HelloWorld05

THE MAGAZINE FOR COMPUTING & DIGITAL MAKING EDUCATORS DATABASES AND BIG DATA Why do many struggle with databases - and what can you do about it? Issue 5 Summer Term 2018 helloworld.ccINSPIRINGENGINEERS!Ideas and inspiration to get yourstudents thinking like engineersCoding andINCLUSIONHelping visually impairedstudents realise their potentialORGANISING PSSST! IS ITA COMPUTING OKAY TO COPY?DAY OUT Why building on existingWhere to go, and what to code is great for teachingdo when you get there...PLUS1FLO(helloworld.cc) W CONTROL IN PRIMARY PROGRAM MING • HOW WE BUILT THE RASPBER RY PI • WHY IT’S WORTH TRYIN G GP! AFTE R SCRATCH • MICRO:BIT • TANGI BLE PROGRAMMING IDEAS • 2018: YEAR OF ENGINEERING



TH&EDMIGAITGAALZMINAEKFIONRG CEODMUCPAUTTOINRGS DATABASES W- ahnyddwohmatacnaynsytrouugdgoleawboituhtdita?tabases TURN TO PAGE SPRING TERM 2018 AND BIG DATA FISONURBPSRFCRRINIBETEEIssue5 SummerTerm2018 helloworld.cc CELEBRATING ISSUE 5 INSPIRING NEW ENGINEER IENNSGPIINREINEGRSN!EW 32Hmoawketrhseanreexstitgteinngerinatyioonurofclcarsesartooorms and 20,000 INCLUSIONCoding And EDITORIAL SUBSCRIBERS Hsteulpdienngtsvirseuaallilsyeitmhpeiarirpeodtential Publishing DirectorHELLO, WORLD! SOCORCGMHAPONUIOTSIINLNGGTDARAYIPO:UT! OKAPYSTSOSCTO! IPSYI?T!PLUSWdohwerheetnoygoou, Russell Barnes and what to codWinghyisbgurieldaitngfoornteoatchheirnsg’ [email protected] 018 marks the Year of Engineering, and get there... OHNOWE TWHEINBGUAILFTTTEHREARNAOSTPHBEERR?RY• PI • :WYHEAARTOCFOENMGEISNEAEFRTIENRG Contributing Editor 2 so our cover feature for this issue of the •ENMGICINROEE:BRIITN•GPRHOAGBRITASMOMFINMGIN: JDU?S•T 2018 Miles Berry magazine focusses on this. We talk of 03/05/2018 06:56 [email protected] education: at school level, there seems helloworld.cc 1 (helloworldW.SccC)HRAATTACRHE? THEfar more focussed on science and maths than GP! PRODUCTIONtechnology and engineering, whereas it couldbe argued that it’s engineering and technology 001_HW#5_Cover_v01_JR_NK_CS6.indd 1 SBL Ltdthat have the greatest direct impact on our [email protected] and our world. Computing is, perhaps, the There’s a growing number of educatorssilent ‘C’ in STEM, with close links to science (as turning their attention now to AI in education. Production teamthe zeroth science, and through computational The House of Lords AI Select Committee Simon Brewscience), mathematics (from Turing and Church’s recently recommended that “children need to John Mooreday onwards), engineering (as hardware, and be adequately prepared for working with, and Rachel Storryin software development), and technology (for using, AI. The ethical design and use of AI shouldall digital technology). There are some great become an integral part of the curriculum.” If Designinitiatives now to promote engineering at you’re interested in helping the young people you Laura Passmoreschool level, and perhaps help to develop the work with learn more about AI, check out Beverly‘engineering habits of mind’ that Jon Chippindall Clarke’s new unit of work (p34), and Ken Khan’s Cover photography:writes about (p16): check out Maggie Philbin’s work bringing AI to block-based coding in Snap!. BigStockPhotoTeen Tech (p20) and Susan Scurlock’s PrimaryEngineer (p21) for just two examples. We’re delighted to welcome many new CONTRIBUTORS authors to the Hello World community in this issue. Would you like to join them? If so, Critical Media Ltd pitch us a story idea Rik Cross via [email protected]. Lucia Florianova Lucy Hattersley Miles Berry Nicola King Contributing Editor Oliver QuinlanFEATURED THIS ISSUE Hello World is a joint collaboration:JOHN MALONEY BEVERLY CLARKE MAGGIE PHILBIN This magazine is printed on paper sourced from sustainable forests and the printer operates anCREATOR OF GP AUTHOR & EDUCATION BROADCASTER, CEO OF environmental management system which has CONSULTANT TEENTECH been assessed as conforming to ISO 14001.John was the lead developer of Scratch Beverly is a former teacher and Director With over 30 years of radio andfor its first 11 years. More recently, he’s of Computing. Now, she is an author and television experience, Maggie Philbin Hello World is published by Raspberry Pibeen creating GP with Jens Monig and consultant for BCS Chartered Institute OBE has long championed science, (Trading) Ltd., 30 Station Road, Cambridge,Yoshiki Ohshima. He had over 25 years for IT. Her latest book, Computer Science technology and medical programming. CB1 2JH. The publisher, editor, and contributorsof experience in live, beginner-friendly Teacher - Insight Into The Computing She co-founded TeenTech in 2008, accept no responsibility in respect of anyprogramming systems. Classroom, is available now. and is its CEO. omissions or errors relating to skills, products or services referred to in the magazine. Except where otherwise noted, content in this magazine is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0). helloworld.cc 3

