Cas newsletter summer 2015

p3-7 Ideas to teach control for primary teachers, by primary teachers. p8-13

It is just over three years since the Raspberry Pi was launched. Inspired partly by the success of the BBC Micro in bringing computing to a mass audience the aim was simple - to put an affordable computer into the hands of enthusiastic youngsters. Five million sales later, it’s probably no exaggeration to say that the Pi is driving a revolution. It’s not just that the Pi has begun to find a home in classrooms as well as bedrooms, nor the multitude of innovative uses to which it is being put. The real legacy lies in the proliferation of very cheap, programmable devices that are now finding their way to market.

Using ‘control technology’ in schools is not new—it was part of the IT curriculum from its inception. However, circumstances conspired to push it off the curriculum in many schools. Now, all that may be changing. It is widely recognised that physical computing is hugely motivational. Hands on challenges with a real world feel help bring Computing to life. Physical computing provides natural links with other curriculum areas, in particular Science and Design and Technology. Many creative minds are now engaged in producing a raft of devices, including the BBC and partners. Engaging contexts, real outputs and the immediate feedback inherent in flashing lights, beeping buzzers and whirring motors is the sort of stuff that stimuBBC MicroBit prototype lates young brains. Exciting times are ahead.

Physical computing ideas for secondary teachers, inquiry based learning, using magic and more! p14-17 Developing resources, Hubs, the Network of Excellence. Building communities of practice. p18-19 Getting to grips with GCSE. Making the most of QuickStart CPD materials p20-22 Higher level apprenticeships, industrial placement schemes and finding visiting speakers. p22-23 Female pioneers and the fascinating origins of algorithms.

The “Computing At School” group (CAS) is a membership association in partnership with BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT and supported by Microsoft, Google and others. It aims to support and promote the teaching of computing in UK schools.

ISSN: 2050 -1277 (online) 2050 -1269 (print)

Joe Finney, Senior Lecturer at Lancaster University provides a heads up on plans to give a million ‘Micro Bits’ to Year 7 pupils next academic year.

The details of the plans, announced by the BBC, to equip all Year 7 pupils with a ’Micro Bit’ were just emerging as this issue of SwitchedON was being prepared. Teachers will obviously be clamouring for more information and will look to the latter stages of the summer term as a time to think about ways the initiative can support their emerging Computing curriculum. A flurry of questions were raised on the CAS forums, and elsewhere.

The BBC responded by launching a blog at bbc.in/1CxXhx6. The first post, written by Cerys Griffiths, Executive Producer for BBC Learning emphasizes two points. Firstly the devices, designed to enthuse, excite and empower, will be owned by children. Second, that the distribution will be through schools with a view to them being used in lessons as well. The logistics are huge, but Cerys writes “We also realise how important it is for teachers to get a chance to see and use the Micro Bit in advance. We are working through the detail but we aim to ensure that IT teachers get their hands on the device before the summer holidays. We also want to give them the opportunity to explore ways of using the Micro Bits in lessons so there will be some curriculum resources made available at the same time.”

An initiative on this scale sends a very important message to schools about the importance of Computing. Putting the kit in the hands of the children will help engage parents too. Keep an eye on the blog for more news as it emerges, and ensure your school leadership is aware of the plans afoot.

SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk

In a move that will no doubt bring a nostalgic smile to anyone of my generation, the BBC recently announced the launch of the Micro Bit (a working name that may change): a small, lightweight computer designed solely for one purpose… to encourage children to become digital creators rather than digital consumers. Although initially conceived by the BBC, the Micro Bit has developed into a collaborative project bringing together industry, including the likes of ARM, Barclays, Microsoft, Samsung and ScienceScope, as well as universities and charitable organizations with a single shared aim: to create one million of these devices by this autumn, and deliver one, free of charge, to every year 7 child in the country.

It’s difficult to avoid drawing parallels to the BBC Model B of the 1980s – a device for which I personally have very fond memories. Admittedly, this may in part be due to me holding the top score in my class at Chuckie Egg, but also because it provided my first taste of coding. Drawing those geometric patterns on the screen. Writing guess-the-number puzzles for my sister to play. Creating my own simple computer games. I was hooked. Before I knew it, computing was my hobby, my passion, my specialist subject and my career. Now I look at my own kids and wonder – where do they start?

The Micro Bit is still under development, so confirmed details remain scarce, but it is being designed to be a standalone programmable device that is small enough to wear. It also aims to provide a programming environment to suit a range of abilities. It reduces the amount of technical setup and installation required from teachers or parents at home to the absolute minimum. It will contain an integrated LED matrix display, and be extensible enough to allow interfacing with other devices such as Arduino and Raspberry Pi. There will no doubt be teachers reading this short article who have perfectly understandable concerns that this initiative might bring new challenges into their classroom. I know that producing a wide range of resources for teachers well ahead of the autumn is a priority for the BBC and their partners, so I would say this: fear the Micro Bit as much as you would fear Fuzzy Felt. It provides the material through which children can explore digital creativity.

The very best computer scientists seamlessly blend creativity with computational thinking. In 1967 Seymour Papert famously created the Logo language with its ubiquitous robot ‘turtle’ that inspired children to write programs that create geometric lines and shapes. Yet forty five years later, so many teaching examples I still see create robots to follow lines, not create them. My fear is that we create a generation of line followers, not line creators.

I, for one, am very proud to be part of the core team designing and developing this device, and working alongside companies such as ARM, Microsoft Research and Samsung to develop something that blends technology and creativity, and bring that into the hands of the next generation. As Arthur C. Clarke famously stated – “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”. So, borrowing the immortal lines from Disney’s Frozen… Do you wanna build a snowman?

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It is computing co-ordinators that other primary teachers turn to in their hour of need.

Andrew Shields, from Leicestershire, flags up resources to give them a quick start.

A lot of the computing coordinators I talk to are not feeling confident enough to be the mentor for others that they feel they should be. I was so glad then that the CAS Barefoot Computing materials (barefootcas.org.uk) were created. I have shown the website in a number of schools and used some of the videos and off-line activities with staff. The explanations of terminology, lesson ideas, extensions and differentiation were always well received. Staff were pleased because they had things they could use in class with very little preparation. They could find out what terms like algorithm and decomposition mean and quickly feel more confident. This leads to productive discussions and staff begin to see that a lot of what they need does not have to involve 'kit' as such. Limited kit can be used more purposefully with time for discussion, planning and preparation before children try things out for 'real'.

I was just getting used to the materials when along came Quickstart Computing (primary.quickstartcomputing.org).

Quickstart Computing is a CPD package aimed at helping staff develop their own knowledge and skills in relation to the computing curriculum. It draws upon materials produced previously such as 'Barefoot Computing' and Phil Bagge's 'http://www.codeit.co.uk/' website, and ties it all together with new material.

The CPD package is set out in such a way that if you were the computer 3

coordinator you could up-skill yourself before using the materials to train your other staff through short sessions taking place during staff meetings. It includes videos, skills audits, a useful glossary, PowerPoints and suggested CPD outlines. The materials are designed to be chopped and changed to suit your particular needs. Hard copy versions are distributed via CAS Hubs but all materials can be downloaded from the website.

More details in the review on page 19.

I originally left a copy of the complete handbook in the staffroom to read before delivering a session for staff.

I'm not sure how many people actually picked it up, so I printed a copy for all staff as a reference as we worked through our training. In our first session we only managed to get through what an algorithm is; there was lots of discussion over what things meant and how these linked to other subjects. Everyone left feeling more positive finding the handbook a useful document. Someone even asked me when the next session would be!

Do take the time to have staff complete the skills audit prior to delivering training. Completing the audit gives you an idea of where to focus your sessions and then revisiting the audit after the sessions, later in the year, staff can see how far they have come.

Another resource that I have found to be of use is the BBC's Primary Computing website. There are lots of videos and guides there to help both staff and children. Knowing how to get to grips with the new computing curriculum can be quite difficult so I hope you find the materials as useful as I have.

How time flies when you’re: teaching, marking, planning, chasing wi-fi installation, oh and having an Ofsted inspection! We now have the technology – well some of it and more is on the way...

Like many schools, change has not been as quick as we hoped, yet this helps focus our determination and enable us to make the most of other opportunities. Our programming understanding is developing and will continue to use the amazing un-plugged resources available. The children enjoy their practical nature and it helps understanding of sequence and consequently algorithms.

Our learning platform ‘Frog’ has now been created and some of the pupils and staff are piloting it to become our Champions as we roll it out to the rest of the school community. This cloud-based technology will enable us reduce our paper footprint and have more integrated home / school learning.

It will also help us to meet some of the IT elements of the new curriculum requirements – storage, manipulation and utilising digital content. In conjunction we have invested in the some online resources, which will help less confident staff with ideas and resources.

Throughout all of this – I cannot thank the great team at CAS who have gently supported, reminded and cajoled me to organise CPD sessions. An email from Mark and phone calls with Dave White my regional coordinator have really helped me to stay focused on the new computing curriculum and ensure we don’t lose sight of what we still need to do.

SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk

The availability of low cost microcontrollers can help cement the links between Computing and Design and Technology. The iterative process of designing and making lies at the heart of D & T. Computational Thinking skills are often best realised through designing, implementing and debugging a solution to a known problem. The new subject requirements for D & T make reference to programming, monitoring and controlling products at KS2. The guidance becomes even more explicit, making specific reference to the use of micro-controllers at KS3. Creating programs in order to control products that pupils have designed and made themselves is a highly motivating, tangible experience, enabling them to test out and develop their capability in computer science within a range of real-life contexts.

Last term, colleagues from CAS and the Design and Technology Association (DATA) met to discuss joint guidance for teachers, drawing links between the two subjects, with a view to promoting cross curricular projects.

The day was hosted by The Royal Academy of Engineering.

