To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Arecibo Message (transmitted by radio wave from the telescope at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico on 16th November 2024) the CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun) project from Queen Mary University of London have put together some classroom activities with a computer science twist. We hope your class enjoy them. Solutions, accompanying teachers’ notes and other information can be found at the link in the accompanying material (all free). Contents (PDFs, zipped) 0. Arecibo Message at 50 - information A copy of this text. 1. Arecibo Pixel Puzzle – planets and telescope Follow the colour key or choose your own colours (you’ll need 3 different ones) and colour in the picture. If you’re using the suggested colours, colour all the 0s as black, all the 3s as yellow and all the 6s as purple. 2. Arecibo Message – quiz A more general science quiz about the contents of the message. 3. Reach for the stars The Arecibo Message was sent by a very high frequency radio wave, inaudible to human ears. Try your hand at decoding a human-audible version of part of the message - you’ll need to access the sound files at the link above. 4. Compression Run Length Encoding Using frequency / data pairs your class will recreate a portion of the Arecibo Message in colour, then encode the same portion in binary. Your class can recreate the image on squared paper or use the Excel sheet included. CS4FN is funded by the EPSRC; this particular project was supported by the Centre for Public Engagement at QMUL. 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.

What does a Computer Scientist look like? Great computer scientists can be female or male, of any colour, nationality or religion. They can be disabled, neurodiverse, LGBTQ+ … Look back through history and you will find every kind of person doing what we now call computer science! What does a future great computer scientist look like? Just like you. Download our posters about them and read their stories to see how they each changed the world. If you want to be a computer scientist and make a difference you can!. Our posters in this series are by illustrator (and computer scientist) Richard Butterworth. What’s in the pack? A copy of the posters in PDF and PowerPoint (.pptx) form. An info sheet with information about the people in the posters plus a link to a page on our CS4FN website where you can find out more about them. 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.

If you are reading this before Monday 19th August and are in London you might like to know about these Magic of Computer Science workshops taking place at the Royal Institution, part of their Holiday Workshops series. These ones are run by Paul Curzon, the co-author of these booklets. Links in the accompanying file. • Ages 7-8, Tuesday 13 August, 11am to 1.15pm • Ages 9-11, Tuesday 13 August, 2.15-4.30pm • Ages 7-8, Monday 19 August, 11am to 1.15pm • Ages 9-11, Monday 19 August, 2.15-4.30pm Three free PDF booklets in one handy zipped file. Each packed with magic tricks that kids can do for fun and which illustrate some computer science concepts and topics too. For teachers we have a set of classroom activities relating to magic and computing and a suite of books on magic and maths, plus another TES magic resource. More details in the accompanying info file. 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.

About the booklet This is the second in a series of computer-science themed puzzle booklets for primary-aged children (see the first here). Each of the 12 puzzles introduces a different computing concept and requires a variety of skills to solve them that computer scientists also use in their work. Young puzzlers will need to use their logical thinking to complete the quests and practise their attention to detail. Once each puzzle has been completed or attempted there is a circle on the page to tick to track progress (see accompanying information for how to get free certificates to print). You might also like our other puzzle booklet “Computational Thinking Puzzles (from Computer Science For Fun)” https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12791989 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.

About the booklet This is the first in a series of puzzle booklets for primary-aged children. Each of the 12 puzzles introduces a different computing concept and requires a variety of skills to solve them that computer scientists also use in their work. Young puzzlers will need to use their logical thinking to complete the sudoku-style and the kriss-kross word puzzles and practise their attention to detail for the spot the difference puzzles. Once each puzzle has been completed or attempted there is a circle on the page to tick to track progress (see accompanying information for how to get free certificates to print). You might also like our other puzzle booklet “Computational Thinking Puzzles (from Computer Science For Fun)” https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12791989 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.

If you’re reading this before Friday 16th August 2024 and in London the co-author of this booklet (Prof Paul Curzon, QMUL) is running some workshops on AI at the Royal Institution for kids age 7-8 and 9-11. • Ages 7-8, Friday 16 August, 11am to 1.15pm • Ages 9-11, Friday 16 August, 2.15-4.30pm • • • • • Artificial Intelligence… but where is the intelligence? • • • • • • We all know the movie plots where evil robots and computers take over the world, but what is the reality? This booklet explores artificial intelligence, the field of science that tries to build ‘thinking machines’. How are they built? Are they really intelligent? And what is intelligence anyway? We will also ask some interesting questions about a well-known ‘thinking machine’, you! There are some games you can play in your classroom, including building a working brain out of rope, tubes and your students, then playing snap with it. The booklet also contains The Intelligent Piece of Paper which will probably beat you at noughts and crosses… This 48 page booklet was created in 2008 for a workshop on artificial intelligence. Come along to one of the livestream events (see above) for a series of talks on current research in AI. Games to play and activities to do • The Intelligent Piece of Paper - can you beat it at noughts and crosses? Do you think it has intelligence? (see pages 13 and 14) • Hexapawn - a miniature version of chess, using noughts and crosses pieces - teach a ‘computer’ to play it with sweets (see pages 19 to 23) • Build A Brain to play snap - you can build a working model of a (very simple) brain with loo rolls, ropes and kids or with beads, string and hands (see pages 30-33) • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 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.