COVER CONTENTSFEATURE 13 CODING FOR THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED The importance of inclusion in the classroom 28ENGINEERING IN FOCUS 42COPYING IS ALLOWED!Our bumper section starts on page 13! Why programming depends on it!ENGINEERING SPECIAL NEWS AND FEATURES 40 AFTER SCRATCH, TRY GP!13 RHYS MORGAN 22 INSIGHTS & RESEARCH How GP can help students The Royal Academy of Engineering’s Computational thinking, the PRIMM 42 COPYING IS ALLOWED director of engineering’s welcome Copying is important for learning model, and digital making educators14 ENGINEERS MAKE THINGS 26 FUNCTION FOLLOWS FORM THAT HELP PEOPLE Greg Michaelson on recursion Cultivating engineering skills 44 AGILE METHODOLOGIES SOFTWARE ENGINEERING Working as a software developer15 Turning a hobby into a job! 28 CS FOR ALL Coding for the visually impaired 46 USING MAKERSPACES16 THINK LIKE AN ENGINEER Makerspaces are an invaluable tool Get your pupils’ habits of mind 30 THE POWER OF NETWORKING working in your classroom Tracing the development of networking TEACHING DATABASES18 ‘HOW WE CAME UP WITH 48 Use big data to engage students THE RASPBERRY PI’ 34 AIINSCHOOLS The challenges and the solutions The AIIinSchools programme 54 PRIMARY PROGRAMMING DESIGN20 MAGGIE PHILBIN 36 IS BEE-BOT A COMPUTER? Teach design elements in programming to help pupils develop their skills All about the TeenTech Awards Just what is a computer?21 ENGINEERS IN THE MAKING! 38 GP, SCRATCH, SNAP! 56 NEW EDUCATIONAL APPROACHES A little bit of STEM by stealth! Block-based programming Offering new educational contexts to your students4 helloworld.cc

48 GUIDE 77 ADDING BLOCKS TO SNAP! Enable children to build AI programs TEACHING DATABASES LESSON PLANS USING BIG DATA 50 LIGHT UP YOUR WORLD! Engaging students about databases Create a light sensor using the micro:bit 78BLUFFER’S GUIDE TO SCHOOL TRIPS USING LOGO Your essential guide to a good day out! 52 How to illustrate five characteristics of computational thinking - in one plan! TO BOLDLY GO INTO VR 70 MATHEMATICAL MUSINGS CONVERSATION58 Lorna Elkes on the benefits of VR Mark Thornber on repeating decimals BLUFFER’S GUIDE 71 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 78 Our special guide to planning60 SUPPORTING SEN CHILDREN How it can build confidence a computing school trip How tangible programming can help 72 PROSTHETIC HAND LETTERS A student-centred learning story 82 This issue: Picademy, Snap!63 LANGTON’S ANT 74 TANGIBLE LEARNING and stretched budgets… Paul Powell talks about a simple yet Teaching reception and Key Stage 1 interesting algorithm 90 WHY CODING IS LIKE COOKING64 MAKING LEARNING HAPPEN A deeper understanding of coding How hackspaces can augment your 92 EVENTFUL INSPIRATION classroom learning Run a successful tech-based event66 FLOW CONTROL REVIEWS PINKIFY Do primary learners need to understand it? 96 Gender stereotypes and coding69 TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS 88 BOOKS ROUND-UP Which kind of teacher are you New resources read and reviewed! when it comes to technology? helloworld.cc 5

NEWS FEATURE SCRATCH 3.0 DUE IN AUGUST New version of Scratch to support micro:bit and tablet computers T he MIT Scratch Team is due n T he new scratch interface is designed for tablet devices such to launch version 3.0 of its as the Apple iPad. It’s larger blocks are easier to tap and dragpopular educational programming toolthis August. “ WITH SCRATCH 3.0, YOU’LL BE ABLE Scratch is a visual programming TO PLAY SCRATCH PROJECTS ON YOURlanguage that enables students to learn PHONE, CREATE SCRATCH PROJECTS ONthe basics of computer programming by YOUR TABLET, AND CONTROL SCRATCHconnecting blocks. These can be used to PROJECTS WITH YOUR VOICE.”create interactive stories and games. Set for release in August 2018, the micro:bit device (helloworld.cc/2rj8Axl). There will also be dozens of newScratch 3.0 will be a complete redesign The Raspberry Pi is already supported in characters, backdrops and soundsof the program. The MIT Scratch team Scratch, but sadly other boards, such as the available, which will freshen up theaims to implement a number of exciting PicoBoard and LEGO WeDo, aren’t going to program for long-term users. Meanwhile,new features. be supported. a new paint and sound editor will “Scratch 3.0 is the next generation enable students to remix and manipulateof Scratch,” say the MIT Scratch team. The new extension system also opens the characters.“With Scratch 3.0, you will be able to play up Scratch to web services such as GoogleScratch projects on your phone, create Translate, which could result in some Scratch 3.0 also introduces a rangeScratch projects on your tablet, and control interesting educational projects. of new blocks, such as sound ‘effect’,Scratch projects with your voice.” Support for tablets (such as Apple iPadand Google Android devices) will helpeducators working with these increasinglypopular devices. You’ll also be able to useScratch 3.0 on Chromebooks. Scratch 3.0 will ditch Adobe Flashtechnology (which isn’t supported by mosttablets) in favour of HTML5. More information on the technologiesbeing used can be found on the ScratchWiki (helloworld.cc/2IdsZyz).micro:bitEducators in the UK will also be pleased tohear that the micro:bit is being supportedin Scratch 3.0. A blog post by the team revealed a newextension system with direct support for6 helloworld.cc

n New extensions such as this Music Block take and sound effect blocks are on offertransparency pen blocks and a new n A preview of Scratch 3.0 is available online features in Scratch 3.0,” says the MITglide animation. Scratch team. The visual style in Scratch 3.0 is veryNewbie support different from before, and it has much To help you get a head start on larger blocks (to make it easier to use on updating your materials, a preview ofThe MIT Scratch team has spent a lot of tablet screens). “In most cases, you will Scratch 3.0 is already available fortime working on supporting new users. want to update your resources to reflect you to view and try online atThere’s a new in-editor tutorial for first- the interface changes. You may also want helloworld.cc/2IdedaWtime users and short ‘byte-sized’ videos to create new resources to highlight newintroducing concepts. helloworld.cc 7 Teachers will be supported with lots ofclass activities. There will be new tutorialsfrom Code Club, CS First and updatedScratch Activity Cards and EducatorGuides. Plus, an updated CreativeComputing Curriculum from HarvardScratchEd. A Scratch 3.0 FAQ offers answers tomost questions (helloworld.cc/2HMddve).CompatibilityAll your projects and accounts created inScratch will continue to work in Scratch3.0. However, if you’ve created any lessonplans or educational material, you’ll mostlikely need to rework them to use thenew interface.

