Jun 1 2017
Jan 29 2017
#CSToolkit – Take students to “Hidden Figures” Movie
Just been to the cinema and seen a great women in STEM film advertised:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_Figures
Scientist Margaret Hamilton has won a Presidential Medal of Freedom!
I am going to suggest all my Y10 computing students go to see it.
Jan 21 2017
Classroom Techniques, Examples and Research for Better Learning in Computer Science Talk at Bett17
Click here to go to slides. Thank you to Oliver and the Raspberry Pi Foundation for the opportunity to start to develop this strand.
Only 20% of current 9_1 Computer Science GCSEs are Python… 50% theory means we should be focussed on how to teach theory well and keeping up-to-date with latest techniques to do this underpinned with theory and a shared understanding of what works well.
I hope to make a contribution to this discussion. Please feel free to join in on #caschat and CAS forum in the next few weeks.
Dec 20 2016
Sandwich Robot, Etchasketch, Scratch Polygons and Snowflakes
Here I outline how we have used a variety of resources to increase our Year 7 students’ understanding of sequencing and use of loops – as well as having fun and engaging with their learning.
Having reviewed our baseline test at the beginning of Year 7, our Year 7s showed better than expected eSafety, better Scratch understanding, but poorer computing programming and sequencing skills. I looked at several resources online and have used Phil Bagge’s Jam Sandwich making Robot, Stephen Howell’s Scratch Shape Drawing Activity for CoderDojo; Simon Haughton’s Etch-a-Sketch; and Barefoot Computing’s Crystal Flowers (pdf download) to create the following resources:
“Scratch Shapes” scheme of learning – jam sandwich making robot and Scratch Polygons and nested loops More
Dec 8 2016
Scratch Snowflakes
This post was prompted by @clcsimon’s
Festive Computing & Coding Activities and @MissPhilbin’s How to make Snowflakes with Code.
However, we have just completed two lessons with Year 7s drawing polygons and (Barefoot Computing’s) crystal flowers. I therefore wanted a scratch version of snowflakes – and also code that did a 6 pointed snowflake too.
The basics of @MissPhilbin’s python example is the following:
- make 3 ‘sticks’ of distance 30 at 45 degree angles
- make 3 twigs going back 30 each time
- repeat branch 7 times at 45 degrees (I will need 5 times and 60 degrees for a 6 sided snowflake).
These are the steps using scratch:
1. Choose Rudolph as your sprite:
You can find him in the fantasy animals section of the sprite library. You need to select him, make him smaller, then move the rotation cross so its still in his middle… More
Nov 9 2016
Now what? Action items from social science research to bridge the gender gap in computing research – Stout-Camp-2015
Women require work to have a clear social application.
Stress teams require both genders to function to solve real-life problems – adv to be female.
Need have a sense of belonging.
Men write more on competence and women more on warmth related – compassion and interpersonal skills.
Next step(s): stress advantage to be a woman in minority STEM subject as needed in a balanced team.
Oct 30 2016
Lost In Translation “Gender and High School Computer Science” – Goode J, Estrella R, & Margolis J – 2006
(Chapter 3 of Women and Information Technology: Research on Underrepresentation – Joanne Cohoon and William Aspray)
Sue Sentance suggested several research papers to me, and this was by far the most useful.
“This chapter presents four themes that suggest some reasons why and how high school female students are — or are not — drawn into the field of computer science through their high school experiences. First, despite the national and local initiatives to “bring schools into the twenty-first century,” researchers discovered that few computer science learning opportunities actually exist at the high school level, especially in schools that serve communities of colour. Second, they found that notions of relevance play a key role in influencing females’ choices to enrol or not enrol in computer science classes. A limited and narrow presentation of what computer science is as well as what computer scientists actually do impacts students’ take on how computer science could further their academic and career endeavours. Third, for the female students who do take computer science, researchers observed an accumulation of negative experiences in classroom settings, where greater male technology experience/expertise and female social isolation and insecurity are part of the cultural landscape. Fourth, all of these experiences are then compounded by the way that computer science is motivated and “interpreted” for the students”.
Oct 1 2016
BBC Micro:bit quests
We are on track to *finally* get our BBC Micro:bits out to our Year 8s… this is how we are going to do it … and we are excited about the Grok Learning Quest challenges for after half term.
Our Digital Leaders are trained up using out 3 step programme www.gr8ict.com/bbc_microbit More
Jun 25 2017
“Tweak to Transform” Sharing ideas for better learning of Computer Science – talk at York CAS Tech-Meet 22nd June 17
This 5 minute presentation was about why we should be concentrating on sharing ideas for good CS teaching (Teaching Theory and Computational Thinking) as well as NEAs and code.
Click here to go to slides.
By Chris Sharples • #CASResearch, #CompSci, #CompSci_Research, #CompSci_Teaching •