Alongside the discussions attendees explored the capabilities of an easy to use programmable controller; the Crumble (bit.ly/1IBOSOE). It can drive two high current motors and has 4 low current I/O connectors to which a range of sensors, switches or LEDs can be attached. Digitally controlled, full colour LEDs, called Sparkles provided simple output with immediate feedback. The controller is programmed via USB, using a simple visual language providing a low floor of entry, with minimal setup time, allowing children to tinker and experiment. With other similar devices now coming to market and a BBC Micro Bit heading to all Year 7 pupils, there’s now a real opportunity to start developing joint projects.

Roger Davies SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk

A makey-makey board may seem like a toy but Ben Davies, a CAS Master Teacher at St Paul’s Primary School, Manchester highlights its wider educational potential.

After letting my class play with a Makey-Makey board I soon realised it had more educational value than it was letting on, providing a great tool for engagement and motivation. My first use came while trying to extend some high achievers when using Scratch. The children were making games with an Olympic theme (think Daley Thompson’s Decathlon) and creating a controller with the Makey-Makey was a suitable extension.

The problem was it was an extension that everyone wanted to access!

By the end of the unit I had bought four more and all of the class had programmed a Scratch game controlled by the board.

For the uninitiated, a Makey-Makey board connects to a computer via a USB lead. Once connected certain computer inputs can be mimicked by connecting the device to electrical conductors and completing the circuit with an earth connection. The unit that I now teach developed as a result of our tinkering.

We watch the Makey-Makey promotional video before giving several boards out with the instruction to connect them. Once pupils are able to type something into a text editor, we move on to playing games on Friv.

The challenge is for children to find games that could be controlled by the board and design a controller to play the game. The next activity combines elements of science and computing as children test a range of materials to see if they act as electrical conductors. The children create Scratch programs that identify when an object completes an electrical circuit. By the end of these two sessions children have a sound understanding of how the boards work and how they could be used as input. The next step is designing input based programs in Scratch with the MakeyMakey board in mind.

Their programs range from maze games, to two-player racing and keepie-uppie games.

My favourite so far is an on-screen piano that was controlled by a playdoh keyboard (an idea taken from the video). Three children worked collaboratively to program a piano simulation. The lure of being able to play this piano gave them renewed resilience and ensured that they stuck at it until completion. Having used these boards for a few years, I am still surprised by the ideas that children come up with and the perseverance they show. Long may this continue. If you're looking to extend children in their use of Scratch introducing a Makey-Makey board could be just the challenge your class needs.

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Matthew Parry, a CAS Master Teacher at Stanwick School and Sports College, Derbyshire outlines how easy it is to get started developing games in Scratch that use pupils body movement as the control.

In Scratch 2.0 there are new blocks to sense the video input from a webcam and this can be used as a simple controller for a game – for example trying to balance a ball on your head. However, these blocks will sense any movement within the webcam’s view and as such can be quite limiting in what can be controlled. Whilst using it, with my students I recalled seeing a demonstration, at the 2013 CAS conference, of the Kinect sensor for the Xbox 360.

This sensor was used to recognise multiple body joints and even two separate players – which would mean that we could create more flexible programs.

The Software Development Kit (SDK) for the Kinect sensor has code examples in C#, C++ and Visual Basic but I work in a special school and my students struggle with text based languages. I then remembered some software called Kinect2Scratch developed by Stephen Howell. It is available at scratch.saorog.com (as are links to the relevant software from Microsoft to access the data from the Kinect sensor). The Kinect2Scratch website also has example scripts such as a Space Invaders game where you control your missile launcher by stepping left or right and fire missiles by clapping your hands above your head.

There is also a version of Pong for one and two players (paddles controlled by using your hands) and a Hungry Ant Maths Game in which you guide an ant using your right hand to eat as many numbers as possible in one minute. After playing these games, studying the scripts and inves5

tigating the new sensing blocks that Kinect2Scratch inserted, I challenged my KS4 students to design educational games for our Primary class. This gave them a focus and directed them away from first person shooter games.

Here are some examples of their designs:  “Number Bubbles” - pop all of the bubbles in the 2 times table as quickly as possible.  “Ball Catch” - different balls fall from the sky and you have to catch only the red ones.  A racing game – drive a car to collect even numbers, if you run over odd numbers they slow you down.  A penalty football game where you take the kick and then use your hands to curl the ball into the net.  “Keepy-Uppy” football game – try to keep the ball in the air for as long as possible by using head and shoulders.

The whole process was also extremely useful for the students to see how a game might get developed. They found out that they had to revisit and change their scripts as they went along in response to user feedback. It was more difficult than they initially thought but overall my students enjoyed creating the games as did the younger students when they came to play them.

The introduction of Computing to the National Curriculum may have come as a surprise to many teachers, particularly those who haven’t followed the debates in CAS in the years before. The new orders spell out, in a limited way, what should be covered by the new subject, but say little about why. To teach a subject well, knowing why we’re teaching it is important. CAS has long made the case for the broad educational importance of Computing and the need for all children to have some exposure to the ideas of Computer Science.

Last year the Chair of CAS, Simon Peyton-Jones was asked to speak at a local TED conference in Exeter. In it CAS Chair, Simon Peyton-Jones he makes a compelling case for the primacy of the discipline and the emergence of a ‘fourth science’. If you have 15 minutes spare let Simon convince you about why the change is so important. See bit.ly/1DSoYpY for some very convincing reasons why all pupils should engage with creative Computer Science.

The UK Schools Computer Animation Competition is now in its 8th year involving large numbers of pupils across the full age range. Animaton15 closed in March with 420 schools registered and over 800 entries from 127 schools. Prizes will be awarded in May, and Animation16 launches in September 2015. More information at bit.ly/1ABX2Uq. SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk

In spite of the inclusion of control technology on the curriculum since the early 1980s, an Ofsted evaluation of ICT teaching in English primary schools from 2008–11 repeatedly expressed concerns with regard to the teaching of ‘control’. Ofsted reports suggest that it had at best been patchy and in many schools non existent.

Why, if the subject is so engaging, have many UK schools been deficient in this regard? The following reasons have been identified: A perception that the subject is conceptually hard. Logistical difficulties involved in setting up and maintaining the hardware to teach computer control. The cost of specialist resources: hardware and software and the requirement to upgrade this at frequent intervals. The cyclical requirement to upgrade brings a need to offer additional training to keep teachers up to date.

More recently, particularly in primary schools, tablets with no means of connecting control interfaces are replacing desktop computers. Schools that did make the substantial financial investment to resource control in years gone by may have been forced to upgrade their hardware and software on more than one occasion as early versions cease to be supported by new operating systems or hardware. This is the tyranny of the upgrade cycle imposed on schools by for-profit companies wishing to sell the next version of their software or hardware. Raspberry Pi computers using a gPiO offer a way out of this vicious circle.

Using the Raspberry Pi as a ‘control’ workstation in primary school makes a lot of sense. Graham Hastings, St John’s College School in Cambridge puts a compelling case.

When teaching young children to program, context is king. The context must be both rooted in their personal experience and completely understandable. Physical computing is an excellent way of providing an engaging context that is meaningful to primary school children. In addition, it gives children immediate feedback. This motivates them to find and correct bugs, helping build determination and resilience. When I first heard about the Raspberry Pi it occurred to me that with Linux and software such as Scratch and Python the device might represent a cheap and sustainable platform for control technology.

A bewildering array of ‘breakout boards’ have been rushed to market to meet the opportunity presented by the new Computing curriculum. Eager to explore the potential of the Pi, running Scratch as a control language, I began trials using many of these add-ons. It quickly became obvious that small pins, jumper leads and breadboards do not work in a primary classroom. Young children simply lack the manual dexterity to manipulate the components. Because my school was beginning to replace traditional PCs with tablets, making my existing control interfaces redundant, I persevered with the Pi but with much frustration until I obtained a gPiO interface (see picture).

The gPiO was designed for use in Key Stages 2 and 3. Extensive trials have convinced me that there is a role for the Pi as a control workstation. I now have a class set left permanently connected to their gPiO interface. In KS2, the children have made rapid progress, completing a wide range of control projects programmed in Scratch and Python. The advantages of this Pi / gPiO combination go a long way towards addressing the barriers previously noted. The Pi / gPiO is affordable; a complete control workstation including screen, mouse and keyboard can be purchased for under £200. Many children, and more importantly teachers, are already familiar with Scratch. The ease with which programmers can move from Scratch to Python offers a clear progression pathway and extension activities for the more able children.

This is a sustainable solution – schools will not be required to endlessly upgrade their hardware and software.

Moreover, schools that already have a range of legacy components connected to 4mm plugs can use these with the gPiO. Cheap generic components can also be used with it. And the real beauty of the Pi / gPiO combination is that children are able to create complete control systems that consider human factors and the needs of the user. Please take a look at the project on the page opposite as an example.

SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk

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A frequently asked question is what can a Pi do that cannot be done on a desktop computer? The niche for the Pi, as I see it, stems from the fact that Scratch and Python can be used as languages to program physical systems. This brings the scope to not only program simple feedback control routines but also the ability to create complete solutions to control problems. This has been difficult to do with languages written specifically for control technology. Add to this the likelihood that desktop computers will all but disappear from primary schools in the next five years and that the Pi / gPiO / Scratch combination is a much cheaper alternative then it becomes a very attractive proposition.

Computing attainment targets Design, write and debug programs that accomplish specific goals, including controlling or simulating physical systems; solve problems by decomposing them into smaller parts use sequence, selection, and repetition in programs; work with variables and various forms of input and output.

Project aims The project links science (simple circuits, forces and friction), design and technology (design and make a moving model with a pulley) and computing. Using models children have built for themselves as a context for computer control immediately engages them in the activity. Their desire to see their models brought to life motivates children to complete the control task with determination and resilience. The design brief asks the children to consider safety as an important aspect of the task. They should also aim to explore ways of making their ride more enticing to the public through considering the use of lighting and music.