Available for A4 or US letter size printers Print, cut and assemble (no glue needed) a paper pumpkin with windows cut out to display the different eyes and mouths on paper strips which slot in and move freely. Just a fun toy for younger kids but older kids can learn about the linked computer science and find out about real computing research. Desk-based: The basic version can be done on a table / desk and just requires printer paper and scissors (black pen optional). Jam jar-based: Another version can be taped to a jam jar and illuminated with a battery-operated LED tea light for extra Hallowe’en spookiness. Each pack (A4 or US Letter size) contains both the desk and jam jar pumpkins along with an activity sheet which contains assembly instructions, suggested activities, instructions for ‘programming’ the pumpkin and code tables to fill in, suggestions for classroom discussion and links to computer science research. The pack also contains a file with additional links. 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. Image credits: main pumpkin image (https://pixabay.com/vectors/pumpkin-winter-squash-fruits-23479/) and expressions (https://pixabay.com/vectors/pumpkins-grimaces-halloween-fall-1777667/).

A pack of posters (vibrant or muted) for your classroom wall, which celebrate the work of Black computer scientists, and a copy of the latest issue of CS4FN on Diversity in Computing. All free. Pack contents 01 CS4FN issue 29 - Diversity in Computing (PDF) 02 Black Computer Scientists - Black History Month - vibrant palette (PDF) 03 Diversity in Computing - full set - muted palette (PDF) 04 Accompanying information BHM (PDF) - info with links 01 CS4FN issue 29 - Diversity in Computing - MAGAZINE The latest (29th) issue of the CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun) magazine is all about Diversity in Computing, with a focus on Black computer scientists. *Please see “04 Accompanying information BHM” for the link to download all our previous issues. * Around 21,000 print copies of each issue of the CS4FN magazine are sent (free) to subscribing UK schools (including home educators). *Please see “04 Accompanying information BHM” for the link to sign up to receive a copy or class set of the next issue. * 02 Black Computer Scientists - Black History Month - vibrant - POSTERS This is a set of posters for you to print featuring a Black computer scientist and some information about them. The vibrant palette is designed to be eye-catching and is ideal for celebrating them and their work during Black History Month. Vibrant posters feature: Safiya Umoja Noble, Juliana Rotich, Dorcas Muthoni, Annie Easley, Evelyn Boyd Granville, Katherine Johnson, Gladys West, Anne-Marie Imafidon, Segun Fatumo, Abdigani Diriye and John Henry Thompson. Our Black History in computing page has vignettes / profiles and links to blog posts about each of the people mentioned (and others). *Please see “04 Accompanying information BHM” for the link. * 03 Diversity in Computing - full set - muted palette - POSTERS For other times of the year it can be helpful to normalise the variety of people who do computer science, without giving weight to any particular demographic. This set of posters contains a fuller range (age, gender, sexuality etc) of different computer scientists. (If you prefer the muted palette for Black History Month you can select just the Black computer scientists for printing, using the information listed in 02). 04 Accompanying information BHM A copy of the information here but with clickable links. 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 • 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 • Chapter 51 - The Sixth Finger: Virtual Reality & Robotic Limbs (PDF) • Chapter 52 - Magically Winning by Symmetry: Invariants and Loops (PDF) • Accompanying information Conjuring w Computation (PDF) - links Find out how magic tricks can be a fun way to learn about computer science concepts. Here are two FREE sample chapters to download which come from a new book, Conjuring with Computation, by Paul Curzon and Peter McOwan (who died in 2019). We have lots of other FREE ‘Magic of Computer Science’ booklets to download. *Please see the Accompanying information file for the link. * About the book Conjuring with Computation is an introduction to both magic and computer science, exploring the way magic is a form of computation. Each of the 50 chapters describes how to do a simple magic trick and then uses it as the basis to explain some core computer science. Topics covered include the basics of algorithms and data representation, computational thinking, human computer interaction and cyber security, as well as some ways technology are directly used as magic tricks. Authors, Paul Curzon and the late Peter W McOwan, both Professors of Computer Science are behind the Computer Science for Fun (CS4FN) and Teaching London Computing projects and have been giving Magic of Computer Science workshops^ to school children for almost 20 years. Please see the Accompanying information file for the link. About the chapters A) Bonus Chapter 51 The Sixth Finger Virtual Reality and Robotic Limbs Conjuring: You show volunteers that they have an invisible sixth finger that they were not aware of. Even though they cannot see it, they can feel it. Computation: Robotic body augmentation research involves exploring how to give people robotic limbs to increase their abilities. • Download as a PDF from TES or view online Please see the Accompanying information file for the link. B) Bonus Chapter 52 Magically Winning by Symmetry Invariants and Loops Conjuring: You play a coin game you can’t lose, powered by symmetry and by a magicians trick. Computation: To be sure that algorithms containing loops work, computer scientists think about invariants: the things that do not change as a the steps of the algorithm are followed. • Download as a PDF from TES or view online Please see the Accompanying information file for the link. 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 • Issue 29 - Diversity in Computing (PDF) - the magazine • Accompanying information Diversity in Computing magazine (PDF) - links The 29th issue of the CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun) magazine is all about Diversity in Computing, with a focus on Black computer scientists. A copy is attached. Please see the accompanying information file for the link to download our previous issues, free. CS4FN is a magazine and blog from the Computer Science department at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). We share information about computer science research in an engaging way and produce a 20 page A4 magazine every year, usually on a themed topic. There’s an accompanying page on our blog with additional articles, all free to use in classrooms or for general interest reading. The blog and magazine articles are aimed at 13+ and we also have mini magazines (‘A Bit of CS4FN’) for younger readers (download from the link above). Around 21,000 print copies of the CS4FN magazine are sent (free) to subscribing UK schools (including homeschoolers). You can sign up to receive a copy or class set of the next issue - please see the accompanying information file for the link. You can read the latest CS4FN online too (please see the accompanying information file for the link): It’s got… (deep breath)… Kimberly Bryant, Gokop Goteng & Hadeel Alrubayyi, bias in facial recognition (wrong man arrested), Joy Buolamwini & Timnit Gebru’s gender shades audit, Mark Dean (the first African American to receive IBM’s highest honour), Johanna Lucht, Clarence Ellis, Freddie Figgers, Satoshi Tajiri, Al-Jazari, machine-readable passports can discriminate against Indigenous people’s names in Canada (and elsewhere), Sadiqah Musa & Devina Nembhard, Christopher Strachey and Sameena Shah. We also have a larger Diversity portal with sections for LGBTQ+, Jewish, Women and Disabled computer scientists. Please see the accompanying information file for the link. 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.