NEWS FEATURE n The new AIY kits include a Raspberry Pi Zero WH, so everything you need is in this one boxNEW AIY KITS FOR SCHOOLS Updated Google Vision and Voice Kits contain all the parts needed to assemble AI teachers alike have found the products to from our research that even though makers be great tools for the classroom.” are interested in AI, many felt that adding it to their projects was too difficult or required Everything included expensive hardware,” continues Billy. The updated kits include a Raspberry The new AIY kits are on sale at US Pi Zero WH, a pre-provisioned microSD retailer Target. The new kits will be coming card, and – with the Vision Kit V1.2 to the UK “this summer”, Billy concludes. “ THE AIM OF AIY PROJECTS IS TO MAKE IT CHEAPER AND EASIER TO EXPLORE AI G oogle has launched updated versions of its successful AIY Vision – a Raspberry Pi Camera Module V2.and AIY Voice Kits. “Everything you need to get started is right Made from cardboard and computer there in the box,” says Billy.components, the AIY kits enable studentsto build a voice assistant and smart The aim is to make setup easier. Usersdigital camera. no longer need to buy additional parts or The AIY Projects kits were popular with download the software image. Having allthe maker community, but they also proved the parts in one place makes setup faster,to be a huge hit in classroom environments. and ensures newcomers have all they need. “We’re seeing continued demand forthe kits,” explains Billy Rutledge, Google’s The aim of AIY Projects is to make itDirector of AIY Projects, “especially from cheaper and easier to explore AI. “We knewthe STEM audience, where parents and8 helloworld.cc

COOLESTPROJECTS COMES TO THE UK International digital maker show comes to the UK A n international show for young n T here’s plenty to do at Coolest Projects, Inspiration across the nations digital makers to demonstrate their besides demonstrate your own buildprojects, Coolest Projects is coming to the Coolest Projects started “in 2012 withUK for the first time this year. and sharing it with your peers, no matter 19 projects,” Rosa confirms. Now it’s Coolest Projects International will take how big or small or even if your project isn’t “an international showcase with 750place at the Royal Dublin Society on finished.” The entry categories are so broad young people participating last year fromSaturday 26 May (coolestprojects.org), because CoderDojo wants “Coolest Projects 16 countries!”while Coolest Projects UK is on Saturday 28 to be as inclusive as possible.”April at Here East in the Queen Elizabeth Each participant will have their own areaOlympic Park, London (hereeast.com). to set up their project, and will “have some Anyone under the age of 18, in primary, free time throughout the day to exploresecondary or further education, can enter other projects, as well as some of the coolas an individual or part of a team of up to demos and speakers that will be joining usfive members. Projects are entered into five for the day,” says Rosa.categories: Scratch, Websites, Games +Web Games, Mobile Apps, and Hardware. “It’s really important to have hands-onThe full criteria are at magpi.cc/2CPqaK5. activities scattered throughout,” Rosa Rosa Langhammer, CoderDojo General continues, “so parents, young people, andManager, Outreach & Engagement, explains: the general public can get hands-on with“Coolest Projects is about bringing an idea science, technology, and the arts.”n C oolest Projects is an international event for Rosa’s favourite Coolest Project came young digital makers aged 18 and under from 12-year-old Amy, who created a smart beehive “with a mission to save bees!” Amy uploaded data from her hive to hivetool.net, helping “international scientists to understand why bees are dying.” helloworld.cc 9

NEWS FEATURE CODE CLUB IN WESTMINSTER Showcase event for MPs and Lords “a special experience” n Code Club’s Dan Powell talking with some of C ode Club came to Westminster the pupils from Coppice Primary School in January, to demonstrate how a Code Club works to MPs and Peers.“ TO RAISE AWARENESS WITHIN THE The event was organised by Lloyds HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT ABOUT Banking Group, hosted by Labour MP WHAT CODE CLUB IS Wes Streeting, and Code Club was invited to take part. Coppice Primary School, from Wes’s Ilford North constituency, was invited to “simulate a Code Club in Portcullis House,” says Dan Elwick, Code Club regional coordinator, London & East of England. Code Club participated “to raise awareness within the Houses of Parliament, as well as to staff in Lloyds Banking Group, about what Code Club is, and how it works,” Dan explains to us. “Politicians were coming in during their lunch break,” Dan reveals, “and there was a talk from Lloyds Banking Group and Wes Streeting… I think also it was a special experience for the children involved.” Hosting the event “over the road from the Houses of Parliament”, as Dan puts it, gave the children of Coppice Primary the chance to “come to Westminster and experience that environment.” It also allowed politicians to see a Code Club in action, and talk to children about their coding skills. “Children were so excited to be there and the MPs clearly enjoyed it too,” Dan tells us. “There was a real buzz in the room.” The event ran for an hour and a half, over a lunchtime. In that time, the 28 pupils from Coppice Primary created one of two games, based on Code Club projects. Playing politics The children were a “mixed cohort [of] Code Club members and selected pupils from10 helloworld.cc