Task To build a rotating fairground ride with motor and lights. Program it with a safe start button so that it will only rotate when the button is pressed. If the button is released the ride must immediately stop and an alarm sound The ride must have flashing lights to attract people’s attention. Add music to your control program so that your ride plays a tune as it turns. Extension could program a range of rides 7

perhaps slow and simple for young children and faster with frequent changes of direction for older people.

Resources A fairground model that rotates, Raspberry-Pi, SD card with Scratch GPIO and suitable music files installed, gPiO interface, push button, range of coloured LEDs, geared motor (200:1), 6v buzzer.

Solution Using a pulley wheel glued to the motor’s stub axle and a rubber band, the motor is linked to the model. The motor is wired to motor output B on the gPiO (pin11 ON will rotate the motor forwards and pin12 ON will rotate the motor in reverse). It is up to the children to decide the number of changes in direction and how long the ride should last. A push button is attached to the model and wired to input 7 as the start and safety button which should act as a ‘dead man’s handle’; if the button is released the ride stops and a buzzer sounds.

Three coloured LEDs are attached to the model and wired to outputs 15, 16 and 18. Children can decide the sequence and the music they want.

For those who are accustomed to Windows PCs the Pi represents a steep learning curve. However there is plenty of good advice on how to setup an SD card and install Scratch GPIO (see links below). If you then make a copy of the complete image you can clone it to your remaining cards via a PC using a free utility. Alternatively, purchase cards with the NOOBS software already installed from the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

Class management needs some planning. I have children working in pairs, each with a numbered SD card. Once they learn how to connect the cables it takes about five minutes to wire up and start their Pi. Their first task is to create a directory to save their project files.

There is no need to network the workstations. It takes about three minutes to pack away at the end of a session. The setup time could be avoided if you can leave them permanently set up. Keyboards with a built in USB port for the mouse leave one port on the Pi free for a memory stick so children can save their programs and hand in for marking.

Despite teething troubles children can now manage the setup with confidence, learning the skills of fault finding and correcting problems as they arise.

Raspberry Pi SD card NOOBS setup instructions: bit.ly/1BAvQnc Scratch GPIO installation: bit.ly/1CURy9T gPiO interface: www.gpio.co.uk How to clone SD cards: bit.ly/1GxvK5q Camera Trap Project - short video of a Pi / gPiO / Python project for Year 6/7: bit.ly/1HZD8ER SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk

Last June I was lucky enough to be part of the second cohort of Picademy ‘graduates’ or Pi Certified Educators (PCEs). For two very intense days we learned about ways to use the Raspberry Pi in our teaching and it was pretty cool stuff too! (See article right). On returning to work we looked for inspired ways to harness the Pi. With Sports Day looming it seemed an ideal opportunity to try out the Picamera. First we had to address the issue of getting them out onto the field and where to set them up. We decided to put one Pi on the finishing line for the relay races and one Pi on the top bend into the home straight.

We borrowed some high-jump posts from the PE department and my colleague provided a couple of portable battery chargers to power the computers. As we don’t (yet) have a cute 2.8 inch TFT screen for the Pi I persuaded a couple of Year 9 pupils to carry out a monitor so that we could set them up! They were very patient as we strapped each Pi and power source to the high-jump posts and tested them.

One of my very talented Year 10 pupils had created a script for the camera that would begin running as soon as the Pi was turned on. This saved us having to mess around too much with typing in commands and meant that we could just start up each Pi and check via the screen that images were being captured then leave it running.

Lots of pupils and visiting parents were curious about the strange gadgets – it certainly made an interesting talking point and gave an opportunity to highlight our use of the Pi and Computing in school.

It was fun checking our photos at the end.

We discovered the majority of races had finished in the 29 seconds between shots!

We did manage to capture a couple of races though so all was not lost. We now need to add a TFT screen plus a motion sensor to our shopping list! You can see the edited highlights of the captured images in Sports Day in 30 Seconds here: youtu.be/qm14Daiaveo.

Sue Gray SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk

The word is out about the Picademy training courses. Kim Sayers, from Landau Forte College, Derby gives an insight into what’s involved.

Good CPD is often hard to come by and expensive unless that CPD is run by the Raspberry Pi Foundation! Last June I was part of Picademy 2 held at "Raspberry Pi Towers" in Cambridge and run by the award winning secondary Computing & ICT Teacher, author and Education Pioneer at the Raspberry Pi Foundation, Carrie Anne Philbin. Picademy is a two day training course that doesn't sleep and best of all Raspberry Pi are offering this training to teachers across the country for free.

Day 1 sees everyone excitedly meeting up before completing a series of workshops designed to inspire whilst quickly demonstrating how concepts could be taught within the classroom. We had some people forming electric circuits for one demonstration whilst others made music by "being" notes and sounds in another. When I was on the course we did some Python coding in Minecraft, used a Pi camera for stop frame animation, made music with the amazing Sonic Pi and so much more all using kit included in the best swag bag ever.

Official training finished around 5pm when the whole group, including Raspberry Pi staff and trainers, continued with the discussions over dinner (again provided for free!). Napkins became notepads whilst ideas were scribbled down and the creative juices flowed freely. Later that night I struggled to sleep as my head was so full of exciting things to try out and ask the next day.

This is where Picademy stands out from other CPD courses - Day 2 is all about taking the knowledge from Day 1 and the spark from the evening and mixing it up. Those ideas started to take shape and become reality as we started to put into practice the skills from the first day. I worked with three others including Dan Arnold to create a "glove" that controlled a character in the GPIO Scratch application. Dan has since taken this idea further and was recently in Linux User magazine showing off the completed glove.

One of the great things about Picademy is that it does not stop after the two days. Everyone shares contact details meaning a constant stream of ideas through social media continues after the event. This contact also means that a readily available support network seamlessly forms keen to help spread the Raspberry Pi love. The two days round off with the official cohort picture and the official presentation of our Raspberry Pi Certified Educator badges given to us by Eben Upton himself. This badge is worn with pride by all who have it and I often find others trying to steal it!

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Clifford French, a CAS Master Teacher at Camden CLC sings the praises of a self contained programmable board, designed at UCL to introduce physical computing.

What do traffic lights, a mobile phone and a bank cash machine have in common? An obvious answer is that we depend on these in our everyday lives. A more technical answer might be that they all run programs that use iteration – looping through the same steps every minute of every hour of every day. Iteration is one of those essential concepts in computer science that many students find difficult to understand. That’s where physical computing can come into its own, helping students to see the concept in action and moving it off the screen or the printed page.

In my work in schools and at Camden City Learning Centre I have found that the Engduino, a small self-contained programmable board with LEDs and a range of sensors, never fails to engage students across a wide age range and in doing so, helps nurture an understanding of a wide range of CS concepts.

Originally developed as a simple computer science teaching tool at UCL (University College London), the Engduino is now in its third incarnation with 16 LEDs, a thermistor, a light sensor, an accelerometer, a magnetometer, an IR transceiver, a button and micro SD card storage, all in a

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compact Arduino based board that connects to a computer (Windows, Mac or Linux) via USB and requires no additional peripherals.

I believe that it is really important to relate learning in CS to our everyday lives and my personal preference is to start with the Engduino as an example of a “wearable”. Students can program it to flash its lights to reflect or alter their moods or feelings and, if they wish, wear it. Helpfully, it comes with a small battery to make it portable and a hole for a lanyard.

Students readily relate to situations where temperature is important, for example, looking after a young child or someone who is ill: these provide scope for exploring the thermistor and while loops. GCSE Science students can use the device to plot cooling curves, importing data into a spreadsheet either directly from the console or via an SD card.

The Engduino is for sale at £46.50 with a range of free learning resources covering variables, arrays, for and while loops. Appreciating that schools may find a class set of 16 (one between two, plus a device for the teacher) to be a considerable investment particularly for an unfamiliar resource, UCL has a limited number of Engduino class sets available for leasing for a notional fee on a full or half-term basis as part of a UK-wide pilot scheme. Technical support and learning materials are provided.

If you are interested, feel free to get in touch, sooner rather than later as supplies are limited.

Since the report in the last issue of SwitchedOn, Oxford University’s Turtle System has acquired another language, a “barebones” version of BBC BASIC, so that programs in Turtle BASIC, Turtle Java and Turtle Pascal can now all be seen and run online at http://www.turtle.ox.ac.uk/turtlejs/.

The project has produced a portable compiler that can run on Mac and Linux machines (and Windows), to generate code – from BASIC, Java or Pascal – that can be run on the same online system. Work is now underway on a Python compiler, which in due course will be integrated with all these new facilities within a comprehensive downloadable and online system.

With the addition of these new languages, as well as further facilities (including those for reading and writing files), we are actively seeking more volunteers to contribute lesson plans and related resources. “Getting started” lessons in BASIC would be particularly welcome, as would more advanced lessons – in any of the languages – that take pupils beyond the introductory stages (e.g. through further work on algorithms, graphics or cryptography).

We can offer up to £100 per lesson for suitable material. If you are interested, please email peter.millican@hertford.ox.ac.uk.

SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk

Competitions abound just now inspiring children to create with code, and giving opportunities for stretching, challenging and supporting. Some are local events, while others are national or global; many give a chance to interact with others with different skills, helping broaden the opportunities available to children, and taking the pressure off teachers who simply cannot become Jedi Masters in every language and paradigm.

Young Rewired State runs hack events for under 18s culminating in a Festival of Code at the end of July each year. Teams meet in local centres for four days of ideas, design, coding and testing solutions, using open source data. At the weekend teams meet at a central location for the finals – three days of code, pizza and presentation. It’s a hugely exciting event for students and is largely free so accessible to all. Regular Hyperlocal events run in some centres keeping the festival spirit going all year round.

First Lego League is a global competition with more than 250,000 children from 9 to 16 taking part. Using Lego Mindstorms robots, the competition is based on challenges that encourage the children to solve problems from a scientific/engineering perspective. Registration opens in May 2015 with tournaments running from November to January with UK finals in February.

