A place to share some of the resources I have made for Computer Science and Maths. Primarily focused on assessment and curriculum resources for GCSE Computer Science where I feel there is a shortage of good quality material available.
A place to share some of the resources I have made for Computer Science and Maths. Primarily focused on assessment and curriculum resources for GCSE Computer Science where I feel there is a shortage of good quality material available.
This is a collection of module quizzes covering key content that is assessed in paper 2 of the new specification GCSE. I will be using these as a final push for my current year 11s in the run up to the final exam. They are specifically designed for AQA 8520 spec, but content is also suitable for OCR and other boards.
In total there are 5 double page module quizzes, along with answers to each. The key topics are: Data Representation, Computer System (hardware/software), Networks, Binary Shifts/Arithmetic and Ethical, legal and Environmental impact.
There are questions covering the vast majority of the specification, but these are in no way intended to be exhaustive.
The question style features exam style questions, along with question types designed to prompt recall and understanding.
Full answers are provided for each quiz.
Note: These module quizzes can be obtained individually, or as a complete package, in my TES shop. If you have already purchased any module quizzes, or if you want topics spanning both paper 1 and 2, it may be better to buy the others instead.
Hope these help.
Thanks,
Toby Watkins
This Enhanced Learning Worksheet focuses on Boolean Logic, with questions on logic gates, logic circuits, sorting algorithms and searching algorithms.
These new Enhanced Learning Worksheet are designed to give students more opportunity to consolidate and extend their understanding of all the key topics in GCSE Computer Science. They feature a series of scaffolded questions, followed by a page of extend / challenge questions where the scaffold has been removed and/or the difficulty level ramped up.
I developed these worksheets not to be another test, quiz or assessment (please see my module quizzes if you are interested in this), but instead are platforms for students to practice key skills during lessons. As such, answers are provided but not individual mark allocation. I will be using these worksheets 3 times each in the delivery of my AQA Computer Science course - first as an in-lesson worksheet, second as a spaced retrieval task a month or two later and finally as an end of year 11 revision resource.
This Enhanced Learning Worksheet focuses on understanding the binary and hexadecimal number systems, as well as converting between binary, denary and hexadecimal.
NOTE: A free version of my Computational Thinking Enhanced Learning Worksheet is available if you would like to see the structure or how your classes get on with them first.
These new Enhanced Learning Worksheet are designed to give students more opportunity to consolidate and extend their understanding of all the key topics in GCSE Computer Science. They feature a series of scaffolded questions, followed by a page of extend / challenge questions where the scaffold has been removed and/or the difficulty level ramped up.
I developed these worksheets not to be another test, quiz or assessment (please see my module quizzes if you are interested in this), but instead are platforms for students to practice key skills during lessons. As such, answers are provided but not individual mark allocation. I will be using these worksheets 3 times each in the delivery of my AQA Computer Science course - first as an in-lesson worksheet, second as a spaced retrieval task a month or two later and finally as an end of year 11 revision resource.
A knowledge organiser for the GCSE Computer Science topic of networks. Each organiser contains key words, key skills and key knowledge. These are great for student revision, or as teaching aids for staff to be aware of the breadth of the module.
Thanks,
Toby Watkins
This bundle contains paper 1 and paper 2 of my painstakingly created custom exam papers for GCSE Computer Science.
Both come with an exam board level mark scheme to ensure accurate assessment.
Designed in the style and proportions of the AQA 8520 Spec but also suitable for OCR and other boards.
Also contains a mock NEA assessment which is useful for developing programming skills and which I use to get a full picture of a student's current understanding of the syllabus.
This is a spreadsheet to be used for question level analysis of my custom GCSE Computer Science Paper (also available on TES).
The Spreadsheet allows entry of marks for each question, and will automatically fill in personalised student reports containing question by question feedback, along with grade and percentage in each paper.
I have password protected the sheet to prevent changes as the intended use is for this exam series.
If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.
This bundle contains 3 assessments.
The first is an early assessment, designed to be used part way though year 10 covering early learning only.
The second is an end of year 10 assessment covering most main topics.
The third is a full AQA exam board style exam covering the same proportions and assessment points as the formal examinations.
All come complete with mark scheme, with the full exam being an exam board level scheme.
Thanks,
Toby Watkins
This is a module summary quiz on the topic of Networks and cyber security. Includes questions on types of networks, topologies, protocols, cyber security and cyber threats. The assessment features a range of question types and includes full worked solutions and answers. I print these 2 to a page and use them as a low stakes quiz at the end of a module. I will also be reusing them as a revision resource for my year 11s.
These module quizzes are linked to the Knowledge Organisers I have also made and are available on TES. Most of the content is featured on the similarly named organiser, but would still be more than suitable without the use of the organisers.
