This edition of the Computing at School newsletter, from a time of extensive curriculum change, includes:

*Arguments for teaching computational thinking

*Introduction to Arduino

*A short article about JavaScript in secondary schools

These videos guide you through the process of evaluating the impact of changes you make to teaching approaches in your classroom. The evaluation approaches described here will enable you to tell whether new approaches are more effective than what they have replaced. You'll be able to make evidence-informed...

A level descriptor for use with Key Stage Three computing students, appropriate for the new curriculum in September 2014. The resource comprises a set of level descriptors detailed in five strands: systems, development, programming, modelling and analysis. The descriptors are based on the Computing At School...

This guide for students allows them to explore technology used in space through the Arduino tool. They can build circuits to blink an LED and to measure temperature, pressure and altitude. The basics of programming in C++ will be introduced using the Arduino IDE (Integrated Development Environment) software. This...

This guide is suitable to support a full introductory wearable-technology project using Arduino. It gives an overview of the Arduino system as well as the key terms surrounding ‘making’ and ‘hacking’. After a brief review of basic electrical theory, a closer look at the inputs and outputs of a basic board, and of...

This resource consists of a series of suggested activities and dozens of topic starters for aspects of Computer Science and ICT relating to the Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural aspects of the subject. With questions as diverse as Do computers have intelligence? Do animals have souls? If computers are...

These ‘I can’ statements support assessment of the new primary computing programme of study from Reception to Year Six. The strands covered are programming, e-safety, multimedia, data handling and technology in our lives and is based on Somerset’s eLIM's progression plans. This resource has been produced by eLIM (e...

This series of interactive excel sheets aimed at Reception students explores comparing and ordering both numbers and quantities. Answers can be checked each time and new questions generated at the click of a button.

...

In this activity students are asked to test the statement: “It is very likely that the Arctic has warmed at more than twice the global rate over the past 50 years”

Students are asked to use an Excel spreadsheet to calculate averages, maximum values and minimum values and draw line graphs. Students use a...

This maths-based challenge explores sustainable travel, developing student understanding of the effects that some modes of transport have on the environment and ways of reducing it.

Students are asked to compare alternative methods of transport by calculating journey times and their carbon footprints.  The...

In this activity, students plan an investigation to compare two clinical thermometers or two blood pressure devises.   They will need to investigate:

• the key features needed by a clinical thermometer or blood pressure monitor. The generic features required by physiological measuring devices are...

This is a problem solving lesson, designed to help you assess how well students are able to:

• Interpret a situation and represent the variables mathematically
• Interpret and evaluate the data generated and identify the break-even point

The problem is set in the context of the cost...

In this independent research project students research the causes and consequences of diarrhoea and dehydration. They find out about the different treatments available for dehydration and design some experiments to compare commercial and homemade oral rehydration salts.

...

These activities, produced by Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme, help students to practise all the stages involved in transforming a text description into a suitable table. They are provided with a short text containing information on smoking rates.

Students have to make decisions regarding the structure...

Tables that make comparisons are everywhere: from university league tables to price comparison websites, and in this activity students use spreadsheets to compare super villains. There are three parts to this activity (A) students use a comparison table to sort data and make charts about super villains; (B) they...