Google CodeJam targets older students: ages 13 and up may compete, but they must be 18 to enter the final round. A qualification round is followed by further online rounds, based on solving given problem sets within a specified time.

BAFTA’s YGD offers Game Making and Game Concept competitions in 10-14 and 15-18 categories giving children who like to draw and coders a chance to get involved. This is great for those who love games and gives them an insight into the industry. And there are many more, online and in local centres, for different ages and different skills. Have a look at the links on the CAS Community (resource/43) for more great ideas.

Lyndsay Hope SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk

Managing multiple Raspberry Pi computers in a classroom can be a headache. Sixth form student Liam Nicholson, from Kirkby Kendal School in Cumbria suggests a novel solution.

As soon as we started using Raspberry Pi’s, whenever we wanted to install a new program or an SD card became corrupted we were spending a considerable amount of time imaging cards. After searching for a solution, we discovered Raspi-LTSP, an implementation of the LTSP protocol specifically made for Raspberry Pi. (Now called PiNet, see the box below for further details). Our computing lab is the kind that most people would want in their school.

It’s full of bits of old computers that we reuse to make our own machines, so we quickly got to work building our own server for the Pis, installing Raspi-LTSP and making it compatible with school systems.

After creating a working prototype, I was asked to roll the system out school-wide on a permanent basis. Extra ethernet ports were installed over the summer to facilitate this, and we were given a Virtualised Server. This allowed us to gain insight into network administration, whilst keeping a secured environment. We could make mistakes as the server could be easily reinstalled. When we arrived back in September, our Model B+ Raspberry Pis had arrived. We set to work installing the software on our new server, including Epoptes (epoptes.org) for classroom management, allowing us to restart and shutdown the Pis remotely.

Students can now learn how to interact with the Linux shell, program in Python and interface using the Raspberry Pi’s GPIO ports, without having to wait up to 30 minutes to image an SD card. You just turn on the Pi and you’re live within 1–2 minutes. It’s easier for teachers to manage as they now have a dedicated interface for adding user accounts and all users’ files are stored on the server.

The school now has a club to learn how to code in Python, using the Raspberry Pis, and the shared files function available using Raspi-LTSP helps teachers share code samples with students. But the best bit about the network is that it is completely managed by Sixth Form students, like myself. We manage the updates, add new features and programs and deal with any problems should they arise, although nothing serious has yet. When the Year 13s leave in June, they’ll hand over to the Year 12s who will manage it for the next year. We’ve just started adding our own customizations to the Raspi-LTSP code allowing us to change things like the desktop background, and to allow a deeper integration with our school’s network. We’re also looking forward to adding some more features, such as a GUI for teachers, so they don’t need to SSH into the server to add a user or install a program.

PiNet has been developed by CAS member Andrew Mulholland (Queen’s University). He blogs at pi.gbaman.info/.

All essential links to the PiNet project can be found on his CAS Community post at topics/4251 10

Dave White, CAS Regional Co-ordinator for Essex and Hertfordshire, illustrates how pedagogy developed in Mathematics and Science can be used to develop Computational Thinking.

In a new subject there is inevitably a lack of tuned-in pedagogical expertise.

Established approaches from Mathematics and Science can be adapted to benefit learning in Computer Science.

We’ll look at how Geometry becomes “action geometry” from a computing perspective when investigating how a sprite/turtle traces the outline of a simple regular shape, revealing through pattern and symmetry of movement the properties of the structures. We then use scientific enquiry-based learning to unlock these properties.

The following investigation of angles and spin lends itself to introducing computational thinking in different ways and at different levels. I’d suggest the teacher uses an enquirybased approach to encourage and support computational thinking by

appealing to patterns, symmetry and ‘action geometry’ in the first instance, and to principles of decomposition and generalising to complete the task.

Try to devise a set of questions to help your class discover how to calculate angles x and y in the square below (y is the turning angle for the sprite/turtle). We are less interested in the values, rather how to derive them.

It should be possible to use exactly the same questions but to substitute the words ‘regular pentagon’ wherever you see the word ‘square’ in your questions and 5 sides instead of 4.

The questions should lead the class to discover how to calculate the angles x and y when applied to the pentagon.

There are several example questions – they are not the answer - in the box below to help you make a start.

For a square, we may have known the values of the angles x and y. In other polygons however, pupils may be less familiar, hence the importance of how we work out the values of x and y with the square.

With that we then have a possible basis for generalising to approach to the pentagon.

Using exactly the same questions you can try to generalise the process by substituting the words ‘regular pentagon’ for the word ‘square’.

Taking it further, how would you generalise to work out the process to find the answer for angles x, y in other regular polygons? Try  a 6-sided hexagon  a 7-sided heptagon Why is the process more significant for the heptagon?

Finally, how would you work out the turning angle y in a 5-sided star (pentagram --- a self-intersecting pentagon shown above). Hint: Watch how much the turtle spins in tracing out the pentagram.

  

What is special about the number 360?

What does symmetry mean for a square?

Why is “The lengths of the 4 sides must be equal” not enough to define a shape as a square.  Why is “The internal angles at the 4 vertices of the 4 sided figure must be equal” not enough to define a shape as a square.  What conditions do you have to insist on to make sure a 4-sided figure is a square?

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

Hint: If you turn round completely, how many degrees have you turned through? We will call this a SPIN(360).  What are the other angles at the centre of the square?  Hint: In the diagram, start at O follow the arrow to A, turn through y, go to B and continue until you return to O and face the original direction. What angle did you turn through at B?  How many angles did you turn through in total to face the same way as you started?

SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk

Sitting at a computer is not always the best way to learn about computing. Paul Curzon, editor of cs4fn, argues an unplugged approach gives a solid way to teach concepts that is both fun and supports a deep understanding.

The Queen Mary University of London cs4fn team have developed a way of using magic tricks to illustrate computational concepts. The key ideas are that:  Both magic and programs are a combination of an algorithm and a presentation.  Both must be right for the trick or software to work well.  In essence a magic trick is just an algorithm and magicians need the same understanding of human psychology if their tricks are to work as programmers need if their programs are to be easy to use.

Paul Curzon and fellow computer scientist, Pete McOwan have now produced three compilations of magic tricks for cs4fn. The books are collections of easy to do magic tricks (mainly simple card tricks). The twist is that every trick comes with a link to some computer science too. As you learn the tricks, you will learn something about what computer scientists get up to too. Each book contains more about the talented magicians past and present who created both mathematical self working and slight of hand techniques. All three are available to download free from cs4fn.org/magic/ SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk

When you teach computing you are teaching the skills to be a good magician too: computational thinking! For over 10 years we have been giving magic shows in schools and at science festivals around the UK that have inspired students about computing. We do a magic trick, challenge the audience to work out how it is done then explain how it works so they can do it too. In doing so we also explain the linked computer science. We have tricks to introduce, for example, algorithms, variables, assignment and loops, search algorithms and the importance and limitations of testing. Magic can illuminate computational thinking topics such as algorithmic thinking, logical thinking, decomposition, abstraction, generalisation, human-computer interaction and much more.

We have previously produced two free magic books for schools. We have now produced a third book that focuses on computational thinking in an interdisciplinary context (see sidebar). Copies are being sent to all UK schools that subscribe to cs4fn’s free resources (made possible in conjunction with Hertford College, University of Oxford by funding from the Department for Education, Google, and the EPSRC funded CHI+MED research project on safer medical device design).

With support from the Mayor of London and Google we also have been giving unplugged workshops for teachers on computational thinking that includes magic tricks (see teachinglondoncomputing.org/ free-workshops/). Their aim is to give teachers a deeper understanding of computational thinking and other syllabus topics as well as practical, fun ways to teach the subject. In addition to writing the magic books, we are now writing these tricks up as activity sheets describing both the tricks and computational thinking or computing concepts behind them with linked resources like slides to download. These are all available from cs4fn’s sister project that is specifically to support computing teachers, ‘Teaching London Computing’ (see teachinglondoncomputing.org/resources/magic-andcomputational-thinking/). Programmers really are wizards!

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Here is a very simple cs4fn trick that anyone can do to give you a taster. We have found it is a great way to introduce what an algorithm is, that’s a bit more exciting than boiling the kettle or making toast!

Take 15 cards from a shuffled pack.

Have a volunteer put their hands with fingers and thumbs touching the table as though playing the piano. Explain that everyone must chant the magic words: “Two cards make a pair”. Take two cards and as everyone says “Two cards make a pair” place them together between a pair of fingers. Keep doing this until you have one card left.

Place it between the final fingers saying there is “one left over”. Now take the first pair back, again all chanting “Two cards make a pair”. Place them face down on the table to start two piles. Do this with each pair: saying the magic words and adding one card neatly to each pile. Eventually only the last single card is left. Take this saying: “We have one extra card.” Let them place it on top of one of the piles. Square up the piles pointing out: “So that pile now has the extra card”.

Explain that you are going to do ‘Invisible Palming’. The extra card is on one pile. You are going to invisibly move it to the other. Place your hand over the pile with the extra card. Rub the back of your hand to “make the card go invisible”. Lift your palm show-

ing that the card you are pretending to move is invisible. Move your hand to the other pile. Tap it, “to make the card drop”. Announce that the card has now moved piles.

To show the magic worked, take the pile where the extra card was placed and count off pairs into a new single face down pile – “Two cards make a pair. Two cards make a pair…”. This pile must be neat so no one counts the cards. You find there are only pairs – the extra card has disappeared! So where has it gone? Take the other pile and do the same, putting pairs back into a pile. Amazingly the extra card is there. Exclaim that the extra card really has moved from one pile to the other!

Now tell the volunteer that they can do the trick. Put your hands out in the piano position and talk them through the steps shown. To their surprise they will manage to move the card, even though they don’t know how.

