Newsletter - Summer 2011 (Issue 5)
|Download this issue
||The CAS newsletter "SWITCHED ON" is published once a term (approx.) and is made freely available for download from here. 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 all contributions to email@example.com
Links to further resources and information covered in this issue:
COMPUTING TEACHERS SPOILT FOR CHOICE?
Links to the transcript of the discussion between the developers of Scratch, Alice and Greenfoot, and the papers that provide background research can be found in Michael Kollings blog here: http://blogs.kent.ac.uk/mik/2010/12/01/scratch-alice-greenfoot/ Graphic courtesy of Michael Michael Kolling.
PROMOTING COMPUTATIONAL THINKING: IT’S GOOD TO TALK
Alice is a 3D graphical environment developed at Carnegie Mellon University. The software is free to download. See http://alice.org/ for download details and more information. The wonderful CSInside activities referred to can be found at http://csi.dcs.gla.ac.uk/ You will need to register (free) to download the resources.
CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING AT KS3: CAS AT BETT
To accompany our seminar at BETT, CAS produced a CD of supporting resources. This very large download is available from the documents section here: http://www.computingatschool.org.uk/index.php?id=documents
MODELS, SIMULATIONS AND DYNAMIC SYSTEMS
StarLogoTNG can be downloaded free from http://education.mit.edu/projects/starlogo-tng There is a wealth of supporting projects and tutorials on the website. We have taken one of these, to model the spread of an epidemic, and prepared a series of resources for teachers. These can be downloaded using this link: http://computingatschool.org.uk/data/uploads/epidemic.pdf
MATHEMATICAL PRINCIPLES BEHIND COMPUTER SECURITY
This wonderful book can be found at: http://www.cs.bris.ac.uk/home/page/teaching/wics.html The authors would love to have feedback from teachers. They are keen to improve the material, and also to pursue any opportunities for outreach more generally. Please contact Daniel Page on firstname.lastname@example.org
USING SCRATCH AND ROBOMIND TO NAVIGATE HAMPTON COURT
The wall following procedure used in Robomind is shown below. Check it against the picture of the robot in action.
If there is a wall to my right
Then if front is clear
Then move forward
Else turn left
Else turn right and move forward one square
Further information about the activities of The Digital Schoolhouse can be found on their website; http://www.digitalschoolhouse.org.uk/home You can also subscribe to an e-mail newsletter. We hope to be able to make the training materials used in Mark Dorling’s Brunel lectures available for a future edition.
STEPPING UP TO THE CHALLENGE OF TEXT BASED PROGRAMMING
Small Basic can be downloaded free from http://smallbasic.com/ Further resources mentioned in the article can be found at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/ff3 and http://smallbasic.com/program/?SORTVIZ
PROGRAMMING SESSIONS FOR TRAINEE TEACHERS
The microsite with further details about these sessions at Anglia Ruskin University will be up shortly. In the meantime, for further details please contact email@example.com
GOOGLES LESSONS IN COMPUTATIONAL THOUGHT
The resources mentioned can be found here: http://www.google.com/edu/computational-thinking/getting-started.html The material can be searched by subject or age and all code listings and supporting activities can be freely downloaded.
CAS WORKSHOPS FOR TEACHING ‘A’ LEVEL
Details of the topics covered and resources used on the day can be found on the Vital site here: http://www.vital.ac.uk/community/course/view.php?id=2703 You will need to register (free) with Vital to view the resources.
ADVANCED LEVEL EXPLORATIONS IN ROUTE FINDING WITH GRAPHS
This article is based on the content of an Educational Computing Services Ltd course on teaching AQA A Level Computing and preparing candidates for COMP4 project work. Further details about their services can be found on their website http://www.educational-computing.co.uk/
STUDENTS INSPIRED BY APPS FOR GOOD INITIATIVE
For more details about the initiative please contact Iris through firstname.lastname@example.org .
