Mr S or otherwise know online as @TechMenace. I teach Computing Science up to Advanced Higher/A Level and am also a FireFighter. I have taught in both English and Scottish schools and have worked with a wide range of exam bodies.
Mr S or otherwise know online as @TechMenace. I teach Computing Science up to Advanced Higher/A Level and am also a FireFighter. I have taught in both English and Scottish schools and have worked with a wide range of exam bodies.
**Scratch - Lists **- Teaching simple lists/arrays
In this Scratch lesson we take pupils from no experience of Scratch to a good understanding with the skills to solve problems and think algorithmically. Students should enter this scheme of work with a very basic understanding of how games are designed, having some graphical based language experience such as Scratch, Kodu, HourOfCode, etc is a benefit. In addition to other expectations, this lesson is not expected to be the first lesson in a series of Scratch lessons, it would be innapppriate for those with no Scratch experience to start at this point, for example this lesson is lesson 5 in my Scratch SoW and pupils should already have some experience with using a Variable in Scratch. Support pupils by issuing them with the two Lists supports sheets included in the Support ZIP.
This is particularly useful for meeting the needs of teaching a graphical block based programming language based on (KS3 in England / BGE in Scotland) outcomes and is a strong foundation/scaffolding to supporting students to program in a text based programming language in following units.
For the less confident teacher I have included a bunch of complete programs to demonstrate WAGOLL, see the Teacher ZIP.
In this lesson:
Brain teaser bell activity.
Big question - if a variable can store a name, how do we store a whole class of names?
Revisit the features of the Scratch IDE
Look back at Variables and introduce the Lists options
Common problems - pupils should pay particular attention to the instructions on page 2 that relates to Spot1, Spot2 and Spot3, the code is given once and they must change the code to suit each spot.
Challenge - to build a game following a set of instructions from a help sheet
Reflection extension tasks - pupils answer questions relating to game engagement and playability
Towards the end of teaching a coding language I like to give students the opportunity to challenge themselves at a level that suits them. Coding challenge books can leave pupils ‘in the pit’ and develop their resilience, debugging and problem solving skills in a way directed learning cannot.
This short challenge book is designed to support S3/ Y9 students working on Small Basic. Usually pupils will have experience of a graphical language such as Scratch and have gained basic knowledge of Small Basic including:
All students will have
TextWindow
GraphicsWindow
Turtle
Basic shape construction
Draw and Fill shapes with Pen and Brush color
Coordinates
Sequencing Skills
Basic loops
Selection with IFs
Ninja level students will have
Nested loops
Nested IFs
Experimented with extra code from autocomplete
Time
Made in Publisher with space for your school logo at the top of page 1. Designed to be printing efficient on one sheet to reduce printing costs. Source file and PDF ready to print are both included. Part of my Small Basic SoW.
Feedback or questions welcome at Twitter @TechMenace
**Small Basic - Lesson 1 **- Introducing the language and shapes algorithms
In this series of lessons we will take pupils from no experience of Small Basic to a good understanding with the skills to solve problems and think algorithmically in Small Basic. Students should enter this scheme of work with a basic understanding of computational thinking, having some graphical based language experience such as Scratch, Kodu, HourOfCode, etc.
This is particularly useful for meeting the needs of teaching a text based programming language based on (KS3 in England / BGE in Scotland) outcomes and is a strong foundation/scaffolding to supporting students to program in Python in following units.
For the less confident teacher I have included a bunch of pre-written Small Basic programs to demonstrate WAGOLL.