See the box right for an explanation of how the trick works. The book goes on to show the links to computation that can be drawn out of the activity.

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Magicians call this a self-working trick. It always works if you follow the steps. It appears magical because you have confused everyone. They believe when they add the last card to a pile they are adding an extra odd card. You are actually making up the last pair – making an odd pile even. There are 15 cards. After dealing out the pairs there are 7 cards in both piles. The last card makes its pile up to 8 cards – 4 pairs. When you count out the pairs there will be only pairs there, so no ‘extra’ card.

The other pile will be left with 7 cards: 3 pairs with one left over.

You pretend it has magically moved without doing anything.

Nothing has to move!

What does this have to do with computing? Well, Computer scientists call self-working tricks algorithms. An algorithm, like a selfworking trick, is a series of instructions that if followed exactly and in the right order lead to a guaranteed effect. The instructions have to be precise and cover all eventualities. For example, this trick has to work however the cards are shuffled and wherever the extra card is placed.

When a volunteer follows the steps, the magic still happens even though they have no idea how it works. That is exactly what we need for computers. When we write programs we are creating algorithms for a computer to follow blindly as a computer understands nothing. All it can do is follow the steps in the program.

For more computational thinking lessons from this trick see the relevant pages of the book itself (illustrated) or download the linked activity sheet from the Teach London Computing website.

SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk

For those new to our Community, a CAS hub is a local meeting of teachers and supporters who wish to share their ideas for developing Computing in their schools. It is a meeting of like-minded professionals with the general objective of supporting each other and the specific aim of providing (at least) one idea each meeting that can be taken and tried in the classroom.

Meetings are open to all and your local CAS Hub will welcome your attendance or involvement, whether you are a practising teacher, an IT professional who would like to help, an academic from the nearby University or a parent of school age children.

We have around 150 hubs and you can find your nearest one using the Hub map at bit.ly/14mIpbD. This year the number of Hubs has already increased by 37 (with 21 of these being Primary Hubs).

We are actively looking for more Hubs especially in areas where we have gaps in provision. We would also like to see the number of Primary Hubs increase as there is definitely a need for the support that they can provide. If you would like to find out more about starting a CAS Hub (primary or secondary), please get in touch with either Claire Davenport or myself, Yvonne Walker . We are here to support you and work with you to ensure the Hub is a success. Our contact details can be found at the CAS Hub In A Box blog ( bit.ly/1ze9tmR ) which provides resources and support for new Hub leaders.

It enables us to be responsive to the needs of the Hub leaders and to ensures that we can keep information up to date.

Plans to develop the DfE funded Network of Excellence are now being finalised. National Co-ordinator Simon Humphreys reviews the journey so far and flags up a new stage.

The DfE funding that has allowed CAS to build the Network of Excellence to support the introduction of the new curriculum came to an end in March. We have come a long way in that time. Over 1400 schools (935 Secondary and 500 Primary) are now registered as part of the network. This in itself is important. You may have joined CAS as an individual, but please check your school is registered too. This allows us to communicate directly with Headteachers whose support, particularly during times of school austerity will be very important. 428 have been willing to be designated as Lead Schools (292 secondary and 167 Primary). If you are confident in what you are doing and willing to share and support colleagues in your locality, please consider applying to be one.

There are no specific requirements beyond a demonstrable willingness to support others, be it hosting a Hub, offering transition meetings, advice or otherwise helping local schools. Each year Lead Schools complete a quick audit outlining their activities. This year’s compilation makes impressive reading - a real testament to the enthusiasm, generosity and professionalism within the CAS ranks. During the two years we have also appointed nearly 400 Master Teachers. Their sterling efforts have meant we have been able to offer many low cost CPD sessions, allowing teachers to get to grips with the challenges ahead.

We’ve learnt a lot along the way from all these activities. There is a huge well of goodwill on which CAS members can draw. But it’s probably true to say our resources have been stretched, given the scale of the challenges. New funding would mean we can develop the NoE by creating a number of Regional Centres hosted in key universities in the regions. It's an exciting proposition and one which would ensure coherence to all of the various CAS activities. We hope to develop a sustainable programme of support for all teachers, expanding the Master Teacher scheme, providing training, materials and a closer relationship between Hubs and Regional Centres. We’re busy dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s to make this work. It promises to offer an exciting and innovative way forward, building on the collegiality that lies at the heart of our local communities. More details of what it might mean for you in the next issue.

Yvonne Walker

Teachers are busy people and taking on the leadership of a Hub is an extra task. However, Hub leaders are clear that there are benefits to be had! They provide a network of people to work with on shared issues, the opportunity to share ideas and resources, plus the opportunity to pool expertise within the group.

I recently attended the launch of the Ashbourne Primary Hub and saw this in action. The teachers attending the meeting all taught in mixed age classes and were facing the same problem of how you address this with respect to developing a scheme of work for computing.

How do you teach computing to 7 to 11 year olds in the same class? The answer? The group is going to trial different unplugged computational thinking activities with their mixed age groups and then share their findings at the next meeting. Fantastic! Hub meetings at their best!

SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk

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Carl Simmons, CAS Regional Co-ordinator and Senior Lecturer at Edge Hill University reflects on what a successful ‘community of practice’ looks like and offers suggestions for ways to build them.

Working in Initial Teacher Education gives me the opportunity to engage (and sometimes build) communities of practice and it’s really interesting to see how they work and how they interact with each other too. These aren’t static groups, they form and merge and change – our community of trainee teachers becomes absorbed within our established teacher network (which is lovely to see). From our established teacher partners we have a strong community of CAS enthusiasts, Master Teachers and Hub Leaders.

There’s much overlap between groups too – so our CAS community contains a large subset of Raspberry Pi enthusiasts – and in turn that community draws in many members of the public including groups from schools. Over the years I’ve developed rules of thumb for nurturing and working with these communities, most recently in building computing capacity and knowledge in schools through the CAS Master Teachers. Here’s what I’ve learned to date.

Personally attending and contributing to events matters, whether that be Master Teacher sessions, CAS Hubs or school meetings. Support your community and spread the word in a polite, but fairly relentless manner!

Use these opportunities to make links based on individual strengths and interests. Volunteer them for things, in the nicest possible way and always with their consent. For example linking up a school cluster (who were just getting started with computing) to their Master Teacher has had a big impact in how they use their CPD time. Finding space and time to allow members to talk to each other makes it more productive and is the essence of a “community”. It might just be finding a common time for a coffee. In the inter15

im use online tools to stay in touch.

Many of our Master Teachers use Twitter to support each other.

If there’s a need for a community that doesn’t yet exist, look for ways to create one. CAS hubs are a case in point here – they are an essential glue that holds all of CAS together. My experience is that a willing volunteer emerges (with a little encouragement) who just needs some support to get things moving – facilitate this and you have something really special. If you are thinking of being a hub leader then don’t hesitate to contact Yvonne or Claire (see opposite page).

Be a facilitator, support your community by unblocking administrative or systems’ issues – or find someone who is good at that within your community and ask them for help. Find opportunities to celebrate success too by inviting members to events and give them a chance to raise their profile, for example via school cluster meetings, university events, articles in SwitchedON or a presentation at the CAS conference. Also be nice to senior leadership teams – show them what their expert community members are doing and how this helps them.

This gives community members the kudos and recognition they deserve and may help make a case for further engagement in their community.

Building a community of practice is not easy. It requires sustained effort – but extends the impact one individual can have. The sense of reward when you see people working together to build something special as a result of your influence is enormous. It is the only way that we’ll scale up and consolidate the steps already taken to introduce Computing in schools.

Google announced three funding grants as part of a package that launched the path breaking Digital Garage in Leeds. The Digital Garage is the first in a series of popup training venues across the UK, designed to provide small and medium enterprises with help, digital skills training and advice about harnessing the internet to their business needs.

Alongside this we’re delighted that Google have given a grant to CAS to enable us to develop a suite of Master Teacher training materials and a series of webcasts aimed at providing insights into Computing pedagogy and departmental management. Details are being worked out at present and we’ll announce more detail on the Community very shortly.

As well as further generous support for CAS projects, Google also announced funding for the Raspberry Pi Foundation and Code Club Pro to further their work in training teachers in Computer Science. As well as school based events, workshops for teachers will be able to utilise the Digital Garage spaces. Google also aim to develop further online training resources. The funding builds on the commitment last year to donate Raspberry Pis for use in classrooms.

The BCS Certificate in Computer Science Teaching allows you to demonstrate your efforts to upskill, develop materials and reflect on your practice. A one year, roll on, roll off accreditation with mentor support.

Interested? More info bit.ly/1FUsKw1 SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk

As the CAS Community and Network of Excellence continue to grow, Catriona Lambeth has been quietly developing ways to use the Community to support local organization. When you log-on to the CAS Community, you’ll no doubt be aware of the links to Resources, Discussions and Event listings. If you are a teacher, have you ever looked at the Network Of Excellence link next to them? If not, take a look now. It should display the details we have of your school. If not, please update your profile and register your school with the Network of Excellence. If registered, ask your school contact to add you if you don’t see the details. These may seem bureaucratic tasks but they are the bedrock on which effective messaging can be built in the future. Once we have your school details and you are linked to the school we can provide information about others in your locality.

You can use this area to identify your local hubs, find other registered / lead schools in the area, local Master Teachers and their contact details. These can be very useful if you are organizing events and want to ensure you have publicized it widely.

What else you will see will depend on your role. If you are a Master Teacher we are developing this area as the point for receiving guidance documents, adding the Events you organize and keeping your records of activity up to date.

This is a work in progress. We want to develop the functionality further so please share ideas about what would be useful on the forum.

SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk

In the recent CAS National Survey “access to others’ resources” was rated the single most important aspect of CAS. Paul Browning and Margaret Low look at ways you can contribute to the success of CAS Resources.

It’s not just about creating resources! Here’s a list of things you can do to help improve resources for the CAS Community (and which are good for you too).