A set of ten colourful posters celebrating women in computing, for printing. Each poster also has a suggested activity for the class to do together, to find out more about the person. Ideal for International Women’s Day. We also have a diverse range of computer scientists on posters with a more muted colour palette, for background, with some information about the people on the posters. Please see the file called ‘Accompanying information’ for the link. These posters were created by Jane Waite. We also have a section (‘portal’) on our website with stories about individual women in computing, and their history. Please see the file called ‘Accompanying information’ for the link. Here are some posters from other organisations which you might also like. Please see the file called ‘Accompanying information’ for the link. • Posters from Ada Lovelace Day including ‘The Amazingly Enormous STEM Careers Poster’, ‘Ten Types of Technologist poster’ and an Ada Lovelace poster. • A Mighty Girl – ‘Free Posters Celebrating Women Role Models in Science, Technology, and Math’. They also have copies of the posters in different languages. • Isabel Wagner’s series of 35 posters celebrating inspiring computer scientists 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 • Computational Thinking Puzzles booklet (PDF) • Accompanying information Computational Thinking Puzzles (PDF) - with all the links FREE: A PDF printable booklet filled with puzzles that are fun to do and can also be used to teach about computer science / computational thinking. Don’t forget to download the Solutions book too (please see the accompanying information file for the link). For home educators: if you don’t have a printer we have lots of activities that can be done online too. Please see the accompanying information file for the links. All of our free computing material can be downloaded, including CS4FN magazines and our magic and maths booklets. Please see the accompanying information file for the link. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • CS4FN / Computer Science For Fun is a schools outreach project from the Computer Science department at Queen Mary University of London (School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, EECS). There’s a blog (1), a free print magazine for subscribing UK schools (2) and free downloads for everyone (3). Our sister project, Teaching London Computing, has lots of free classroom resources (4) for teachers too, with a big focus on interdisciplinary material (5) - you might sneak some English into your Computer Science lesson, or sneak some Computer Science into your English lesson :-) (1) - (5): Please see the accompanying information file for the links. 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.

A fun, printable item which can be coloured in (or print the pre-coloured version to save time). Fold the flexagon, and flex to find all the hidden faces. You can use this as just a fun ‘toy’ (or a stocking filler) or as a learning tool. This is a Christmas-themed hexahexaflexagon in which Father Christmas is trying to find his missing presents. A hexahexaflexagon is a six sided shape (hexagon) which also has six faces in total (hexa-hexa) and which can flex and fold to show a new face (flexagon). They are fun to make and play with but can also be used to learn some computational thinking. To get to each face or side you may need to follow a variety of paths, you can’t always get to every face from every other face. The sides you can reach depend on the sides you currently have visible – it’s a ‘finite state machine’ and you can create a map to describe how you navigate around your hexahexaflexagon. We definitely recommend this as an end-of-term classroom activity for Christmas. The zipped file pack contains PDFs of a coloured-in and a black and white flexagon to print, plus instructions. There is also an accompanying ‘HHF links.pdf’ file which contains further information and resources including a full set of files (with options to design your own using SVG / PNG files), a blog post (part of our CS4FN ‘Advent Calendar’) and links to our teachers’ page on HexaHexaFlexagon Automata and a free booklet to download. 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.