TLC newsletter | Teaching London Computing: A RESOURCE HUB from CAS LONDON & CS4FN

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

[Free] Teaching Games Development course – Oct 2019
[Free] Digital Art and Design course – Nov 2019
[Free] Other Tech Pathways London courses
NCCE courses portal
Drawing shapes with Euclid
Gender Action award pilot
Paul Curzon’s latest blog post – Learning to Learn (to program): Semantic Waves
Hatagons – the colouring in ‘cyborg’ hat
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.

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.

If you’d like to receive a copy of the newsletter in future please use the orange form on this page.

Welcome to our first newsletter of 2019 (previous editions live here). It contains a mix of free resources from our Teaching London Computing website and pointers to some other resources and information which we hope you find useful.

If a colleague has forwarded this email to you and you’d like to receive a copy of the newsletter in future please use the orange form on this page.

Table of contents

Free course on teaching networks from Techpathways London
New free resources from TLC – Valentine’s Day pseudocode poems and Happy Times cards
Diversity in Computing posters
NCCE Hubs – apply for your school to be 1 of 40 Hubs in England
Discount code for The Power of Computational Thinking
Applications open (for Sep 2019) to join Digital Schoolhouse
QMUL is part of the Institute of Coding (IoC)
LGBT History Month
Royal Society funding for schools’ STEM projects

1. Free course on teaching networks from Techpathways London

QMUL is jointly running TechPathways London which is a new programme of free training and professional development for (formal and informal) educators of London’s young people aged 11-24.

Sign up here for a FREE course on 28 June 2018 on networking. This is for any teacher who teaches networks to learners of 11 to 24 years of age. Educators from non-formal settings who teach this topic are welcome too. This is a 1.5 day course split over Autumn and Summer terms, download a flyer for more. We expect this to sell out as only 15 places are available.

What digital skills do people need? Techpathways London survey for educators

In order to support educators to better equip their students to enter the digital workforce we (QMUL, CS4FN, Teaching London Computing and London CLC) are working with the Mayor of London to develop some CPD material and would like to hear from teachers/educators and people from industry in London to help us shape, and benchmark this.

• Survey for London educators

(There’s also a survey for industry people too, more information here).

2. New free resources from TLC

Valentine’s Day pseudocode poems & Happy Times cards

Pseudocode poems
Created by Paul Curzon, pseudocode poems are poems that work both as an algorithm/program and as a poem. They incorporate sequencing, selection or repetition constructs and other kinds of statements. You can implement them as an actual program – see what you think of our poems and have a go with your class to create some other ones https://teachinglondoncomputing.org/pseudocode-poems/.

As it’s Valentine’s Day on Thursday how about some Valentine Computing.

Happy Times
Created with Paul’s son Daniel ‘Happy Times’ is a fun Happy families / Rummy style card game where you collect sets of cards in the same times table to win. Playing helps younger children learn about the fun of numbers with a focus on times tables, multiplication, division and prime numbers. It also helps young children start to gain an understanding of the patterns in numbers. This is part of our expanding range of interdisciplinary computational thinking pages which cover the links between CT and other subjects, or look for Mix subjects in our website’s main menu.

3. Diversity in Computing posters

We have a set, free to download, of 30 ‘Diversity in Computing’ posters featuring a range of computer scientists from different backgrounds. There’s also a powerpoint slide stack of the posters which could be used as a looping presentation. We’ve had some lovely feedback from teachers about them and we’d love to know what you think of them. Jane Waite, their creator, wrote about the thinking behind them here https://equalities.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/2019/01/16/posters-celebrating-diversity-in-computer-science/

4. NCCE Hubs – apply for your school to be 1 of 40 Hubs in England

“The National Centre for Computing Education (NCCE) invites proposals from interested parties to become one of around 40 Computing Hubs in England, supporting the work of the NCCE to July 2022. The final number will be determined by the need to provide a geographical spread across England, and will lead the delivery of computing CPD in local areas.”

If your school would like to become one of the 40 NCCE Hubs you’ll need to get your tender application in by 25th February 2019.

There are three Hub levels, find out more in the specification document and full application information available from https://www.stem.org.uk/opportunities-tender

5. Discount code for The Power of Computational Thinking

Paul Curzon and Peter McOwan’s book featuring “Games, magic and puzzles to help you become a computational thinker” published by World Scientific has a 30% discount code WSTPOCT30, available from https://doi.org/10.1142/q0054. Hardcover £48, softcover £20 before discount.

6. Applications open (for Sep 2019) to join Digital Schoolhouse

Ukie’s Digital Schoolhouse uses play-based learning to engage the next generation of pupils and teachers with the Computing curriculum. They are looking to expand their network of 34 Schoolhouses to total 50 across the country. The programme aims to reach 25,000 students and 5,000 teachers in 2019 and schools and colleges from across the country are invited to join them. More information in this PDF, and from their website. Applications close on 31 March 2019.

7. QMUL is part of the Institute of Coding (IoC)

The Institute of Coding (IoC) is an exciting, new nationwide initiative, bringing together a range of universities, industry, and training providers to develop computing skills for a rapidly changing and increasingly digital workplace.

We have an IoC page on our main departmental website outlining new events and courses coming up. There are a couple of 3-day ‘Introduction to Coding’ courses in June (registration isn’t open yet but keep an eye on the page).

11-13 June | 18-20 June 2019
Introduction to Coding
Join our beginner-friendly coding course. No prior coding knowledge needed! Registration opens soon.

8. LGBT History Month

To help your class celebrate LGBT History Month we have some information on LGBT computer scientists, also on that page is a link to a PDF version of the 14th issue of CS4FN magazine, which celebrated Alan Turing’s work and influence on computing.

9. Royal Society funding for schools’ STEM projects

Partnership Grants of up to £3000 are available to schools to enable students, aged 5–18, to carry out science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) projects with a STEM professional from academia or industry. Additionally we are looking to support projects on computing and data science. (emphasis added) The round will remain open until the end of the month for initial expressions of interest (Stage 1). Once the project has cleared the eligibility stage, teachers have until the end of March to submit their full application.

To find out more please visit the Royal Society’s website or contact the Education Outreach Team.

If you’d like to receive a copy of the newsletter in future please use the orange form on this page.

…