More news about their upcoming plans can be found on their website: http://appsforgood.org/ and that of the supporting charity http://cdieurope.eu/ as well as twitter http://twitter.com/AppsForGoodCDI
Details of other support and the awards mentioned can be found here:
CODING A BETTER COUNTRY WITH YOUNG REWIRED STATE
For more information about Rewired State see http://rewiredstate.org The details of their Young Rewired State events can be found here: http://youngrewiredstate.org/
JUDGING GETS UNDERWAY FOR ANIMATION 11
The Animation 11 festival is already fully booked but you can see the details of the planned events here: http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/animation11/festival/
TECHNICAL COMPUTING DAYS PROVE A BIG HIT WITH PUPILS
Computer System Technology Days are held twice a year at UWE, in January and June. For further information and contact details see http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/et/csct/aboutthedepartment/outreachandpublicengagement/wideningaccess.aspx
WORKSHOPS ORGANISED BY UNIVERSITY OF SURREY
Web Mashups Workshops are planned for Year 12 on Thursday 30th June and Year 11on Wednesday 13th July. The workshops will offer hands-on experience of creating applications using Google Maps, and an appreciation of creating readily shareable photo albums. The approaches involved can be extended to the use of applications such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and so on. For more information or to book places please contact Kathryn Harkup
(email@example.com). You can also register through eventbrite http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1437169613 (Year12) and http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1489207259 (Year 11)
TEENTECH INNOVATORS AND OTHER BCS EVENTS
Two further TeenTech Innovator days are planned for Kent (in September) and Humberside (in July). For further details see http://www.teentechevent.com/?p=263
CAS RESPONDS TO GOVERNMENT CALLS FOR CONSULTATION
The full text of our submission to the National Curriculum consultation can be found on the documents page of this website, as can the evidence submitted by CAS to the Royal Society. http://www.computingatschool.org.uk/index.php?id=documents
STEPPING UP A GEAR: ROUNDUP OF RECENT CAS ACTIVITIES
NESTA’s Next Gen. report can be downloaded from http://www.nesta.org.uk/home1/assets/features/next_gen
Details of hub meetings can be found on the events page of this website.
PLANS IN PLACE FOR CAS SUMMER SCHOOL
Further details of the CAS Summer School can be found http://cassummerschool.eventbrite.com
SHARING IDEAS AND PRACTICE THROUGH VITAL TEACHSHARES
Two further successful teachshares have taken place since this article was written. Keep an eye out for announcements of more sessions via the CAS Google Group.
Further details of the Little Man Computer simulator (as featured in the picture) which is recommended for GCSE Computing by OCR can be found here: http://www.atkinson.yorku.ca/~sychen/research/LMC/LMCHome.html
The BYOB software mentioned from an earlier Teachshare can be downloaded from http://byob.berkeley.edu/
INTRODUCTION TO JAVA PROGRAMMING COURSE
As soon as the details of the next Java course are finalised we will post them in the events section of the website..
MORE DEVELOPMENTS PLANNED BY VITAL
Vital’s subject portals can be accessed via http://www.vital.ac.uk/community/course/view.php?id=2796 For more details about using Vital courses for Masters credits see http://www.vital.ac.uk/community/course/category.php?id=163 Teachmeets currently planned can be found here: http://vital.ac.uk/content/events/2011-05
FACING UP TO FACES: CS4FN AT ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE LIVE!
The Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition will take place between 5 and 10 July. Further information about this wonderful, free event can be found on their website: http://royalsociety.org/summer-science/2011/
The current and past issues of CS$FN can be downloaded from their website: http://www.cs4fn.org/ Use the link on the left to order copies of future editions.
A PAUSE FOR THOUGHT
For a solution to the missionaries and cannibals problem and to play the game see: http://www.novelgames.com/gametips/details.php?id=29
COMPUTING – THE NEXT GENERATION
Finally, don’t forget to register for the Third CAS Annual Teacher Conference. Bookings can be made here: http://casconf2011.eventbrite.com
Like what you have read? Join us in helping shape the future. Please contact CAS through firstname.lastname@example.org