n P upils appeared to enjoy the pop-up Code Club at Portcullis House in Westminster n G areth Thomas, a Senior Manager at Lloyds, second was Clone Wars, a “Space Invaders- CODE CLUB IN discusses a project with two young coders style game, where you’re shooting lightning LLOYDS BANKS bolts at hippos that are falling from the sky.”Years 4, 5, and 6”, Dan explains. Code Clubs Both projects are on the Code Club Projects The event was organised by Lloyds Bankingare held for children aged 9-13 years old – page (magpi.cc/unpyFy) and use Scratch. Group, and Code Club was delighted to besee codeclub.org.uk. asked to take part. As Sarah Sheerman-Chase, MPs and Peers from Parliament chatted Senior Programme Manager, explains, “We’ve “So we set the children a couple of Code with the children as they worked on their been collaborating with Lloyds Banking GroupClub projects,” Dan reveals. “There was games. “The children found that really for about 18 months now, and they’re reallyone fairly basic project, then another more interesting,” Dan confirms. “I heard one of keen supporters – hundreds of their staff areadvanced one. All the guests could see the the Lords saying to the children, ‘And that’s registered to volunteer with Code Club andchildren coding and how much they enjoyed why you should all stand for election in your their colleagues run over 70 clubs.”making things with code.” local area when you grow up!’” Lloyds Banking Group has its “own internal The first project was Ghostbusters, drive for digital inclusion, and Code Club is“a game where you clone lots of ghosts, and a key part of that initiative,” says Sarah. Thethen ‘click’ to catch them,” says Dan. The scheme is called Digital Champions, where over 27,000 colleagues have pledged to help people or charities with their basic digital skills. It’s part of the bank’s Helping Britain Prosper Plan, which Lloyds Banking Group says: “takes us beyond business as usual.” Sarah reveals, “There are around 700 [Lloyds Banking Group] colleagues registered with us now”, while Lloyds Banking Group “has also started a pilot of Code Clubs in some of its branches.” helloworld.cc 11

NEWS FEATURE UKFAST OPENS PI CAFÉS IN MANCHESTER SCHOOLS Web hosting company UKFast to invest £100,000 in electronic creative spacesn The five new Pi Cafés will operate much like the pilot site in Broadoak School, Partington F ollowing a successful pilot in 2015, “ WE’RE PROVIDING THE web hosting firm UKFast has TECHNOLOGY FOR THE CHILDRENannounced five ‘Raspberry Pi Cafés’ for IN A FUN AND EXCITING WAYManchester schools this year. The project represents a £100,000 We asked Aaron how the Pi Cafés would Paul Grier, Network Manager at St Bede’sinvestment from UKFast. actually operate, and it seems that’s largely Prep School (one of the five new sites), Aaron Saxon, UKFast’s Director of up to the schools: “Some schools may use adds that “in 20 years’ time, 45% of jobsTraining and Education, reveals, “We are it as a creative space, others will use it as will be done by AI and robots. So if kidsdistributing 120 Pis across the five sites: their computer science classroom as well today don’t understand [these things], theyHoly Name RC Primary School in Moss as an extra-curricular hub and space for won’t understand how the world works.”Side, St Bede’s Prep School in Hulme, the community.”Alderley Edge School for Girls, The Hollins Paul says he hopes the new Pi CaféTechnology College in Accrington, and The The computers “won’t look like traditional will “allow both children and the staff [ofFactory Youth Zone in North Manchester.” desktop units,” Aaron tells us, “as we want St Bede’s] to delve more into computer The sites were chosen “where gaps them to be more computer-science focused.” science.” While students and staff of Stin digital engagement exist”, Aaron For UKFast, that means “there will be arcade, Bede’s “learn ICT, which is processingexplains. This includes areas lacking “the old-school gaming, and robotics cases” and spreadsheets,” Paul tells us thatresources to deliver cutting-edge digital Aaron says. “We’re providing the technology “programming hasn’t taken off as much as Itraining, as well as all-girl schools which for the children in a fun and exciting way.” would have liked it to.”have traditionally seen low uptake intechnical subjects.”12 helloworld.cc

FEATURE Rhys Morgan, the director of engineering for the Royal Academy of Engineering, introduces our very special issue…CELEBRATINGENGINEERING I ’m delighted to be writing a piece The IET, a professional engineering our videos, which show engineers doing for this edition of the magazine as institution, recently conducted research a whole range of things young people2018 is the Year of Engineering. into what schoolchildren think a ‘typical’ would never think of as being engineering. The timing of the ‘Year’ reflects many engineer looks like. Of a representativecauses for celebration, including the fact sample aged 9-16, 44% imagined they’d But to get more young people tothat 2018 will see the first passenger wear a hard hat, and 40% thought they’d address future global challengesjourneys made on the new Crossrail wear a hi-vis jacket. 67% said that a typical requires more than just changing theElizabeth Line – an enormous feat of multi- engineer is male, and 51% thought they’d public perception of engineering. In anand inter-disciplinary engineering. The UK be white. We know from recent research increasingly dynamic and unpredictableexcels at projects like these, demonstrating we commissioned that young people are world, they’ll need a set of corethe quality of project management and put off engineering by images of hard skills that enable them tothe power of visionary leadership in hats, white coats, and people working take on 21st centuryensuring such projects deliver maximum alone, whereas images of cutting-edge challenges. The Academybenefit through innovation, local capacity technology, teamwork, and creativity are has identified a set ofdevelopment, and community engagement. much more appealing. And my frustration is ‘Engineering Habits But it’s all too easy to just dive straight that this is much more what engineering is of Mind’ – attributesinto civil engineering and construction like in the 21st century. or characteristicsprojects when thinking about engineering. exhibited by practicingWe rarely consider the contribution that To counter this, as part of the Year of engineers and theyengineering has made in advancements to Engineering, we’ve recently launched a that provide this abilitymedicine, sport, entertainment, media, and campaign called This is Engineering to adapt. At the core ofeven retail. This is reflected in images and (www.thisisengineering.org.uk). It’s the engineering mindset isperceptions of engineers by the public. If targeted at young people aged 13-18 making things.you search for the word ‘engineer’ in Google through the social media channels theyimages, it’s amazing to see the consistency consume. It’s also designed to connect to So in this Year of Engineering, let’sof the image, and it ain’t great: a sea of men them through their interests and passions, celebrate making. Let’s get kids makingin hard hats and hi-vis jackets. like music, gaming, sport, and fashion. Since stuff, and get them to see the amazing January, we’ve had over 9 million views of creativity and excitement on offer through engineering – in its very broadest sense. helloworld.cc 13