Likes: Add value to a resource with just one click – use the “Like this” button. Resources are displayed by “View by popularity” by default and “Likes” counts towards popularity. You can easily find resources that were useful to teachers in a category. The “Show only resources I like” check box also provides a useful personal bookmarking function.



Comments: Add a Comment to a Resource to let others know it’s useful (or not!). Please bear in mind that you may be commenting on a work in progress; CAS actively encourages the uploading of unfinished work.



See Also links: Add “ See Also” links to signpost related CAS resources.

Type a keyword in the box to return a list of resources with that word in its title.



Categorising: There are over 2600 resources in the CAS community.

Categories allow a user to filter their search for a resource (see the annotated screenshot below). The recently revised categories are highlighted in red, green and blue. If you find an “Uncategorised” resource use “Edit Categories” and you will move one step closer to digital sainthood. Further advice on using the revised categories is provided on the page opposite.



Improve an existing resource: Each resource is actually a wiki page. Anyone can edit or upload additional files to a resource page. All site members are created equal so, we can all fix a broken link or add a missing hyperlink, replace an inaccessible file format (e.g. convert a .pub file to .pdf or Open Office), engage in digital preservation (e.g. capturing an off-site Google doc that is about to expire) or improve a resource title to improve findability. Don’t worry about making a mistake – it’s a wiki page so use the “History” function to access earlier versions.



Convert a “pearl of wisdom” Topic into a Resource: It's hard to find the pearls in the thousands of discussion topics! By harvesting the pearls into a resource you make it far more discoverable and useful. Why not copy-and-paste from a Topic to create a resource? For an example see What does the “if name == ‘main’” in a Python program do? Better still harvest multiple pearls of wisdom from one or more Topics into a “review” resource. If this isn’t personal CPD then we don’t know what is!



Create a meta-resource: Resource pages can be a “ a resource about resources” or meta-resource. For examples of existing meta-resources see: MOOCs for school-level computer science, Learning HTML & CSS using Mozilla Thimble and Simon Peyton Jones' bookmarks.



Extend an existing resource: If you’ve expanded an existing resource, or created a variation, be a good digital citizen and share it with others in the CAS Community. For example provide a solutions booklet to an existing worksheet/ workbook that lacks one (e.g. CAS Python: Zero to Hero course). When creating a new resource always take care to follow the licence terms; by default a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Licence applies to each new resource but authors are free to vary this so always check the small print.

Please use the CAS Discussion Forums to share your thoughts or questions.

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TES Connect, BBC BiteSize and the National STEM Centre eLibrary Subject and Age Range categories are broadly aligned with those on the CAS Community; all of which should help the timepoor teacher find the good resources faster.

When classifying resources we wish to further develop this standard approach. There are three important dimensions by which you can classify resources (see right):  Subject Knowledge  Age Range  Resource Type You should consider assigning a category from each of these dimensions to your resource (e.g. Algorithms for Subject Knowledge). That said, sometimes more than one category from a given dimension is appropriate (and sometimes none are). Each is described in more detail below.

Subject Knowledge: The categories are now fully aligned with the Progression Pathways Grid and also bracket the full scope of the new curriculum with the addition of Information Technology and Digital Literacy.

Age Range: If the suitability of the resource spans multiple age ranges (or you are uncertain about the precise suitability) then select two or more categories.

Resource Type: This describes other characteristics of your resource which may include one or more of:  intended audience (“For Teachers” and “For Students”)  a resource collection rather than a resource itself (“Meta-resource”)  extra-curricular (“Enhancement and Enrichment” - trips, open evenings, work placements, etc.)  cross-curricular (“Careers” maybe)  gifted and talented (“Extension Material”)  assessment (“Quiz/Assessment”)  “Technology-Enhanced Learning” not part of the curriculum per se but many generic tools are of interest both to teachers and students depending on the context.

There are three additional dimensions:  English Curriculum  Scottish Curriculum  Language/Platform Use the categories under these dimensions to provide still richer metadata about any resource. For more about the rationale behind the classification see the box below.

Considerable thought has gone into this classification. If you are struggling to categorise a resource further exemplification can be found in the TASK statements explained in resource/3162. Look for which “Abridged Statement” comes closest to characterising the resource. The TASK reference originally derives from the Teaching Agency Computer Science Subject Expert Group’s “Subject Knowledge requirements for entry into computer science teacher training”. These have been in part modified or extended to include Information Technology and Digital Literacy.

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SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk

Technocamps’ portfolio of Technoteach teacher training modules has been formally endorsed by ASFI – Accredited Skills For Industry. Technocamps is a schools outreach programme established by the Computer Science Department in Swansea University. It now has hubs in six further University Computer Science Departments across Wales: at Aberystwyth, Bangor, Glyndwr, Cardiff and Cardiff Metropolitan Universities and at the University of South Wales in Glamorgan. These hubs have hosted 18 Technoteach modules – each typically 20 hours long delivered one evening per week over six weeks – upskilling a total of 256 teachers from both primary and secondary schools.

Technocamps is ideally placed to help bring about real change in Wales. Professor Graham Donaldson’s Report “Successful Futures” (published in February) calls for computing and digital literacy to be considered as important as literacy and numeracy; one key recommendation recognises a need to build teacher confidence and capacity in computer science.

At the time of writing, two further reports are due in March. Professor John Furlong’s Report into initial teacher training will likely reflect on the readiness for change of ICT teachers in Wales, given that the General Teaching Council of Wales reports most have no formal qualification in IT let alone Computing. The Welsh Government’s New Deal for the Education Workforce is expected to develop and deliver new professional standards for teachers. The Welsh Government has already looked to Technocamps to consider ways to address the skills shortage, including becoming involved in their recently-launched Schools Challenge programme. Technocamps started as a programme to engage pupils as a means to change perceptions about computing amongst schools and teachers. After providing workshops for tens of thousands of school children over the past decade, financed through a variety of funding streams, the Technocamps effect is finally being felt and acted upon by schools and government.

Faron Moller SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk

The Cambridge GCSE Computing MOOC breaks the OCR course into bite-sized chunks. Chris Swan from The Stourport High School and VIth Form Centre outlines its value.

I have worked on a number of different projects for OCR but the MOOC was an exciting if a little daunting opportunity. A constant driver was the need to allow students to review topics independently. The project started in 2013 along with the launch of the accompanying website www.cambridgegcsecomputing.org. Recording the video sequences was quite gruelling. A number of teachers recorded contributions over several months. Many other contributors developed quizzes and other interactive activities. Shortly after completion the MOOC migrated onto the Cogbooks adaptive learning platform. This was a massive step forward in creating a learning tool for students and teachers. The platform is sophisticated and personalises the learning process. We needed to think about how topics were interrelated. If I understood X, that would act as a foundation topic for learning Y. More than this, we need to measure learning by progress. If I take a test on Y and don’t perform terribly well, I probably need to go back and consolidate my understanding of X. I had some previous experience of adaptive learning with professional certification courses, often taken by adults studying at home.

Adaptive learning is a fascinating blend of algorithmic learning and psychology. How many times has a student said to us: “I don’t understand this!” right at the very end of a lesson. Most other students may have understood the topic but we need to help the one. The beauty is that it is self-paced and reinforcing. It is never intended to replace a teacher, merely to complement. The MOOC is a paperless textbook that engages learners through a variety of media. Personally, it was a great opportunity to think deeply about how students learn and develop an understanding of Computer Science.

It is also a valuable tool for parents who wish to understand what their child is studying and for teachers who are looking for ideas on teaching a topic. There are countless ways in which the MOOC can help you e.g. in setting homework, livening up a lesson or helping an NQT to get the grips with a topic. The Cambridge GCSE Computing MOOC represents many hours of work from classroom teachers. I wanted to say “ordinary teachers” but that didn’t feel very fair as what we achieved was pretty extraordinary. I must admit that it is also rather fun when students say: “Hey Miss, you’re famous!” Rob Leeman - OCR Computing Subject Specialist adds, "Not every school has a dedicated computing teacher like Christine and the MOOC is a way that students and teachers can access her expertise and enthusiasm free of charge. We're delighted to see how Christine has made the most of the new adaptive learning version to enhance the learning experience in the classroom."

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Tim Eaglestone, CAS Master Teacher at Dorothy Stringer High School in Brighton reviews the new CAS QuickStart Computing guides. He urges all teachers new to Computing to start with the primary resources.

Both Primary and Secondary guides offer resources on managing the transition to Computing and, whilst each is tailored to their respective phase, they complement each other in a way I think makes both guides valuable to all of us teaching Computing. The Secondary guide draws together tools to support curriculum planning. It addresses issues such as schemes of work and progression through to choosing the right programming language. It is a useful guide to much of the ‘where’, ‘when’ and ‘how’ of the new curriculum.

The section on ‘making an effective activity’ gives an important steer as to the ‘why’ of the Computing curriculum.

It develops five aspects of computational thinking (approaching problems as a computer scientist might) and relates them to student activities on spreadsheet modelling, textual coding, and Scratch. This section also points readers to the Interactive Progression Tool found on the QuickStart website that cross-references the National Curriculum to the CAS Progression Pathways and links to further resources. For me, embedding computational thinking in planning is vital and highlights a key change in emphasis between Computing and ICT. Progression in computational thinking as a thread that runs through the planned curriculum can help ensure Computing has both relevance and longevity: this is a subject about solv19

ing problems and should develop underlying processes that will outlast software packages or the shelf-life of the latest gadget. A focus on computational thinking helps move planning on from the application-centred approach we often saw in the past (where one half-term might be spent on spreadsheets, the next on webpages and so on.

It is in this regard that I believe the Primary QuickStart Computing guide should be essential reading for secondary school teachers. It gives a lot more information as to the ‘why’ and ‘what’ of Computing and hence provides the foundation on which the secondary guide can build. It begins with a detailed exploration of computational thinking. Drawing on the excellent Barefoot Computing resources (barefootcas.org.uk) it provides breadth and scope to the subject and illustrates the curriculum in action.

