A Godlike Heart is a short story about computational thinking, introducing the idea of using binary to represent different kinds of information. Set in ancient Mexico it follows the story of the kidnapping of and subsequent search for the daughter of a great “Jaguar Knight”, a general in the Mexican army.

It...

Linking Careers to the STEM Curriculum is a careers resource aimed at teachers of science, design and technology, computing, engineering and mathematics. It offers immediate ideas to try, longer term solutions and resource recommendations for linking careers to lessons.

This guide will help you to:

This edition of the Computing at School (CAS) newsletter covers a range of topics including:

*Unplugged computing magic tricks

*Programming using Alice, Scratch and GameMaker

*Making games with Kodu

*Object oriented programming in Java with Greenfoot

The Grand Challenges – Our Futures programme (2018 to 2023) aimed to help young people develop the skills needed to bridge the gap between today’s learners and tomorrow’s career choices. The Government’s Industrial Strategy set out key Grand Challenge themes, aimed at putting the UK...

Python is a freely available programming language. This resource contains six sections:

The first section, Getting started, begins with a simple description of how to download and install a Python compiler onto a computer. The screenshots in the resource use a compiler called IDLE. There...

This learning resource is an introduction to programming with Python. Versions are included for Python 2.7 and Python 3. The fundamentals of programming are covered: • Arithmetic operations • Data types • Control flow As well as some more advanced techniciques including the use of: • Regular Expressions • Files •...

This activity gives students the opportunity to navigate a map of Mars looking for regions of interest they will receive ‘mission’ data from to analyse. Students will first work in teams on an interactive activity, navigating terrain as either a rover or mission control. The main part of the activity asks students...

Leading behaviour...

The Grand Challenges – Our Futures programme (2018 to 2023) aimed to help young people develop the skills needed to bridge the gap between today’s learners and tomorrow’s career choices. The Government’s Industrial Strategy set out key Grand Challenge themes, aimed at putting the UK...

This activity, available in three different programming languages, requires students to ‘dry run’ written code and work out what it does. This is a useful skill for programming, which tests their understanding of assignment and subsequent changes to variables within programs. They step through code and analyse the...

Made up of two complementary activities, these resources from the CS4FN team go deeper into theory about search algorithms.

The first activity involves the teacher leading a magic trick using some normal playing cards. In the subsequent explanation of the trick, students are asked to consider the pseudocode...

This introductory guide explains how to use the LINUX shell known as BASH (Bourne Again Shell). BASH is useful for linking together various programs for creating innovative solutions, and can unleash the power of a Raspberry Pi.

The guide covers running BASH, the syntax used, how to chain together commands,...

The BBC micro:bit is a great tool for carrying out surveys that involve quickly counting and recording one or two variables. Using the button inputs provides a simple interface to the device allowing, for instance, quick tallying of the numbers of two different types of bee around a plant. Other examples might...

A short series of guides for using the versatile BASH shell on Raspberry Pi and other Linux computers.

This report from Ofsted looks at low level classroom disruption. Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector (HMCI) raised concerns about low-level disruption in schools in his Annual Report 2012/13. As a consequence, guidance to inspectors was tightened to place greater emphasis on this issue in routine inspections. In addition...