FEATUREENGINEERS MAKE THINGS THAT HELP PEOPLEKatie Henry examines ways to cultivate engineering skill in all students STORY BY Katie Henry L“ et’s get a fan and see if it works,” an ill-defined problem within technical What you says Edwina. Edwina, a student feasibility constraints.” The good news is can say: “Canin my 4th grade class, had just finished that engineering doesn’t have to begin you share morebuilding a model of Theo Jansen’s about your goal?”Strandbeest – a kinetic sculpture with costly tools, programming or robotics Encourage the studentthat walks in the wind. As the in your classroom. It’s already to focus on their goal,fan came on, her sculpture happening on school buses, at generate more solutions, and considerbegan walking across the lockers, and – whether you strengths and weaknesses of eachtable, and a few children realise it or not – in your solution. Engineers inspect and adapt.cheered. I had never seen classroom. Introducing youngEdwina smile so big. Then people to engineering starts n Prototyping Look for evidence of aone of the legs fell off. Edwina with learning to recognise student modelling an idea to reach a goal.wrangled it back into place, engineering skill and helping What you can say: “In what ways doesexplaining that she’d need more students to recognise it. The next this model represent your thinking?”time to “really fix the leg”. sentence you speak can introduce Prototyping takes many forms: ‘works-like’ As she and a few other students tinkered prototypes are working models; ‘looks-like’with her sculpture, I reflected on what I’d a young person to engineering. Below prototypes are non-working. Engineersseen: a nine-year-old girl confidently dealing are five types of engineering skills, what use a variety of models, tools, andwith complexity, persistent in working on they might look like in your classroom, and strategies to better understand their ideas.difficult problems, flexible, and tolerant what you can say to help students developof ambiguity. (Others may have noticed those skills.that she’s dyslexic, reading below gradelevel, and struggling with a severe speech n Intentional design Look for pre-planning n Communicating design Look for studentsimpediment.) This is a public school. or evidence of thinking ahead. sharing ideas about something they’re “You’re growing as an engineer,” I say. She What you can say: “Tell me more about planning or creating.was puzzled: “What’s an engineer?” Max, your planning process.” Encourage What you can say: “Who most needs toanother student, gave a definition that I still intentional action and allow students hear your idea? What would be the bestuse to this day: “Engineers make things that to make their own decisions. Engineers way to share it with them?” Encouragehelp people.” makes things that help people. students to communicate their ideas in multiples ways for multiple audiences.Recognising engineering skill n Innovating Look for novel or risky efforts. Engineers share what they discover and What you can say: “How did you decide make with others in order to make their Jennifer Cross, author of to try it this way?” Try to understand why ideas better. Creative Robotic Systems the student created something new, and for Talent-Based help them to consider their efforts from Katie Henry is a former classroom and STEAM Learning (2017) another person’s point of view. Engineers teacher, licensed as a school administrator writes, “Engineering makes things that help people. and instructional technology coach. She design is the process now works as the Professional Development of developing a n Refining and testing Look for efforts that Manager for BirdBrain Technologies. concrete solution for repeat and improve each time in order to Follow her on Twitter @KatieHenryLearn reach a goal.14 helloworld.cc

SOFTWARE, learning it, and barely scratch the surface.ENGINEERING And I firmly believe there should be distinct software engineering paths in educationAND GOOD DISCIPLINE from GCSE onwards. Jason Gorman on how he went from being a hobbyist to But I also believe the basics aren’t a software engineer… rocket science. I could have learned to write simple requirements specifications at STORY BY Jason Gorman age 11. I could have learned to write unit tests. I could have learned to use version control. I could have learned to review code for problems like functions being too long and modules doing too much. I could have learned to do basic refactorings, like extracting code into new functions and renaming modules, safely. These are practical skills, and any programmer progressing beyond the basics can learn them. They just need to see it being done. That’s the experience I started programming in the early BY MY MID-20s, I’D BECOME VERY 1980s. With just 4K of RAM, my PROFICIENT AT WRITING BUGGYprograms were small. A few years later, SOFTWARE THAT WAS HARD TO CHANGEDad brought an old IBM 286 home. With aluxurious 512K of RAM and a 20MB hard n Why not introduce some basic code craft? that transformed me from a hobbyistdrive, my hobby programs grew by orders programmer into a software engineer.of magnitude. cases, iterating the design, version control, After they become proficient with a Like so many, I taught myself from unit testing, what we now call ‘clean code’ programming language, why not introducecomputing magazines and sharing ideas (code that’s easy to change), refactoring, some basic ‘code craft’? It’s time thosewith friends. By my mid-20s, I’d become and other good ‘habits’ for programmers. who teach programming and Computervery proficient at writing buggy software Science got together with those who codethat was difficult to change and didn’t really For sure, software engineering’s a wide for a living and made it happen.do what the users wanted. It was only discipline in its own right, related to – butby luck that I fell into a nest of software distinct from – programming and Computerengineers. Until then, I’d been making it up Science. You could devote your entire life toas I went along, doing it the hard way. It’s viewed as vocational, but lookingback I realise how much some of theseengineering skills would have helped me getthe most out of my childhood hobby too. Somuch time wasted debugging. So much timelost because I couldn’t easily get back to aworking version of the code. So much timewasted building the wrong features becauseI hadn’t really studied the problem or set outa clear vision. So much time wasted becausemy code was difficult to understand andchange safely. As a programming newbie, I wishsomeone had told me about things like use helloworld.cc 15