The guide also describes some of the key content from the rest of the curriculum such as programming, networks and digital literacy. Much of this is directly applicable to Key Stage 3, especially during this transition phase.

I think it is a great starting point for secondary teachers anxious about the transition from ICT. Their issues with subject knowledge are the same as those for primary colleagues .

The QuickStart Computing guides, the Interactive Progression Tool, further support resources, and a map of local places where the guides were distributed (check in with your local Master Teacher or hub leader) can be found at quickstartcomputing.org. Further CAS Resources on Computational Thinking can be found on the CAS Community at resources/252.

Good as the Barefoot material is, it only covers the scope of the primary programmes of study.

The curriculum in secondary schools is a little more complex as at Key Stage 4 it is typically the examination boards that determine the breadth and depth of the taught programme. This impacts on planning for KS3 which, in addition to needing to cater for all students (year 9 sees the last formal education in Computing for many people), will need to prepare students for further study in specialist qualifications.

The Barefoot material makes the pitch of Computing explicit for primary teachers but more detail is needed for secondary teachers. For example, the discussion of variables does not go beyond the storage and retrieval of data from memory at run -time. So, while the pitch of the KS3 programme can be inferred from the National Curriculum and GCSE specifications, I think there is a need for explicit exemplification in the way that Barefoot does for primary.

To that end, I have made a start on producing some guides that aim to build on the Barefoot resources for years 7, 8 and 9. The intention is that they are read alongside the Barefoot guides.

Material on decomposition and variables at key stage 3 can be found on the CAS Community at resources/2934 and I hope to post more as I write them. And as ever, the CAS Resources is a wiki so please feel free to contribute or comment.

SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk

SAP, a major computing company in Belfast, has been supporting schools through supplying work experience placements for pupils aged 14 years up. The placements, which last for five days, allow pupils to work on a real IT project. Pupils work as part of a team working on all phases of a software development project from requirements analysis to implementation, testing and final presentation. The project aims to develop a real application to be used by the companies lab.

Pupils have the opportunity to learn new languages such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JSON, and more. They also gain expert guidance and have the opportunity to work with senior developers, researchers, PhD and placement students keen to provide pupils with useful suggestions for a future career in IT. SAP run 4 work experience sessions each year, two in February for 14/15 year olds and two in August for 16/17 year olds. All are provided cost-free

by SAP who additionally provide all materials. If you teach in Belfast and would like further details contact Claudia Rabuazzo: c.rabuazzo@sap.com.

Founders4Schools is a free service that enables primary and secondary teachers to invite founders of successful, growing businesses to visit their schools and inspire their students. At the events, business founders will speak about what they studied at secondary school and what motivated them to become entrepreneurs. Students also hear about reallife applications from Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects, making a critical link to how learning STEM directly relates to growing and scaling successful enterprises.

The organisation has over 8000 volunteers and you can search their directory by area and category: Arts, Engineering, Maths, Technology and Science. Their speakers are well briefed, the sessions are well structured, and feedback from teachers is overwhelmingly positive. The site is very easy to use. Take a look at www.founders4schools.org.uk SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk

The Teacher Industrial Partners’ Scheme gives teachers the opportunity to experience work in modern engineering and technology organisations. Lisa Bagnall from the National Science Learning Network explains what’s involved.

“If you teach a subject where you don’t have that industry experience, go out and get it! It’s like a missing piece of your jigsaw puzzle!” enthuses Anhar Ali, a teacher from Cumberland School, Newham, who recently attended one of our placements at IBM. The Teacher Industrial Partners’ Scheme, or TIPS can give you just that. As a joint initiative between industry and education TIPS gives teachers the opportunity to experience what takes place in modern engineering and technology. Over a two week placement, teachers gain a wider understanding of the diverse range of career options available for their students and build closer long term relationships with local industry. Anthony Smith, from Southborough High School, Surbiton, another participant of TIPS at IBM, told us “The experience has been the highlight of my year, and I recommend the scheme wholeheartedly.”

After the placement, participants attend bespoke CPD created by the National Science Learning Centre to further their development of engineering and apply it in the classroom.

Anhar said; “Now that I’m back at work it all feels like it’s clicked into place and I can relate my teaching to real life experience – something I wasn’t able to do before taking part in the TIPS scheme.” Firsthand experience of the world of modern engiAnthony Smith and Anhar Ali visiting The Royal Society neering and technology is key for teachers to be able to speak confidently to pupils about future career paths. Supporting teachers in achieving this is vital to extend their knowledge in the field. Anthony said, “I have been inspired to take forward some aspects of STEM within my school, as with an Engineering and Computing background I feel that I can help to guide and enthuse some of the next generation of technologists.” If you would like to read more about Anthony and Anhar’s placement, you can visit their blogs at bit.ly/1Dq5dYw and bit.ly/1EG6QBp. 2015 will bring more exciting opportunities for teachers to attend TIPS placements across the UK including IBM, Crossrail, Portakabin, Grontmij, Air Products, Alstom, Thames Water, Staffordshire Alliance, Carillion, TFL and Babcock. For more information and to apply to take part in this fantastic experience, please visit www.slcs.ac.uk/tips.

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Higher Level Apprenticeships offer a route to a rewarding career in the IT industry. John Palmer, Regional Coordinator and CAS ‘3 Counties’ Hub Leader explains the ‘quiet revolution’ happening in the Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire area.

What career paths are our current Computing students going to have?

Maybe some of these careers don’t even exist yet? All across Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire are companies specialising in Computer Science and more recently, Cyber Security. Thousands of new jobs will be created in Cyber Security over the next 10 years. If you had sixth-formers with a talent for Computing and an interest in “ethical” Cyber Security, rather than choose an academic route would you encourage them to join the workplace at age 18 and earn whilst they learn (modern apprenticeship)? By the way, these ‘apprentice’ programmes have nothing to do with tool bags, making tea and sharpening chisels, but would be for the highest quality candidates whose career path will be as stellar as a graduate’s, most probably steeper. In return, no student debt, high quality work, a good salary, travel and achieving their degree at around 25 rather than 21. Sounds interesting?

Well, we think so, and so do many employers in the area, such as GCHQ in Cheltenham, QinetiQ and 3SDL in Malvern. These organisations and others offer Higher Level Apprenticeships (HLAs) like no other, as apprentices have the opportunity gain a unique insight into a world of cyber threats, terrorism, espionage and organised crime.

More and more “Trailblazer Apprenticeships” (the gold standard of modern HLAs) are coming on-line in areas such as cyber intrusion analyst, network engineer, software developer and software tester. Bryan Lillie, Chief Technology Officer for Cyber at QinetiQ is buoyant about this quiet revolution. Bryan commented, “This year, 21

we’re focusing even more on our apprentice intake, and without doubt, an apprenticeship can be a brilliant start to your career. The new range of Higher Apprenticeship schemes are a highly credible alternative to University qualifications.”

Here in the CAS ‘3 Counties’ area, we are supportive and in conjunction with local firms QinetiQ, 3SDL, Borwell, PostcodeAnywhere, UTC Aerospace (and others...) are constantly looking to challenge and inform attitudes to apprenticeships. So, to get the debate started, on 15th January, the first IT & Cyber Security Apprenticeship Showcase was held at the University of Worcester Arena. This showcase event was run jointly by CAS, The University of Worcester STEM team, Worcestershire County Council and

the organisers and students of the innovative 3SDL / QinetiQ Cyber Apprentice Development Scheme (CADS - see Switched On: Autumn 2014). It was a huge success - see report right.

The feedback was so positive that we are now looking to turn this into an annual event.

For many, many reasons, the new breed of Apprenticeships are a valuable and meaningful route into the Computing profession. We strongly encourage your students to consider their options very carefully.

Local training providers and over thirty companies were on hand giving information, advice, guidance and providing some excellent Cyber activities for students.

‘Dibble’ Clark, cyber lead at 3SDL. provided a scene-setting brief. He highlighted some key attributes employers look for and introduced some ex-apprentices alluding to their potential earnings. The event concluded with a panel discussion in front of companies yet to take the plunge and offer HLAs. Dibble chaired the panel and believes: “Showing companies what’s on offer and having all the stakeholders in one place to answer employer questions makes this event unique. What we are doing in Worcestershire 3 years on from the start of CADS is testimony to the County’s drive towards an internationally recognised cyber security vision”.

Over 140 Sixth-Form Computing students found out more about the sector-specific HLAs. For many, this event changed their perceptions of routes into IT careers, opening their eyes to new opportunities. Fraser Savage, Y13 Chase Computing student said, “I now have a much better level of awareness regarding the quality of training, support and development available on HLA programmes with local companies. Studying full time for a degree would cost me a serious amount of money and other options may prove to be even better for me in the long run.”

SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk

Rachel Spiers, 15, is a fourth year student at Douglas Academy, Milngavie, near Glasgow, with a passion for technology. Her essay below, shared with senior executives at Google and Apple, received hand written replies and an offer of work experience at her local Apple Store.

Jobs in the technology sector are often seen by women as male dominant, with them working alone, locked away with a computer all day.

Obviously, this stereotype is not true but too many young girls believe it, leading to a self-fulfilling prophecy.

A Guardian survey showed that the technology industry ranked in the top 5 for “the most fun sector to work in.” Harvey Mudd, a college which specialises in science, engineering and maths in California carried out some research which looked into why young girls did not choose careers in this popular sector. Their research highlighted three key reasons. One, they didn’t think it would be interesting, two, they didn’t think they would be good at it and three, they think they would be uncomfortable in the workplace because of the strangers they would be working alongside.

I do feel that we need to get over this stereotype of men in the basement on their computers. We need to catch young girls at the right age and show them what computing really is.

