by - 0 comments

TLC newsletter – October 2018

We’re trialling a newsletter for those who’ve signed up to be kept informed of Teaching London Computing’s activities and resources. This is sent to our subscribers* and added to the website for everyone.

*To subscribe, use the orange form here.

1. Black History Month

Screenshot 2018-10-29 09.20.11

Our current resource celebrates Black History Month with information about several black computer scientists. You might also like this infographic – 7 Black Pioneers in Computer Science, by Jordan Streeter. Find out more about diversity in computing.

2a. Hallowe’en fun
There are lots of free activities to download on our site with new ones being added every month as time permits. From the Hallowe’en vaults we have some slightly spooky puzzles for younger children including a colour-in pumpkin (a Pixel Puzzle) and a word puzzle (Kriss-Kross).

Screenshot 2018-10-29 09.22.06

2b. Other resources

Maths Kriss-Kross puzzles involve multiplication to get the answer – “Solve these maths puzzles as a way to develop logical thinking and pattern matching skills needed to enjoy both computing and maths, while practising maths too.”

3. New issue of CS4FN – out soon
The latest issue of CS4FN magazine (issue 25) will be on Wearable Computing and should be out next month. PDF copies of the magazine will be posted online soon.

Currently you can catch up with issue 24 (and all our back issues) here.

If you’re not already receiving FREE copies of CS4FN at your school please sign up here (UK schools only), and pass on the info to a colleague. We have a few back issues too (you can use the same page to request them) and we’re happy to send some out while stocks last.

For primary-aged pupils (~9-12) we also have copies to give away to UK schools of issues 1, 2 and 3 of A Bit of CS4FN.

4. New computing courses from King’s College London
The BlueJ outreach team based at Kings College, London (run by Michael Kolling and Neil Brown) is offering FREE CPD workshops to teachers of KS3 and KS4 and KS5 pupils. These need a minimum of six teachers to run and require a venue with computers / laptops, internet connection and a projector / screen.

Summary
There are 3 Workshops available and they require a minimum of 6 attendees:
• Teaching Greenfoot with Stride – Programming after Blocks (KS3)
• Teaching Java with Greenfoot (KS4)
• Teaching Java with BlueJ (KS4/5)

More details about each workshop and what Greenfoot, Stride and BlueJ are available here. To book a workshop please email team@bluej.org with three dates/times.

5. Christmas Lecture – save the date: 5 December 2018
Each year the Computer Science department at Queen Mary University of London has a celebratory free (Eventbrite ticketed for catering purposes) Christmas Lecture for schools and families, with mince pies. This year the topic will be Game AI – we’ll add a link to this page when the tickets go live and there’s more information.

Game AI Unleashed!
Wed 5 Dec 2018
FREE (attendance is free but please register in advance)
Doors: 5pm, lecture 5:30-6:30pm, drinks and mince pies afterwards
More info and tickets: http://www.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/news-and-events/events/items/game-ai-unleashed.html

Flyer (PDF): IET-QMUL Christmas Lecture 2018

Information about our previous Christmas lectures: 2017, 2015

by - 0 comments

Free family fun: come to @QMUL’s Festival of Communities weekend on 12 and 13 May 2018.

QMUL Campus-1200x800

The text below is from QMUL’s page on the two-day festival. Prof Paul Curzon will be have a CS4FN stall at the festival so come along and say hello.

Our main campus building is the Queen’s Building on Mile End Road next to the People’s Palace. Buses: 25 and 205, nearest tube Stepney Green (Mile End a little bit further away, but not much).

Festival Programme 2018
Sat 12 and Sun 13 May 2018
The Festival of Communities returns on 12 and 13 May 2018. Get hands on with Queen Mary research through games, sports, crafts and other activities at the Festival of Communities. [Facebook]

Over two days, you can:

  • Trek over a tooth using Virtual Reality and meet the brain scanner made of Lego.
  • Jump on a bouncy castle, or Trial a new computer game
  • Get your face painted or play a life-size game of operation
  • Encounter the women who explore harsh Arctic environments for their scientific research and marvel at the award-winning images of life all around us.
  • Play with puppets while contributing to Queen Mary research or find out if your taste buds can predict whether you will get cancer.
  • Discover how 3D printing a new set of teeth can revolutionise healthcare, or find out just how much sugar is in your favourite fizzy drinks.
  • Share your wish for Tower Hamlets in our wishing tree and test your football skills or take part in the basketball hoop challenge.
  • Discover what’s under your skin by looking at your own skin cells under a microscope, and find out who will win in the slime races.
  • Build a musical instrument out of paper or strut your stuff in Britain’s next scientist top model
  • Explore how trauma affects the body in a game of giant jenga and design the ultimate blood cell
  • Become a bioengineer for the day or go on minibeast safari

…and much more to be added!

 

 

by - 0 comments

Vote for RE:CODE London (shortlisted for a Digital Leaders award) which helps young Londoners learn about coding

RE:CODE London from the Mayor of London - helping young Londoners learn about coding Screenshot 2018-04-30 12.14.33

The Mayor of London’s RE:CODE London event series  (which teaches young Londoners coding & problem-solving skills) has been shortlisted for the Digital Leaders ‘Cross-Sector Digital Collaboration of the Year’ Award! The next event dates are at the end of this post.

This recognises that solutions are not delivered by one sector alone, whether public or private, but require cross-sector collaboration – and RE:CODE is the only contender based in London!

The deadline for voting is 11 May,

You can vote here by entering your e-mail address, and then clicking the “Tick” under RE:CODE London. The “Tick” will go blue when your vote is registered – see the image below. Once you click the “Tick”, the vote is submitted and cannot be undone – so take care!

Vote for RECODE

The next RE:CODE London events are below and you can find out more about the events here.

  • 9 July 2018
  • 10 July 2018