In this lesson:
Begin to understand what an EXE files is
Meet the CLI and DOS
Understand why Small Basic is much more powerful than Scratch
Meeting the Small Basic IDE
Hello World
Meeting Turtle
Basic shapes challenges
Exploring more code using the Carousel
Pupils are rewarded with a game at the end of the lesson
Plenary - in a nutshell
**Small Basic - Lesson 4 **- Traffic lights
In this series of lessons we will take pupils from no experience of Small Basic to a good understanding with the skills to solve problems and think algorithmically in Small Basic. Students should enter this scheme of work with a basic understanding of computational thinking, having some graphical based language experience such as Scratch, Kodu, HourOfCode, etc. In addition to other expectations, this lesson benefits from being proceeded with a lesson on Flowcharts or Pseudocode. Pupils recap their planning skills before coding. Support pupils by issuing some paper and pencils do they can keep track of the Turtles position vs their drawing.
This is particularly useful for meeting the needs of teaching a text based programming language based on (KS3 in England / BGE in Scotland) outcomes and is a strong foundation/scaffolding to supporting students to program in Python in following units.
For the less confident teacher I have included a bunch of pre-written Small Basic programs to demonstrate WAGOLL.
In this lesson:
Recap knowledge from previous lesson.
Discuss Apple QuickDraw history - Steve Jobs demanded a computer be able to draw shapes, specifically the RoundRect current seen as App icons on iOS
Revisit the features of the Small Basic IDE
Discuss manual vs automated drawing of shapes
Introduce new code blocks
Challenge - to build a functioning traffic light using new code blocks
Two challenging extension tasks - double traffic lights and revisiting chessboard
**Small Basic - Lesson 3 **- snowman
In this series of lessons we will take pupils from no experience of Small Basic to a good understanding with the skills to solve problems and think algorithmically in Small Basic. Students should enter this scheme of work with a basic understanding of computational thinking, having some graphical based language experience such as Scratch, Kodu, HourOfCode, etc. In addition to other expectations, this lesson benefits from being proceeded with a lesson on Flowcharts or Pseudocode. Pupils recap their planning skills before coding. Support pupils by issuing some paper and pencils do they can keep track of the Turtles position vs their drawing.
This is particularly useful for meeting the needs of teaching a text based programming language based on (KS3 in England / BGE in Scotland) outcomes and is a strong foundation/scaffolding to supporting students to program in Python in following units.
For the less confident teacher I have included a bunch of pre-written Small Basic programs to demonstrate WAGOLL.
In this lesson:
Recap knowledge from previous lesson.
Discuss planning skills - flowcharts / pseudocode
Revisit the features of the Small Basic IDE
Debugging
Sequencing
Challenge - to draw a snowman (this is an xmas variant of lesson 3 - chessboard)
Pupils to consider the number of lines used to code their solution
Teacher tracks most elegant solutions (square by square, zig zag lines, outwardly growing squares, etc)
**Small Basic - Lesson 5 **- Turing Test
In this series of lessons we will take pupils from no experience of Small Basic to a good understanding with the skills to solve problems and think algorithmically in Small Basic. Students should enter this scheme of work with a basic understanding of computational thinking, having some graphical based language experience such as Scratch, Kodu, HourOfCode, etc. In addition to other expectations, this lesson benefits from being proceeded with a lesson on Flowcharts or Pseudocode. Pupils recap their planning skills before coding.
This is particularly useful for meeting the needs of teaching a text based programming language based on (KS3 in England / BGE in Scotland) outcomes and is a strong foundation/scaffolding to supporting students to program in Python in following units.
For the less confident teacher I have included a bunch of pre-written Small Basic programs to demonstrate WAGOLL.
In this lesson:
Recap knowledge from previous lesson.
Introduce Alan Turing and the Turing Test.
Demonstrate some chatbots and discuss their business use case.
Discuss IFs and how they behave like a rollercoaster loop.
Demonstrate TextWindow.Read()
Create basic responses to inputs.
Have a go at talking to a advanced ChatBot
Challenge pupils to create a simple Turing Test Chatbot
**Small Basic - Lesson 3 **- Chessboard challenge
In this series of lessons we will take pupils from no experience of Small Basic to a good understanding with the skills to solve problems and think algorithmically in Small Basic. Students should enter this scheme of work with a basic understanding of computational thinking, having some graphical based language experience such as Scratch, Kodu, HourOfCode, etc. In addition to other expectations, this lesson benefits from being proceeded with a lesson on Flowcharts or Pseudocode. Pupils recap their planning skills before coding. Support pupils by issuing some paper and pencils do they can keep track of the Turtles position vs their drawing.
