This resource introduces pupils to the uses of 1D barcodes and 2D barcodes (Quick response or QR codes). Pupils are asked to research the 2 types of barcodes, their advantages and disadvantages. They are then directed to websites to create their own 1D and 2D barcodes. The tasks in the resource could be used in...

This Barefoot Computing activity for upper primary goes deeper into the concept of algorithms, using logical reasoning and debugging to find errors and to improve accuracy and efficiency. By following instructions, children create diagrams constructed from simple shapes. They are asked to identify errors in the...

This resource contains a series of interactive spreadsheets designed to demonstrate various teaching points and to provide practice in 2D and 3D shapes and their properties at primary level. They are:

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This is a very comprehensive introduction to functional programming concepts using Python 2 from Mary Rose Cook’s blog. Students can work through the activities, using a language of their choice, to learn a wide range of techniques including using...

In this activity, part of a group of Python inspired resources,  students will learn how to write a Python program telling people all about you.

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This short activity for primary school computing uses art to introduce the concept of abstraction. During a ‘guess what’ game the children are asked to represent a word on a card using drawing or modelling – in doing so they unconsciously concentrate on just the most important aspects of the idea they are...

This booklet contains a number of very briefly described algorithms, which students are then expected to analyse, develop an algorithm for and then implement in a language of their choice. Each section contains success descriptors at three different levels which could be adapted to meet the requirements of an...

Machine learning is a system where rather than a computer programmer deciding the best way to sort, organise, classify or use information, the computer program develops its own set of instructions (algorithm) based on information that users feed it.  Scientists at the...

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

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

This cross-curricular computing / ICT activity helps children to understand decomposition. They choose a poem and create an animation using Scratch; this encourages them to think deeply about the poem, and to explore the tools available. Children break the poem into pieces (decomposition), then plan the animation...

This activity is designed to assess whether or not children understand that although computers can sometimes look clever, they do not actually display any intelligence. They are asked to compare a computer with a human and then describe how both the computer and the human cope with the unexpected.

Theresa...

This activity introduces the idea of remote sensing and some of the difficulties of obtaining images from orbit by asking students to match photographs taken from the ground with early astronaut photographs.

This longer-duration activity involves prototyping a low-power lighting system. It could be used in an off-timetable workshop or across a series of lessons.

Students are challenged to work through the whole design process, and to place a micro-controller (in this case a BBC micro:bit) at the centre of the...

In this resource learners will use Scratch, to debug and then improve a program to move Autosub6000 around the ocean floor, photographing samples found.   The remote movement will be controlled through a keyboard’s arrow keys initially and then the children will be challenged to create a program which will move...