Jan 29 2017
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
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
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
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:
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
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
(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
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 28 2016
Using the Raspberry Pi in Code Clubs and the Curriculum – click to go to slides
“This session will provide an introduction to the Raspberry Pi and first-hand experience of setting up a Pi-Lab. Then some thoughts on how it fits in with the KS3 curriculum as well as Code Clubs. The second half of the session will be hands-on using a Raspberry Pi for an example KS3 lesson”.
Developing Digital Leaders to Support Computing – click to go to slides
“Digital Leaders can mean many things but this session will help you gain insights into how students can help you with implementing an effective computing curriculum. You will be shown stages of developing Digital Leaders and given time to discuss and plan how you might develop their use in your school including running Code Clubs”.
Jun 1 2017
Classroom Techniques, Examples and Research for Better Learning in Computer Science Talk at CAS Research 1st June, 2017
These are updated slides from the talk at BETT 17.
Click here to go to slides.
By Chris Sharples • #CASResearch, #CompSci_Research, #CompSci_Teaching •