

To complete the task, students need to measure bearings, distances on a map and use the scale provided to convert to...

This lesson introduces students to the effects of climate change on glaciers. The resource sheet gives information what a glacier is, how they are formed and what the different types are. A card sort game is included, asking students to match terms to explanations, separate glacial inputs and outputs and place in...

In this resource students are asked to read and plot coordinate points on behalf of a scientific research voyage from Cairns to Brisbane via a number of sample sites.

The additional extension material ask students to plot points using latitude and longitude.

The materials contain a detailed...

This resource explores the factors which affect the location of glaciers through a series of activities. In pairs students identify 5 countries which they think have permanent ice from a given list and justify their choices. They then mark on a world map where they think glaciers are located, indicating size and...