Any questions, please feel free to ask.
Thanks,
Toby Watkins
This is a collection of module quizzes covering key content that is assessed in paper 1 of the new specification GCSE. I will be using these as a final push for my current year 11s in the run up to the final exam. They are specifically designed for AQA 8520 spec, but content is also suitable for OCR and other boards.
In total there are 4 double page module quizzes, along with answers to each. The key topics are: Computational Thinking, Programming Basics (Pseudocode/flowcharts), Development and Testing and advanced programming (subroutines etc.)
There are questions covering the vast majority of the specification, but these are in no way intended to be exhaustive.
The question style features exam style questions, along with question types designed to prompt recall and understanding.
Full answers are provided for each quiz.
Note: These module quizzes can be obtained individually, or as a complete package, in my TES shop. If you have already purchased any module quizzes, or if you want topics spanning both paper 1 and 2, it may be better to buy the others instead.
Hope these help.
Thanks,
Toby Watkins
This is a Maths / STEM project lesson designed around students starting a wholesale business in either the fashion or technology industry. Students will be expected to create a brand, calculate costs and work out profit for their potential business. Feedback from running this lesson in the past has been extremely positive from students, with most excited by the idea of starting their own business, and appreciating the massive role maths would have in this. They will have to make several key decisions including deciding on whether to import or produce and how many products to order based on demand.
Throughout the lesson, students will have to calculate the optimal business model by calculating potential profits based on a given formula. They will also need to carry out several financial calculations, before presenting back to the class.
This was designed for year 10 students, but could be used in other years. The main idea was to promote maths in context, as well as to increase understanding of maths involved in business.
In Computer Science there are several skills that students need to be able to do in an exam situation:
Sorting Algorithms
Searching Algorithms
Flowcharts
Basic Pseudocode
Binary Conversions
Hexadecimal Conversions
Binary Shifts
Logic Circuits
Trace Tables
Compression Algorithms
Advanced Pseudocode
This resource provides a series of progressively more difficult questions for each of the skills listed above. In addition, full answers/ modeled solutions are provided to make sure students know if they are getting it wrong or right.
This booklet would be great for revision homework, or for a series of lessons focused on mastering the necessary skills to succeed in Computer Science. The questions used could also be used separately, for example in first teaching lessons, as it can be difficult to find or come up with relevant questions for some of the topics.
If you have any questions, please ask.
This is a document designed as late revision for paper 2 of the GCSE Computer Science (AQA specification, but applicable to edexcel and other boards too).
The revision booklet covers the following topics/questions, and should take students around 2 hours to complete the filling in blanks, with longer needed if they redraft the responses
:
Section 1 – Data Representation
a) How do character sets work?
b) How do bitmap images work?
c) How do sound files work?
Section 2 – Computer System
a) How do hard disk drives work?
b) How do solid state drives work?
c) How does a CD work?
d) What are the different types of memory?
e) What are the main components of a CPU?
f) What affects the performance of the CPU?
g) What are the different types of software?
Section 3 – Networks
a) What are protocols?
b) What is the TCP/IP model?
c) What does the application layer do?
d) What are the different considerations when setting up a network?
e) What are the different cyber security threats, and how do you defend against them?
Section 4 – Ethical, Legal and Environmental Impact
a) What is meant by ethical issues in computing?
b) What is meant by legal issues in computing?
c) What is meant by environmental issues in computing?
d) Give an example of a Computing issue that has ethical, legal and environmental impacts:
For each of the main theory topics students need to know, a concise but in-depth explanation is given - but missing key information. Students must use the word bank provided to fill in the gaps and complete a full explanation of each topic. The idea would be that students then rewrite the explanation in their own words to ensure they understand it, but this is obviously optional and may not be right for your group.
In designing this task, I wanted to be able to provide my students with high quality explanations, but with enough interaction and challenge to make sure students’ brains are engaged as they complete it. The filling in the blanks nature of the work means that all students can access the material, and the extension to rewrite using the bold terms enables a way to stretch even the most able of students. I think this is particularly useful as a last minute task as it will hopefully not cause cognitive overload in the same way that doing exam style questions or equivalent would in last minute revision slots.
I will be using these as revision for my GCSE cohort in the sessions before their exam, but could also be used longer term or as homework tasks. It could also separated by section and used during first teaching or many other ways.
This Enhanced Learning Worksheet focuses on Programming Basics, specifically fundamentals of programming and basic pseudocode.
NOTE: A free version of my Computational Thinking Enhanced Learning Worksheet is available if you would like to see the structure or how your classes get on with them first.
