This morning I had my come-uppence. Having watched my borrowed 3-4 year olds sail through the first and second ‘programming’ lessons with enthusiasm and take the ‘if..then’ and ‘not’ symbols in their stride, I tried to introduce a third symbol – the upside down V for ‘and’. They looked at me as if I had Full Article…
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Behind the scenes
Age: 15 to 18 Goal: The students analyze a rather simple computer game like Pac-Man according to the concepts of object-oriented programming (class, object, instance, method etc.). What you need?: an online-version of the game (e.g. http://www.webpacman.com) enough computers for the groups Proceedings: 1. Introduction Object-oriented programming concepts UML-diagrams 2. Pupils’ task Study the game Full Article…
Create your own app!
OMG! It’s official – I am an app developer. I have been playing with a gem of a program from MIT called App Inventor. It’s free, easy to use and I’ll let you know how kids get on with it next week. Meanwhile, this kid is having a ball playing with it. Basically, you build Full Article…
Human Robots
This is best done outside in the yard and works best with 6-8 yr olds Divide the class into groups of about 5. One person in each group is chosen as the robot and is blindfolded. Another is the programmer (or choose two and let them take it in turns). The rest are going to Full Article…
LearningApps.org
I’ve just come across this wonderful online application to make small interactive tools. It is a research and development project of the Center for Computer Education at University of Teacher Education Bern, in cooperation with the University of Mainz and the University of Zittau/Görlitz. Check it out on http://learningapps.org
Legobots
Here’s a a great lesson for the more confident amongst us courtesy of our Italian partners. Ages 11+ Overview: Learners build small robots with pieces of LegoNext allowing them to understand the basic principles of programming and mechanics. Strict logic is used to plan a machine that will then be available and used by children through Full Article…
Menna’s Second Programme: Learning about ‘Not’
Rather than repeat the background information, if you have hit on this post for the first time, we suggest that you look at the introductory lesson first, which will explain where we are coming from. This activity introduces the idea of ‘not’ – as in the syntax “If this, then NOT this.” We introduced Full Article…
My First Programme – by Gweno, age 3!
These activities were undertaken with 3-5 year olds and they took them in their stride! “Key Stage 1 Pupils should be taught to: understand what algorithms are, how they are implemented as programs on digital devices, and that programs execute by following a sequence of instructions” Even the word ‘algorithm’ can send many primary Full Article…
Positives, negatives and equivalences
(Our 8 year old tester coped well with this and enjoyed the ‘puzzle’) Make sure than children understand basic “If this then this” type statements. Talk about cause and effect. Play around with the positives and negatives and with ‘opposites’. For those people teaching literacy, this is a good time to explore ‘double negatives’. Full Article…
Programming children (if only!)
Michael Gove, the UK’s Education Minister (a bit of a misnomer because he has no jurisdiction outside England!) has recently made the headlines because he has announced that all children will now learn computer programming in school. The brief consultation process showed that teachers were split down the middle on this issue with both sides Full Article…
Programming turtles
You have to pay the standard £2.99 for this one but it’s really good. Great interface and interesting coding puzzles to solve which can be tackled by most 6-7 year olds. It’s a bit of a throwback to the 60’s and 70’s when, as a very new teacher, I remember loving the LOGO programmed turtle Full Article…
Programs for Programming
Most children, by the age of 7, will already have an interest in coding, which we can foster. Many of them will like playing games and will ask questions such as “How can I make him go faster / jump higher / turn around?”. Given the chance, they like designing avatars or changing the colours Full Article…
Raspberry Pi
Very excited to be the owner of a Raspberry Pi – a truly wondrous device with huge potential in the classroom. I was rather hoping I could use it in primary schools, but having battled with it for about a week with when it first arrived, I’d probably only use it it with 13-14 yr Full Article…
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