Jul 1 2017
Challenge, Deliberate practice, and Interleaving – applied research
Latest things I have tried out in the classroom. Click here for slides.
Jun 30 2017
Progress with Eduqas 9-1 NEA
4 pages showing how I have taught and am going to teach the Eduqas NEA in September.
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.
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
Jul 1 2017
Installing Guizero June 2017
Guizero has been agreed by Andy Parker as suitable for use by students in the Eduqas 9-1 NEA. It is needed for higher level students to show evidence of a user interface in both the design and software sections [teacher guide page 42].
My instructions for my students to install it are here and I am happy for it to be shared.
I am grateful to Laura for showing how to use Guizero at the York CAS conference June 17 and to acknowledge here the passion and dedication she has shown to get this developed. It will really make a difference to my students Laura…
See here how a simple GUI can be made with 4 lines of code:
By Chris Sharples • Eduqas, Python •