FEATURE THINKLIKE AN ENGINEER The ‘habits of mind’ of engineers align closely with computational thinking, so why not embrace the Year of Engineering in your classroom? STORY BY Dr Jon Chippindall L ook around you. How many the six computational thinking concepts GMEC 2018 things can you see created by an from the Barefoot Computing project - EHoMs IN ACTIONengineer? Five? 10? More than 10?! Pretty (www.barefootcas.org.uk). There are clearmuch everything around you has been overlaps here, so let’s briefly consider a A pupil from Rode Heath Primary School‘engineered’. Indeed, the world would be few of the similarities… demonstrates their Crumble-powereda rather archaic place without the work of (www. redfernelectronics.co.uk/crumble)engineers, as these entertaining videos by Engineers need to be able to visualise marble run they engineered as part of theExxon illustrate: helloworld.cc/2jl56Hk potential solutions to problems, they Greater Manchester Engineering Challenge 2018 is ‘The Year of Engineering’ might make sketches to transfer their (GMEC) 2018. Julie Wiskow, Primary Engineeringand it’s a timely campaign. We need thinking to paper in the same way we Coordinator from Rode Heath, explained, create plans and algorithms which “Pupils practised their visualisation and more engineers as a country and, describe the solutions to our problems. systems thinking skills as they envisaged and more widely, to tackle the 14 Systems thinking describes engineers’ communicated with one another how the various Grand Challenges deemed ability to understand how parts of a parts of their marble run would work together.” essential to advancing system interact and work together – for Julie runs her own primary engineering blog at humanity. Curious about example, how the engine and gearbox in thinklikeanengineerproject.com the engineering grand a car combine to drive the wheels. The challenges? Learn more ability to decompose is a prerequisite here: helloworld.cc/2JOCL7x to system thinking – how can we break But what makes a good this system down into parts? Likewise, engineer? How do they think? engineers might choose to view a system at different levels of abstraction to manage How do they tackle problems? its complexity. Adapting and improvingAnd where is the overlap here with our relies heavily on the ability to evaluate,Computing and DT education? both during the problem-solving process and afterwards to reflect on how we did.EHoMs vs computational thinking Adopting a logical mindset underpins much of what engineers do, as they applyIn the Royal Academy of Engineering scientific understanding to creativelyreport ‘Thinking Like an Engineer’, problem solve.Lucas et al (2014) established thatengineers typically draw upon a toolkit Whilst the short discussion above isof six skills titled ‘Engineering Habits of far from exhaustive, a clear similarityMind’ (EHoMs). Figure 1 presents the six between cultivating a grasp of EHoMsEHoMs (set within a wider set of learning and computational thinking will help equiphabits of mind) and is presented alongside16 helloworld.cc

ENGINEERING HABITS OF MIND VS COMPUTATIONAL THINKING Learning habits of mind Curiositysideration Engineering habits of mindOpen-minEthical con Cor Resilience dednessSystems indImproving thinkingVisualisingReflectione engineering m Adapting Making ‘things’ that work and making ‘things’ work better Creative Problem problem finding solvingCollaboration Resourcefulness n Figure 1: There are close links between the engineering habits of mind and computational thinking, so why not embrace engineering in your classroom to help enhance both? Image: EHoM image from Lucas et al (2014)and partial section of www.barefootcas.org.uk Computational Thinker poster ENGINEERS TYPICALLY DRAW UPON A TOOLKIT OF SIX SKILLS TITLED ‘ENGINEERING HABITS OF MIND’ (EHoMs)pupils with a toolkit of generic seeks to promote engineering in schools. Bill Lucas, Janet Hanson, and Guy and versatile problem-solving Their website, helloworld.cc/2FBtEEy, Claxton (2014), Thinking like an engineer: skills which they may draw hosts a variety of videos developed by implications for the education system, upon to solve whatever in-service teachers collaborating with RAEng. helloworld.cc/2HOGHUZ unique challenges they SEERIH, exemplifying seven principles encounter. of engineering education. The website Jon Chippindall is a primary school teacher also includes a range of activities aimed and Computing Leader at Crumpsall Lane Give it a go… at developing each of the EHoMs. Such Primary School. Jon is a CAS Master Teacher, activities make many cross-curricular was an author of the Barefoot Computing The work of SEERIH at The links, such as to the physical computing resources and is a visiting academic at University of Manchester elements of Computer Science. So, The University of Manchester where he since we’re in ‘The Year of Engineering’, champions engineering for the university’s why not have a go getting hands-on Science Engineering Education Innovation and with engineering challenges in your Research Hub (SEERIH). classroom and start cultivating your pupils’ engineering habits of mind? helloworld.cc 17

FEATUREHOW WE CAME UP WITH THERASPBERRY PI Pete Lomas takes us behind the scenes of the Raspberry Pi, and the challenges the team behind it faced… STORY BY Pete Lomas W hen you’ve had that great idea, already had impressive graphics on their NO SUCH THING getting it to market is just a bit of PC or gaming console. A 640 x 256 pixel AS A STUPIDengineering, right? QUESTION Well, perhaps not. Back in 1995, display with eight colours was neverin an unused portion of an going to cut it. Importantly, good If you look at an early Raspberry Pi, most of the trickyinterview for Triumph of the graphics capability extends PCB design is under the BCM2835. The BroadcomNerds, Steve Jobs famously creative reach. engineering team had given pretty strict advice onquoted this as a disease of Fortunately, we had how decoupling capacitors had to be located on thethe then management of someone in the cohort who reverse side of the PCB, under the chip.Apple, where he felt they had access to a chip withthought that the idea was HDMI output and a graphics Normally, I’d use a relatively expensive PCB90% of the work. From my engine to do it justice, technology called HDI (High Density Interconnect), butexperience with the development codenamed the BCM2727. I we simply couldn’t afford it. HDI consists of a group ofof Raspberry Pi, I’m definitely on Steve’s got to work with my team on a techniques, fine tracks, blind and buried vias, and viaside on this. in Pad, and all good engineering is about intimately design, but in reality it fell flat – too many understanding the detail (that’s where all the bestBeginnings support components and a challenging devils live!). chip format (BGA with 0.4mm ball pitch)The idea for the little computer that was made the design impractical, and we failed Interrogating my favourite PCB supplier at lengthto become Raspberry Pi (the name came to achieve ‘Minimum Viable Product’. – and asking lots and lots of questions - I discoveredlater) really gelled in a meeting in October blind vias by themselves are relatively inexpensive to2008 in the William Gate Building by a Turning point implement. With a bit of fiddling, I managed to usegroup that would become founders of these to get everything to fit on a simple (andthe charity. Scroll forward to 2011, and Eben arrived at low-cost) six-layer board - phew! a meeting holding a demo of a shiny new The original idea was based largely BCM2835. This had the critical addition $110 to make and we needed toon the BBC Micro concept, booting of an ARM core. This had two major come in at $35.straight into a Python interpreter when impacts. First, the support componentyou powered up. It was to interface count dropped to just two main devices: So starting from an idealto redundant (therefore cheap) the memory and a USB hub (that also specification, we had toperipherals that you might have lying happened to have Ethernet capability). attack the engineeringaround at home, like a PS2 keyboard and Second, we could run a variant of Linux, problem from several vastly extending the software options, and angles: feature set – mouse with some vanilla wall again increasing the scope of projects that what the board was wart for power. could be tackled. actually going to do; The display was a bit of detailed design – agony – we’d all grown To validate the potential design, evaluating the minimal up coping with marginal Broadcom kindly supported the creation requirement for support eight-colour graphics on of the Pi Alpha boards. This gave impetus circuitry; component cost – a variety of platforms, to projects, with a platform for software but the children of today development. However, it did pose a large-ish problem: this would cost roughly18 helloworld.cc

