Tag: resources

DIAGNOSTIC QUESTIONS FOR COMPUTING SCIENCE

There is a bank of diagnostic questions to support SQA Computing Science qualifications, as well as other qualifications and subjects at https://diagnosticquestions.com/

To find questions aligned to SQA content, select SQAComputingScience in the Author filter drop down.  You can refine questions further by selecting topics.

 

There is the ability to add your school and create classes to track and monitor progress.

 

Questions have plausible distractors and learners are asked to explain why they chose that particular answer.

Example Question and distractors

 

Learner response options

Visit DiagnosticQuestions

 

 

level 4 prior verified assessments at level 4 cyber

Level 4 Resources for Cyber Fundamentals and Internet Safety

Education Scotland have collaborated with Girvan Academy in South Ayrshire to produce a set of resources that combine the SQA level 4 units in Cyber Security Fundamentals and Internet Safety.  These resources reinforce our belief that every learner should have the knowledge and skills to use the internet and online services safely, allowing them to spot potential risks and recover from any potential harm, they face while using online services. 

 

 

The following teaching resources have been created:

 

Assessment evidence  

The assessor will use the portfolio approach to generate evidence that learners have achieved these units. 

A learner must complete the Getting Started with Online Accounts booklet, one of the relevant ”Getting Started with Chromebook/iPad’ booklets (depending on what device they have set up), and then the assessor must complete an observation checklist for every learner:

  • Assessor answer booklet  
  • Observation checklist  
  • Learner profile  

 

The teacher answer booklet and prior verification certificate can be downloaded from the SQA secure site.

Tech We Can: Tech for the Planet lesson resource

Tech She Can is delighted to share the brand new Tech We Can lesson, ‘Tech for the Planet’ which is out now!

“Since the COP26 climate summit earlier this month, topics such as sustainable living and protecting the future of our planet have dominated the news agenda, as well as entering our everyday conversations, including those taking place in schools and among young people.

Our latest free on-demand Tech We Can lesson, ‘Tech for the Planet’ aims to show some of the innovative ways in which technologists around the world are using technology to protect our air, reduce waste, help clean the oceans and preserve our wildlife. It also highlights role models working in these areas – Lucinda Jones from Unilever and Mikya Rozner from Tesco – which we hope will inspire young viewers to consider a future career in technology.

You can watch the lesson, aimed at 8 – 14 year olds, and taught by Becky Patel and Katie King here.

If you’d like to explore other Tech We Can educational resources, for use at school or at home, please head over to techwecan.org and complete a short registration form to gain access to a wide range of on-demand lessons and lesson packs. Each explores the use of technology in a different area – from sport, to food and outer space – and highlights the types of careers that students could go into in the future.

Go to Tech We Can resources

Barclays Code Playground – resources for Scratch

Barclays Code Playground aims to make learning to code easier for everyone and has resources and support to help teachers get to grips with Scratch for teaching computing science.

They provide interactive live classes, free online resources, access to detailed lesson plans and you can also book a school visit with one of their Barclays Digital Eagles.

Visit the site

More Scratch

Running an Esports Club – British Esports Association

Esports (or electronic sports) is a term used to describe competitive video gaming. With 81% of children playing video games online nowadays, games are arguably a larger part of their lives than ever before.

The British Esports Association (BEA) is a not-for-profit national body established in 2016 to promote esports in the UK, increase its level of awareness, improve standards and inspire future talent. As a national body, their aims are to support esports and provide expertise and advice.

They help to educate parents, teachers, media, policy makers and government around what esports is and what its benefits are. BEA aim to:

 

  • Promote esports in the UK and increase its level of awareness
  • Improve the standard of UK esports
  • Inspire future talent

There has been lots of work with colleges in Scotland so far but the BEA are keen to support more schools setup, deliver and develop esports clubs for children and young people. Running an esports club is about more than playing games, there is the setup of equipment, recruitment of friends and peers, and all the digital literacy required to produce videos of their games. In fact, capturing gameplay can become a whole production with sounds, graphics and video editing going on to showcase their gaming skills.

