Free, inspiring computing-themed resources for teachers, home educators and children of primary and secondary school ages. Find out about computer science concepts and real computing research in a fun way. Resources created by Paul Curzon, Peter McOwan, Jo Brodie and others from Queen Mary University of London.
Free, inspiring computing-themed resources for teachers, home educators and children of primary and secondary school ages. Find out about computer science concepts and real computing research in a fun way. Resources created by Paul Curzon, Peter McOwan, Jo Brodie and others from Queen Mary University of London.
Contents
• 3 A5 magazines (PDF)
• Accompanying information file with links
A Bit of CS4FN from Computer Science For Fun is our mini A5 magazine for 8-12 year olds, all about computer science. Each booklet is 12 pages and has stories and puzzles as well as suggested classroom activities or discussion points.
We talk about computer science in a fun and engaging way, using examples and metaphors from everyday life that young people are familiar with (or which don’t take much explanation). The magazines are packed with ways of linking to different subjects (we know primary computing teachers typically teach the entire curriculum so our magazines are interdisciplinary). You could sneak in a bit of computing if you’re teaching a history class about the Romans^ (mosaics as pixels… see page 7 of issue 1, or get your class to design their own pixellated icon, see pages 2 and 3 of issue 3) or perhaps the Tudors (see pages 2 and 3 of issue 2 to find out about Francis Bacon and encoding secret messages, like binary). Can your class make a robot dance with Scratch? (pages 10-11 of Issue 2 might help).
Teachers have told us that they use the mini-mag in class to introduce computing topics and leave a physical copy in their classroom reading box as an example of non-fiction literature. Find out how you can get free physical copies of the next issue(s) for your classroom or library below.
^ You could also sneak in a bit of Roman history if you’re teaching a computing class about pixels of course :)
What’s in the bundle?
This pack contains, in zipped form, the first three issues of the magazine. You can also download each magazine individually from our website (please see the accompanying info file for the link). All of our free material, including the A4 CS4FN magazine for secondary school-aged pupils and their teachers, can be downloaded from our CS4FN downloads site. Please see the accompanying info file for the link.
Get free physical copies for your classroom
UK-based teachers and home educators are welcome to sign up to receive future issues of the ‘A Bit of CS4FN’ magazine. Please see the accompanying info file for the link. If you’re outside the UK please help yourself to our free online versions.
More free stuff
Our CS4FN ‘shop’ (everything is £0) on TES
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/JoBrodieCS4FN
*CS4FN is supported through EPSRC Research Grant EP/W033615/1. *
Contents
• A copy of the printable zine (PDF) in A4 and US letter size
• An info file containing a link to more information.
This is a free A4 printable colouring in puzzle sheet (I found it folded beautifully if the PDF printed ‘Actual Size’ but you can adjust the final size in the printer settings). Kids can colour it in, do the puzzles then and fold the sheet into an 8-page mini-zine booklet. The puzzles can also be used to teach about computing concepts and there are links to teacher notes here, as well as links to even more free puzzles and activities. Merry Christmas from CS4FN.
Please see the info file for the link.
There is also a US letter size PDF on that page to download, based on a resized template, however I’m not able to check if it works well (folds correctly) as I don’t have a US printer!
More free stuff
Our CS4FN ‘shop’ (everything is £0) on TES
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/JoBrodieCS4FN
CS4FN is supported through EPSRC Research Grant EP/W033615/1.