Welcome to the Summer newsletter from Teaching London Computing. Our previous newsletters can be found here) and new readers can sign up using the orange form on this page.

Table of contents

1. [Free] Teaching Games Development course – Oct 2019
2. [Free] Digital Art and Design course – Nov 2019
3. [Free] Other Tech Pathways London courses
4. NCCE courses portal
5. Drawing shapes with Euclid
6. Gender Action award pilot
7. Paul Curzon’s latest blog post – Learning to Learn (to program): Semantic Waves
8. Hatagons – the colouring in ‘cyborg’ hat
9. Hackspaces and maker communities: computer science / electronics / making / music / tinkering / hacking

1. [FREE] Teaching Games Development for Secondary Schools – Oct 2019

Two-day Games Design and Development course

An introduction to teaching Games Development for secondary school teachers or educators in informal settings who teach this topic to learners of ages 11 to 24. There are two cohorts for this event. Everyone does Day One on Wed 2nd October and then the group splits across two dates, doing Day Two on either Thursday 3rd or Friday 4th October.

This free event takes place at Alexandra Palace.

• Tickets for Cohort 1 (Wednesday 2nd and Thursday 3rd October 2019)
• Tickets for Cohort 2 (Wednesday 2nd and Friday 4th October 2019)

2. [FREE] Digital Art and Design for Secondary Schools (for Art or Computing Teachers) – Nov 2019

One day professional development course

An introduction to teaching Art and Design using Processing and other digital tools for secondary school teachers (and Year 6 primary teachers). This course is for Art and Design teachers and Computing teachers and we are particularly keen to see teachers from both departments so that they can support each other in introducing digital art and design in their schools.

This event takes place at Manorfield Primary School, E14 on 1 Nov 2019 and is free.

• Register for free tickets and find out more (Friday 1st November 2019)

 

3. [Free] Other Tech Pathways London courses

There are a range of free teacher professional development courses for all London-based educators of young people aged between 11 and 24. Some of the courses offered are led by QMUL colleagues, worth bookmarking this site and having a look around https://techpathways.london/available-courses-4/

 

4. NCCE courses portal

The National Centre for Computing Education’s website is also worth bookmarking for face to face and online CPD courses (you’ll need to create an account to book a course but course info is here), for example “If you’re a secondary school teacher without a post A level qualification in computer science or a related subject then the Computer Science Accelerator Programme is specifically designed to help you. Find out more.”

5. Drawing shapes with Euclid

Euclid on the block…

A nice calm end of term maths, art and algorithms activity. Can you work out how to draw a perfect square with only a straight edge and compass? That is the sort of challenge the Ancient Greek mathematician Euclid set himself. You need to devise an algorithm to do it – a sequence of steps that guarantee you end up with a square.
More shapes from Euclid’s algorithms here https://teachinglondoncomputing.org/euclid/

6. Gender Action award pilot

Challenging stereotypes in nurseries, schools and colleges

UCL, King’s College London, the Institute of Physics and the University Council of Modern Languages (with support from the Mayor of London) have created Gender Action, a framework to support teachers and schools in challenging gender stereotypes. They’ve launched a Phase 1 roll-out in London and invite nurseries, schools and colleges to register and progress through the four recognition levels (Supporter, Initiator, Champion and Beacon).
Twitter: @_Gender_Action
Blog: https://www.genderaction.co.uk/latest-news/

 

7. Paul Curzon’s latest blog post – Learning to Learn (to program): Semantic Waves

We all learn naturally but some ways of learning are more effective than others. Whether it is a skill or knowledge you want to learn there are good ways and bad ways. These pages are about how to learn quickly and effectively. There is advice for how students can learn more effectively and for teachers on how they can support their students in learning more effectively. Paul’s latest post on his Learning to Learn (to Program) blog is on Semantic Waves.

8. Hatagons – the colouring in ‘cyborg’ hat

Half-human, half-computer

Aimed at primary school kids (~6 and up) this is a colouring in “brain” hat in which half of the hat relates to human brains and half to “computer brains”. This was a colouring in activity developed for the CS4FN stall at Queen Mary University of London’s “Festival of Communities” where we had lots of young children colouring them in, and parents cutting them out and gluing / taping them together for the kids to wear. We’re putting together some additional resources to go with the ‘hatagon’ (the hat is based on a tweaked half rhombicuboctahedron shape) and you can print your own here (for A3 and A4 printers). See the photos from the CS4FN stall here.

9. Hackspaces and maker communities: computer science / electronics / making / music / tinkering / hacking

There are lots of organisations, workshops and events in London that have an overlap with computer science and informal learning such as Dorkbot, Hackspace as well as events at the Barbican and V&A etc; this document highlights some of them.

 

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