n Mapping out the printed circuit board (PCB) of the Raspberry Pichoosing functional but optimally priced STARTING FROM AN IDEAL SPECIFICATION,components; and the size, structure of the WE HAD TO ATTACK THE ENGINEERINGPCB and the placement of components PROBLEM FROM SEVERAL ANGLESupon it. that if we dropped the Ethernet all would Pete Lomas is director of engineering for Norcott Like writing an essay, the first sentence be well. The barrage of abuse (in the Technologies, a UK-based electronics design andseems the hardest, then it just flows. The nicest possible way) from the rest of the manufacturing company. He has spent the lastmonths that followed involved lots of team encouraged me that that would be a 30 years helping individuals and companies bringdetailed design work, looking at options serious miss-step. In hindsight, how right their product ideas to life.both technically and commercially, they were!and trying to balance the two. In some He also serves as a trustee of the Raspberrycases, a feature – for example, a Real After more late nights over a hot Pi Foundation, whose focus is to put creativity,Time Clock – would fall by the wayside CAD system and numerous telephone experimentation and fun back into the teachingfor the greater good of the price point, chats with Eben, we were there. of computer science and electronic engineeringbut only if it didn’t seriously impact the Prototypes were built in December and, through digital making. Pete was responsible apart from a minor ‘is it plugged in?’ issue, for the design and manufacture of the original educational mission. Raspberry Pi hardware. they all worked. Target As any engineer will tell you, Pete holds a BSc, MSc. in computer science never make a fully working from the University of Manchester and has In September 2011, we were so, prototype – if you do, lectured on electronic design, computer so close and just needed somebody will ship it! We architecture, systems engineering, and CADCAM. to push the design did, and Raspberry Pi was In 2017, he was awarded a DSc. from Manchester over the finishing born. The rest, as they say, is Metropolitan University in recognition of his line, and the cost well-documented history! educational outreach activities. model under the $35 target. I vividly remember suggesting helloworld.cc 19

FEATUREMAGGIE PHILBIN ON THETEENTECH AWARDS, ANDWHO THE REAL STARS ARE…The entries for the 2018 TeenTech Awards are 10 years of TeenTech, I’ve witnessed what can happencurrently in the hands of our industry judges, tasked when a young group of students work on a digitalwith choosing the best 60 projects for the final project together, and receive encouragement andshowcase at the Royal Society. Every single one feedback from our mentors. The confidence of bothwill receive personal feedback from those experts, student and teacher grows exponentially, and thewhether or not they reach the final, so all students mentors themselves are inspired. One mentor whowho’ve taken the first step on the road to being an recently helped a group of students in Brixton said sheinnovator are helped to see what they can do next. wanted to cry when she had sight of their submitted project. She could see the difference she’d made, but I read as many as I can mainly because it’s such an also was astonished at the quality of the work they’daffirming process. Young people are natural engineers. gone on to produce.They enjoy identifying a problem and then findingcreative solutions using technology – whether it’s It’s humbling to see how the approach is sohow to help a friend with Parkinsons tie powerful in reaching a diverse communityup their hair, or how to train your of students: over 60% are female,fingers to play difficult pieces and many are on the autisticon a piano. spectrum, have disabilities or are from challenged social I get excited by the bold backgrounds. For the past threethinking of the students and years, TeenTech students haveby the support teachers been chosen to represent thehave provided. If you’re one UK internationally as youngof those teachers, I want to engineers, and this year a studenthug you. We provide industry who’d developed a way to makementors and run innovation travel easier for people like herself withsessions on exciting company narcolepsy was selected.and university premises such as GSK,Rolls-Royce, NHS and Atkins to further inspire Over time, schools report significant change.students, but I know just how much work teachers put One saw uptake of D&T increase by 300%, anotherinto this level of involvement. uptake of Physics shoot up to 87.5%. The impact of the approach hasn’t been missed by senior management I welcome the greater visibility of professional in schools who’ve not only provided extra supportengineers, helping us see they’re the game-changers, for student projects but in some cases introducedthe ones who’ll develop significant breakthroughs Engineering or Design and Technology departmentsacross everything from medical technology, to where none existed before.smarter cities, to better hair bands. AI, robotics, datascience, or cyber security are the careers of the future. I’m just as inspired by the young innovatorsAt our events, we bring together the best emerging who share their thinking in their TeenTech Awardtechnology to give young people a sense of what they projects as I have been by the brilliant inventors Icould be. We show the expected and the unexpected met during my years on Tomorrow’s World. We need– so at TeenTech City, alongside the very latest tech, to give teachers and schools more space to developthey’ll also meet Richard The Third (he was 3D printed their talent.before being buried) and learn more from Universityof Leicester about the science and technology that led Register at helloworld.cc/2w2w67D forto him being discovered and identified. the 2018/9 TeenTech Award programme (11-16,17-19). However, the real stars and the most potentinfluencers are the young people themselves. Over Register at helloworld.cc/2jlq3BN for TeenTech City of Tomorrow (KS2/KS3).20 helloworld.cc