In highlighting the challenges in attracting more females into technology, I do think that it is important to consider how we involve men in addressing the problem. I agree with Alan Eustace, senior executive at Google, who encouraged females to expand their Women in Technology Conferences to involve men otherwise, as he said, “you are preaching to the converted”.

The technology industry is growing at an unimaginable speed, with lots of new gadgets and gizmos being produced. Sadly, the big names in this industry all seem to be male with hardly any females. I am one of the 3,420 students in the UK that has taken up studying Computing in school. I’m really interested in Computer Science and would love to have a career in technology or computer programming. I feel very strongly that more women should be in the technology industry because as the industry grows we want women to appear more and more.

Every website, piece of software, game or digital product needs to be coded. Ever wonder how your internet, operating system and apps such as Facebook are made and work? They’re all made with code. The need for more apps and computerised products has meant many people have been able to create their own companies, creating an extra million paid jobs each year.

I do understand that being a programmer isn’t everyone’s dream but basic technical computing skills are needed now for every role in every industry. Mark Zuckerburg said “an understanding of computer science is becoming increasingly essential in today’s world.” As the industry is growing, more people are feeling lost, overwhelmed and totally confused by the jargon. Kathryn Parsons, co-founder of Decoded said “being technology illiterate just doesn’t cut it anymore. It can’t when so many more jobs functions require so much more technical know-how.”

The first computer programmers were Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage. Ada proved that a machine could be programmed in a way which it could calculate a series of numbers called Bernoulli numbers but Babbage could not get the machine built. Babbage still however gets most of the credit. Another female who played a key role in techAda Lovelace nology was Hedy Lamarr who invented spread spectrum communications and frequency hopping. These two jargon-based words are the basis for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, technologies that most of us today would struggle to live without.

In my opinion we are getting over the stereotypes.Researching this topic has made me feel much Hedy Lamarr stronger about the need for more women to get involved, and my role helping in that. Hopefully in the next 10 years, my name will be one of the next big names in technology. As Kathryn Parsons said, “the opportunities are there. Now we need to encourage and support this new generation and provide meaningful investment to the next generation of code heroes and rock stars. And let’s make them female ones!”

The CAS group of teachers, academics and professionals which exists to promote wider diversity and foster greater inclusion in the teaching of Computer Science. Check out casinclude.org.uk/.

SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk

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Computing technology may only have a short history but as Bruce Nightingale explains, many of the ideas that lie behind Computer Science go back a lot further.

During the first century after the birth of Islam, Arab Muslim armies defeated the Persians and moved into Mesopotamia, what is now modern-day Iraq.

Around 762, Caliph Al-Mansur founded the city of Baghdad. Thus started what is now considered by many scholars to represent the high point of Islamic civilisation, when scholars from around the world came to the Bayt al-Hikma (House of Wisdom) established by the Caliph Al-Mamoon, as a unique centre for mathematicians, astronomers, scientists, and philosophers. It soon became one of the most famous centres of learning, attracting scholars from all over the world.

The scholars built on the legacies of Persian, Indian and Greek texts - Aristotle, Plato, Hippocrates, Euclid, Pythagoras, Aryabhata, Brahmagupta and others. The scholars accumulated the greatest collection of knowledge in the world, and built on it through their own discoveries. Besides translating books into Arabic and preserving them. The earliest version of Euclid’s ‘Elements of Geometry’ is an 8th C Arabic translation. The first western version of Elements was a translation from the Arab version into Latin by Erhard Ratdolt in Venice in 1482.

This was 27 years after Johannes Gutenberg had produced the first printed book. It was through translations of Arabic texts into Latin that Western Europe began its own research in the fields of mathematics and science.

Scholars associated with the House of Wisdom also made original contributions to different fields of study. One such scholar was Abu Ja'far Mohammed ibn Musa al-Khowarizmi. AlKhowarizmi authored the text ‘Kitab al jabr w’al-muqabala’ also known as ‘The Compendious Book on Calcula23

tion by Completion and Balancing’ in the early part of the 9th C. The book was then translated into Latin by Robert of Chester in 1145. The Arabic phrase al jabr in the book’s title is the origin of the term ‘algebra’.

The Hindu–Arabic numeral is a positional decimal numeral system, used throughout the world. It was invented between the 1st and 4th centuries by Hindu mathematicians. The system was adopted, by Al-Khwarizmi's book ‘On the Calculation with Hindu Numerals’ published in 825.

Gerald Toomer’s article in the Dictionary of Scientific Biography states: ‘alKhwarizmi’s name became so closely associated with the “new arithmetic” using the Hindu numerals that the Latin form of his name, algorismus, was given to any treatise on that topic.

Hence, by a devious path, is derived the Middle English “augrim” and the modern “algorism” corrupted by false etymology to “algorithm”.’

Laplace wrote: “The ingenious method of expressing every possible number using a set of ten symbols (each symbol having a place value and an absolute value) emerged in India. The idea seems so simple nowadays that its significance and profound importance is no longer appreciated. Its simplicity lies in the way it facilitated calculation and placed arithmetic foremost amongst useful inventions. The importance of this invention is more readily appreciated when one considers that it was beyond the two greatest men of Antiquity, Archimedes and Apollonius.”

Here’s a challenge for the class; can you or any of your pupils pronounce Al-Khowarizmi?

Old Soviet and Syrian postage stamps celebrating the contributions of Al-Khwarizmi and Alkindous

Appreciating the role of other cultures in developing some of the pivotal ideas in Computer Science can be a rewarding experience for students. Cryptography, a word drawn from the Greek for 'hidden' and 'writing', kryptos and graphein, has roots in cultures including Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and American Indians. Interested students would benefit from reading an article on the Student Pulse website (bit.ly/1OTW8Jv) which also has links to further articles. A good starting point might also be a couple of articles on the CS4FN website.

Written by Computer Science student, Zin Derfoufi, ‘Muslims and Maths’ (bit.ly/1DLNudw ) is a short introduction. ‘The Dark History of Algorithms’ (bit.ly/1Fr8NS6) highlights the role of another 9th century scholar Abu Yusuf Ya'qub ibn Ishaq Al-Kindi, better known in the west as Alkindous in the development of cryptography. The Code Book, by Simon Singh, is also a very accessible history tracing the origins of cryptographic techniques.

For teachers wanting more information on this fascinating topic see articles by Prof. Keith Devlin at bit.ly/1DLNFWl and Prof. Robertson at bit.ly/1xR4Puj SWITCHEDON: www.computingatschool.org.uk

In the "big data" age, the vast data volumes present new challenges in optimization which classical algorithms are not designed to handle. Increasingly, in domains like computational biology and machine learning, problems may have many millions of variables.

New approaches are being developed to benefit from such data.

For example a special care baby unit, analysing every baby’s heart beat and breathing pattern, developed algorithms to predict infections 24 hours before physical symptoms appear, so buying precious treatment time for infants.

Researchers from Spain’s Ramón Llull University created a system for geolocating videos by comparing their images and audio with a global multimedia database. A potential terrorist location may be identified from propaganda videos, or missing people who disappear after posting video online may be found. Data is grouped and clusters compared algorithmically with existing geolocated videos. The team used 10,000 sequences as a reference to detect likely geographical coordinates, locating 3% of videos within a 10km radius. To apply to more videos the algorithm will require a much larger audio-visual database.

Google’s ever-evolving ranking algorithms involve over 200 factors. New developments include evaluating "trustworthiness" according to a "Knowledge-Based Trust" score. In theory this elevates factual and news sources however critics fear it will encourage censorship, barring minority voices from the results pages.

For more inspiring ideas to share with children, see MIT News: http://newsoffice.mit.edu/topic/ algorithms Lyndsay Hope Computing At School are supported and endorsed by:

The BBC have a long track record of amazing programmes that entertain, enthuse and above all educate. They've been a part of the UK's digital revolution from the start. The BBC micro inspired a whole generation to learn to code.

Now they are at it again. Their flagship education initiative for 2015 is about Computer Science. Grouped under the banner ‘Make It Digital’, their aim is to inspire the UK about digital creativity. That includes how to get creative with coding, programming and digital technology. Already some excellent programmes and lectures have been aired and other material is being launched online. Watch out too for the BBC Micro Bit (see page 2). Make sure you keep a regular eye on www.bbc.co.uk/makeitdigital for notice of further plans.

University Of Birmingham Saturday 20th June (reception 6 - 10pm, Friday evening) How’s it going? The new Programme of Study came into operation at the start of this year. How has it been? Exciting? Frustrating? At the annual CAS Conference we’ll take the time to review what has worked well, learn from the mistakes and hear from lots of teachers who have developed wonderful resources which are being well received by their classes.

The conference will have its usual mix of plenary sessions, over 40 different workshops, the opportunity to network and take home practical examples of lessons and other resources that you can use in your classroom.

"I learnt more and connected with more interesting people than on any course that my school has previously forked out hundreds of pounds for" Cost: £36

To register visit bit.ly/1JQNA3g

Computing At School was born out of our excitement with the discipline, combined with a serious concern that students are being turned off computing by a combination of factors.

SWITCHEDON is published each term. We welcome comments, suggestions and items for inclusion in future issues. Our goal is to put the fun back into computing at school. Will you help us? Send contributions to newsletter@computingatschool.org.uk Many thanks to the following for help and information in this issue: Lisa Bagnall, Irene Bell, Paul Browning, Paul Curzon, Claire Davenport, Ben Davies, Roger Davies, Tim Eaglestone, Lorna Elkes, Clifford French, Sue Gray, Graham Hastings, Lyndsay Hope, Toby Howard, Simon Humphreys, Catriona Lambeth, Margaret Low, Peter Millican, Faron Moller, Kevin Moore, Liam Nicholson, Bruce Nightingale, John Palmer, Nicky Pasternak, Siobhan Ramsey, Kim Sayers, Andrew Shields, Carl Simmons, Rachel Spiers, John Stout, Chris Swan, Yvonne Walker and Dave White

www.computingatschool.org.uk