New Computing Curriculum – An Introduction

1. New Computing Curriculum – An Introduction Newbury Park Primary Inset 27/1/14 Mr Azzopardi

2. Aims • To have a clear understanding of the new curriculum. • To become familiar with the scheme of work for KS2. • To understand what programming concepts we are teaching. • To learn some teaching strategies to help with teaching and planning.

3. The new Computing curriculum (KS2) • 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 • use logical reasoning to explain how some simple algorithms work and to detect and correct errors in algorithms and programs • understand computer networks including the internet; how they can provide multiple services, such as the world wide web; and the opportunities they offer for communication and collaboration • use search technologies effectively, appreciate how results are selected and ranked, and be discerning in evaluating digital content • select, use and combine a variety of software (including internet services) on a range of digital devices to design and create a range of programs, systems and content that accomplish given goals, including collecting, analysing, evaluating and presenting data and information • use technology safely, respectfully and responsibly; recognise acceptable/unacceptable behaviour; identify a range of ways to report concerns about content and contact.

4. Breaking it down • Computer Science – How computers work (Programming and designing software) • ICT – Using computer software/multimedia/ internet • E-safety – Being safe and responsible with our technologies

5. Our scheme of work for KS2 (Sept 2014)

6. Programming Instructions – Progression through KS2 • Year 3 – FOREVER LOOPS, IF<TOUCHING>, WAIT, STOP, SCORE VARIABLE, TIMER • Year 4 – PICK RANDOM, GO TO, FOREVER IF, MULTIPLE IF STATEMENTS, REPEAT UNTIL, IF THEN, WAIT UNTIL • Year 5 – USING VARIABLES, REPEAT UNTIL, IF ELSE, NESTED IF, BROADCAST/RECEIVE, ASK/ANSWER • Year 6 – Python Programming with Variables, Calculations, Random Numbers, Selections (If, Elif, Else), Iteration (For, While), Lists

7. The programming model

8. In a nutshell, we are teaching children the following programming at KS2: • Repetition/Loops (Iteration) • Selection (Making decisions) • Using Variables (unknown values) • Writing sequenced instructions (the code) • Calling Procedures (Instructions sending messages to other instructions) • Handling Input/Output • Teaching the children to design their programs using flowcharts/algorithms • Computational Thinking (breaking down a problem)

9. Iteration • Repeating parts of your program. Can be infinite number of times, set amount of times or when a condition is true.

10. Selection • Putting decision logic into your program with IF commands

11. Variables • Used as input • Used as part of a calculation FIRST ANSWER 10 SECOND ANSWER 5 MY OUTPUT 15

12. Calling procedures • A sprite can send/receive messages from other parts of the program. This is an important part of writing bigger programs where we reuse code and save writing it out many times.

13. So what will a good Computer Science lesson contain? Some/all of: • Purpose and link to the real world. • Good use of technical vocab/instruction words. • Good interaction/mini plenaries/scaffolding. • Designing code (flowcharts). • A problem to solve (can it be broken down further?). • Testing/Debugging code. • Predicting outcomes of code. • Editing and improving existing code. • Good resources – not just copying code. • Extension opportunities (infinite possibilities). • Differentiation for LA – An achievable task. • (See lesson 2 of Python unit).

14. Teaching strategies – Show a working program and identify the events/instructions • The shark moves towards the mouse • If shark touches the small fish: • change animation to bite • add 1 to score variable • hide small fish for 2 seconds • show fish randomly on the screen. • Repeat until score is 10 • (There is Octopus code also)

15. Teaching strategies – Predict the output • Show a working program and predict the output i.e. what will happen.

16. Teaching strategies – Show a program with errors (debugging) • Including children’s programs that don’t work. print("Let's see how long you have lived in days, minutes and seconds.) name = input("name: ") print("now enter your age") age = int(input("age: ") days = age * 365 minutes = aged * 525948 seconds = age * 31556926 print(name, "has been alive for",days, "days" minutes "minutes and",secands, "seconds! Wow!")

17. Teaching strategies – Use the children in a human instruction sequence

18. Teaching strategies – Shared programming • As you would when modelling shared writing, talk the children though how you can build up a simple program to accomplish a task. • e.g. I want this program to go on forever, what block would I use? (Forever). Now I want it to ask for an input. It’s a blue block. (Ask) • Use Windows Key + to zoom in to show subset of blocks to choose from.

19. Teaching strategies - Edit and improve an existing program

20. Teaching strategies – Flowchart algorithms

21. Teaching strategies – Line by line • Let children go through a program line by line and explain what is happening. • (Ball code)

22. Teaching strategies – Whiteboards to write code • Once children have structure of a program with a flowchart, they can use whiteboards to write code down first. This helps move away from copying sheets and develops their thinking.

23. Teaching strategies - Give a problem to solve from scratch • Once the children get confident with the language, they can write their own programs. • E.g. • Make a Rock, Paper, Scissors style game. • Make 2 runners race from one end of the screen to the other by tapping the keys. • Make a maths quiz where it asks you random operator questions. • Children will have to design, write the algorithms, think about inputs, outputs and variables.

24. Assessment • There are levelled assessment targets which can be found in the CAS guidelines. (Generic but will do for now). • We will continue to do levelled assessment to show progress and attainment across the school.

25. Cross Curricular opportunities • Maths – Design all sorts of maths games. • PE – In a dance unit, take photos of the dance steps and have them animate on the screen in the correct sequence. • Geography – Create an interactive quiz with the countries of the world. • Science – Group things into living/non-living • Literacy – See next slide

26. Literacy from Scratch • http://www.literacyfromscratch.org.uk/

27. Long term aims • Teachers become confident in planning, teaching and assessment of Computing. • Children enjoy and make excellent progress in Computing (which has a knock on affect in Maths, Science, DT etc.) • Develop more Cross Curricular Computing. • Keep at the forefront of Computer Science technologies: Web programming, Apps, Robotics, 3D games

28. Next steps • Every year group has at least 2 Computer Science programming units. • One unit has been taught already this year (These plans will need adapting based on this inset. To be updated ready for Sept 2014). Gap Task: • Look at the programs for your new programming unit and start to plan how children can learn these programs (to be taught in the summer term). • I will assist where necessary. New unit to be planned by Easter Holidays so I can review (6 lessons).