This is particularly useful for meeting the needs of teaching a text based programming language based on (KS3 in England / BGE in Scotland) outcomes and is a strong foundation/scaffolding to supporting students to program in Python in following units.
For the less confident teacher I have included a bunch of pre-written Small Basic programs to demonstrate WAGOLL.
In this lesson:
Recap knowledge from previous lesson.
Discuss planning skills - flowcharts / pseudocode
Revisit the features of the Small Basic IDE
Debugging
Sequencing
Challenge - to draw a chess board
Pupils to consider the number of lines used to code their solution
Teacher tracks most elegant solutions (square by square, zig zag lines, outwardly growing squares, etc)
**Small Basic - Lesson 2 **- House challenge
In this series of lessons we will take pupils from no experience of Small Basic to a good understanding with the skills to solve problems and think algorithmically in Small Basic. Students should enter this scheme of work with a basic understanding of computational thinking, having some graphical based language experience such as Scratch, Kodu, HourOfCode, etc. In addition to other expectations, this lesson benefits from being proceeded with a lesson on Flowcharts or Pseudocode. Pupils recap their planning skills before coding. Support pupils by issuing some paper and pencils do they can keep track of the Turtles position vs their drawing.
This is particularly useful for meeting the needs of teaching a text based programming language based on (KS3 in England / BGE in Scotland) outcomes and is a strong foundation/scaffolding to supporting students to program in Python in following units.
For the less confident teacher I have included a bunch of pre-written Small Basic programs to demonstrate WAGOLL.
In this lesson:
Recap knowledge from previous lesson.
Discuss planning skills - flowcharts / pseudocode
Revisit the features of the Small Basic IDE
Debugging
Sequencing
Challenge - to build a house design
Towards the end of teaching a coding language I like to give students the opportunity to challenge themselves at a level that suits them. Coding challenge books can leave pupils ‘in the pit’ and develop their resilience, debugging and problem solving skills in a way directed learning cannot.
This short challenge book is designed to support S3/ Y9 students working on Python skills. Usually pupils will have experience of a programming languages such as Scratch and Small Basic, and have gained a working knowledge of Python. Students will have played with Micro:bit in the past, but probably used MakeCode or block style programming. These challenges help students transition their knowledge and experience of Python and Micro:bit into problems solving skills by combining technologies and with the limited guidance and directed support from Wiki style resources they will learn to self support.
All students will have experience with Python’s
Loops
IFs
Inputs
Outputs
Sensors
LEDs
Experience working with MicroPython documentation
and downloading Micro:bit Hex files to a Micro:bit using http://python.microbit.org
Ninja level students will have experience with Python’s
Nested loops
Nested IFs
Experimented with extra code they discovered
Random
Time
Using Mu (IDE) to ‘Flash’ Micro:bit Micropython
Using external addons for Micro:bit - LEDs, Earphones, accessory boards
Made in Publisher with space for your school logo at the top of page 1. Designed to be printing efficient on one sheet to reduce printing costs. Source file and PDF ready to print are both included. Embedded as a set of fun activities at the end of my Python SoW.
Core to this pedagogy is introducing the knowledge base at http://microbit-micropython.readthedocs.io to support students success in MicroPython. I also recommend installing Mu https://codewith.mu/ to simplify the downloading of Hex files.
Feedback or questions welcome at Twitter @TechMenace
With this bundle you should have everything you need to teach an introduction to textual languages using Small Basic.
Small Basic can be download for free from Microsoft and its teaching with the combined resources always resorts in a very engaged set of S3s/Y9s. Small Basic is excellent scaffolding to get pupils coding in Python.
‘half off the pie?’ - Better than half price when bought as a bundle.