 

Find out more about esports and the British Esports Association with these links:
British Esports Student Champs
Student Champs Resources
Esports in Education Conference
Glasgow Clyde Case Study
British Esports Champs 2021 Aftermovie
Forth Valley College Division 2 Rocket League Interview
Scottish College Cup
Diversity and Inclusion of Esports

Esports Parents and Carers Guide with NSPCC and British Esports Association

The British Esports Association (@British_Esports) has developed a new Parent & Carers Guide in collaboration with the NSPCC, which aims to educate parents and carers about esports and online safety.

This guide has been created to provide information to help parents understand more about the esports industry.

The contents of the guide include:

  • Information about the British Esports Student Champs
  • Benefits of esports
  • Esports in education
  • Academic pathways
  • Inclusivity and diversity in esports
  • How you can get involved with your child
  • Parents testimonials
  • Online safety

 

Tom Dore, Head of Education at British Esports Association, said:

“At British Esports we’re helping to establish industry standards for safeguarding and keeping young people safe online. Developing the Parent & Carers guide in collaboration with NSPCC has allowed us to celebrate many of the positives around esports, and also highlight important issues around safeguarding and online safety.

It is crucial as an industry that we’re doing everything we can to keep young people safe while participating in esports. We should look to traditional sport, and other established industries, to learn from their ongoing work. British Esports strongly encourages all stakeholders in the esports industry to scrutinise their own practise around their work with young people and prioritise safeguarding and online safety throughout their organisations.’

 

Find out more about the guide

 

View the guide

PRIMM: A STRUCTURE FOR PROGRAMMING LESSONS – TEACH COMPUTING

PRIMM is an approach that can help teachers structure lessons in programming. PRIMM stands for Predict, Run, Investigate, Modify and Make, representing different stages of a lesson, or series of lessons. PRIMM promotes discussion between learners about how programs work, and the use of starter programs to encourage the reading of code before writing.

 

Quick Read: Using PRIMM to structure programming lessons (teachcomputing.org)

DIGITAL FUTURES PROGRAMME – MICROSOFT

Microsoft have created the Digital Future Programme to help young people explore the digital future aims to prepare young people for the technology-driven world of tomorrow, demonstrate how diversity helps build better technology, and how it can be used as a force for positive change. The programme brings together the best resources from Microsoft and our industry-leading partners, and covers these exciting topics:

  • Discover the tech industry
  • Coding
  • AI
  • IoT
  • Big Data

 

Digital Future takes a creative approach to digital skills education with classroom activities, challenges and more. Once completed, students get a certificate to celebrate their success!

 

Digital Future Programme – Microsoft UK

digital world resources

DIGITAL WORLD – CYBER SECURITY & DATA CAREERS

Digital World (@DigitalWorldHQ) have created a toolkit to help teachers introduce cyber and data careers into the classroom. They’ve worked with experts to create a series of fun and engaging lessons that are easy to deliver and designed to fit a standard period.

From how to rob a bank through to defending a hospital, and cracking passwords to tracking rhinos (and many more), their lessons can be found here. So far, more than 100,000 pupils and teachers have used them.

SQA ACADEMY – CLPL IN HTML/CSS/JA & SQL

This is a self paced course aimed at develop teacher skills and understanding to support delivery of Computing Science National Qualifications.There are a range of interactive learning resources developed by subject specialists to support teachers delivering Computing Science at National 5 and Higher. They are topic-based and cover a range of programming areas – HTML, CSS, JavaScript and SQL.

Visit SQA Academy

There are also a number of videos within the courses that illustrate how these technologies are used in industry that you may find useful to show learners. For example, how SkyScanner use SQL

To access the learning materials, you must create an account with SQA Academy.

Note: You will need to allow pop ups for SQA Academy to access the courses