These new Enhanced Learning Worksheet are designed to give students more opportunity to consolidate and extend their understanding of all the key topics in GCSE Computer Science. They feature a series of scaffolded questions, followed by a page of extend / challenge questions where the scaffold has been removed and/or the difficulty level ramped up.
I developed these worksheets not to be another test, quiz or assessment (please see my module quizzes if you are interested in this), but instead are platforms for students to practice key skills during lessons. As such, answers are provided but not individual mark allocation. I will be using these worksheets 3 times each in the delivery of my AQA Computer Science course - first as an in-lesson worksheet, second as a spaced retrieval task a month or two later and finally as an end of year 11 revision resource.
This is a combination of 2 resources to create a rich revision or summary lesson on Python programming.
The worksheet "Python Fundamentals" contains explanations of key programming concepts and selected questions to help students practice the skills.
The document entitled "Main Techniques Quiz" is a multiple choice quiz designed to assess students' understanding of main programming techniques.
Thanks,
Toby Watkins
This is a set of resources designed to be a rich mathematical task, used for project lessons. The project is set up to span around 4 hours, but could stretch to 5 or be condensed to a single lesson if excluding certain aspects. Suitable for years 7 - 10.
The pack contains worksheets, lesson powerpoints and a feedback sheet for students to complete whilst watching presentations.
Details of activities:
Activity 1: Choose a name and theme. Students choose a name for their theme park and design a logo for it. They also have to decide on a theme and target market. The maths involved in this lesson involved number skills required to be able to select the desired name.
Activity 2: Choose a location. Students decide on the optimal location for their park based on floor space, location and condition of the site. This lesson involves area of compound shapes (with challenge involving circles) along with financial calculations.
Activity 3: Choose rides. Students decide on the rides they want in their park which need to fit in with their theme and target market. In order to pick rides, students must calculate costs which include upfront costs and upkeep costs which varies between weekly, monthly and yearly for each ride. Students have to manage their budget to optimise their choice. Further to this, each ride is given a fun factor as a fraction which students have to work with in order to find out if their theme park hits the requirements.
Activity 4: Catch up and presentations
My students have loved completing this activity when I have ran it, and it is also nice to give them an opportunity to stand up and present their ideas and calculations to the class.
Any questions, please ask!
Thanks,
Toby Watkins
A knowledge organiser on the GCSE Computer Science topic Computational Thinking. Includes algorithm concepts, searching and sorting algorithms, flowcharts and basic pseudocode. Each organiser contains key words, key skills and key knowledge. These are great for student revision, or as teaching aids for staff to be aware of the breadth of the module.
Thanks,
Toby Watkins
This is a full mock/practice paper 2 for the new specification GCSE Computer Science. It is based on the AQA 8520 style of exams and heavily influenced by the AQA specimen and includes a full exam board level mark scheme. It would also be suitable for assessing OCR and other exam boards.
Currently, there are very few full practices papers online so I decided to make this one. A huge amount of time was invested to make sure it covers the full specification of the new GCSE, so you can actually assess what is necessary. It uses the same proportions of topics and assessment points at the AQA specimen paper so you can accurately attain what your students know or need to work on.
Paper 1 is also available.
Hope it helps!
Toby Watkins
These are 2 quizzes on the topics of Computational Thinking and Boolean Logic. They were designed as low stakes quizzes - to be delivered in lessons and used to help inform planning, but could also be used as homework, worksheets or more formal assessments. Mixture of question and answer styles to allow all students access to the material. Answers provided.
Thanks,
Toby Watkins
NOTE: This is a free version of the first of a new set of worksheets I have developed. These worksheets take a long time to develop, and I feel they offer a really good opportunity for students to consolidate and extend their learning of a topic. Try this one for free, then see if you like them enough to buy the rest in the series at £3 each for an unlimited use teacher license.
This Enhanced Learning Worksheet focuses on Computational Thinking, specifically Computational Thinking Concepts and representing algorithms using Flowcharts.
These new Enhanced Learning Worksheet are designed to give students more opportunity to consolidate and extend their understanding of all the key topics in GCSE Computer Science. They feature a series of scaffolded questions, followed by a page of extend / challenge questions where the scaffold has been removed and/or the difficulty level ramped up.
I developed these worksheets not to be another test, quiz or assessment (please see my module quizzes if you are interested in this), but instead are platforms for students to practice key skills during lessons. As such, answers are provided but not individual mark allocation. I will be using these worksheets 3 times each in the delivery of my AQA Computer Science course - first as an in-lesson worksheet, second as a spaced retrieval task a month or two later and finally as an end of year 11 revision resource.
A selection of Christmas themed programming challenges aimed at students of varying ability. Tasks were designed with Python in mind, although other programming languages would work.