PRIMARY ENGINEER ENGINEERS IN THE MAKING! Engineering as a subject doesn’t exist in primary schools, but used as a way to embed STEM as cross-curricular skills it’s the perfect vehicle STORY BY Dr Susan Scurlockn Aidan helps the Team Proto unveil his design at the Scottish Engineering Leaders Award event in 2016. to them. By asking pupils to draw their This is now on display at the Glasgow Science Centre until November 2018 response, then annotate their drawings and write a letter explaining why their designM“ iss Brown, I don’t like you anymore,” creativity, and resilience. When designing should be built, we removed the restrictions said Jade. A little concerned, Miss the structure of Primary Engineer, we of budget, technology, and practical skill, looked to give learning a context and focusing on the problem and its solution.Brown asked: “Why’s that, Jade?” “Because invited engineers to join our training The ideas the children have created have courses to work alongside teachers. More been highly innovative, and included inyou’ve been teaching us maths and science often than not, these courses are offered public exhibitions, developed by universities, in industrial settings, enabling teachers to and put on display in public museums andwithout telling us!” STEM by stealth no discover engineering on their doorstep and science centres. professionals willing to give their time toless! The practical application of skills support whole class project-based learning. One of the first to be made was the Shopping Trolley for the Elderly, designedgiven a context of engineering has a major Engineering isn’t particularly known as by a primary-aged pupil to help his small a creative industry, but at its very essence grandmother lift the shopping out of theimpact on children’s deep knowledge and it’s highly creative. In 2013, we launched a trolley and into the boot of her car. Fifth Year Mechanical Engineering studentsalso their self-esteem. The engineering programme where we asked pupils at the University of Strathclyde worked to interview engineers about their with Aidan, the designer, and us to build ahabits of mind outlined by the Royal work. Afterwards, the pupils prototype, which was then unveiled at the were encouraged to look following year’s exhibition. What’s beenAcademy of Engineering and University around them – at home, in interesting is that we expected engineers school, and in the wider to inspire children, but we have found thatof Winchester are a skillset that’s valuable world – and find problems, children can inspire engineers, too! then design a solutionnot only in academic terms but also highly Dr Susan Scurlock founded Primary Engineer in 2005 after training as a graphic designer and latertransferable across all areas of as a Secondary School teacher. She developed a sophisticated programme of award-winningeducation, career paths and teacher training courses, from one-day courses to postgraduate certificates, national competitionsprofessions. and educational programmes involving some of the best-known UK companies, universities and councils.The ‘hands-on’ Based at the Burnley HQ with a superb team, Susan travels extensively sharing her Primary Engineers’nature of engineering experience and impact.encouragesvisualisation, problemsolving, curiosity, helloworld.cc 21

RESEARCH #INSIGHTS DIGITAL MAKING EDUCATORSA LOOK INTO THE COMMUNITY S ince 2014, the Raspberry Pi STORY BY Oliver Quinlan reported using unplugged approaches to Foundation has been building a computing. Everyone has different areascommunity of educators committed to with technology than specific skills like they’re confident in. While nearly 90%bringing digital making to young people. programming or physical computing. We of educators we surveyed said they feltMore than 1500 educators have now think this shows the importance of framing confident teaching programming, thebeen through our Picademy training and the broad benefits of learning skills like more specific areas we asked about likebecome Raspberry Pi Certified Educators, programming, allowing students to work visual or text-based programming hadcreating a community across the UK, on using programming to solve problems less confidence reported. Computing is aNorth America and the world that can tell they care about rather than teaching it as big area, and educators should feel okayus a lot about digital making in schools, an abstract set of skills. that they’re not confident in every area oflibraries, youth clubs, museums, and it – many are still learning.beyond. Each year, we run an in-depth Qualificationssurvey to find out more about the work Languages and toolsthey’re doing, the young people they’re Only a third of the educators surveyed hadreaching, and the challenges they face. a degree in computing, computer science We asked about programming languages The full report on our website has lots or a similar subject. This is relatively and tools used, and it wasn’t surprisingof interesting information about how low amongst a group of people who are to see Scratch and Python dominating,people are using their training, but here providing lots of innovative experiences of with over 80% of educators using eachwe wanted to share some things we found computing and digital making to the young of them. There’s a long tail of languagesout that might help other educators to see people they work with. Although technical though, with educators using everythinghow their experiences compare with those knowledge is useful, educators who don’t from HTML/CSS and JavaScript to C++,of others. have a degree in the subject should feel VisualBasic and even languages focused confident that they can also create similar on creative and arts applications likeStudent interests opportunities for young people. Processing. There’s lots more information about languages and IDEs used byEducators told us about the interests How are people teaching? teachers in the full report.of their students in different aspects oftechnology, and not surprisingly they rated The most popular approach to teaching Equipment challengesthis interest very highly. They report that computing was visual programming,students are more interested in using with 81% of educators surveyed using One of the biggest challenges peopletechnology generally and being creative this compared to 72% using text-based reported was getting access to the programming. Physical computing was equipment they need to cover different also very popular, with 73% of those surveyed using this approach, but only 1%22 helloworld.cc

aspects of computing. Although it might need more time to focus on particular We know that teachers sharing learningsometimes look like everyone but you skills like mastering Python or Scratch. with their immediate colleagues throughhas access to the best equipment, To support this, we’ve created a range staff meetings, coaching, or planningmany people are making do with small of online learning courses focusing on together can have some of the biggestnumbers of computers, Raspberry Pis or particular skills educators need. Over impact. We’d encourage educatorsresources for physical computing. Some a four-week course of a few hours per who’ve had training on computing (oreducators in our network have been week, educators can further develop their any subject area) to make a plan tousing crowdfunding initiatives such as skills, and share ideas and practise with share what they learn with their own colleagues. As well as spreading the“ WE’VE CREATED A RANGE OF ONLINE impact of the training, it gives you an LEARNING COURSES FOCUSING ON opportunity to revisit and embed what PARTICULAR SKILLS EDUCATORS NEED you’ve learned. Planning with colleagues soon after training makes you commit toRocketFund to generate funding for more other educators. There are lots of courses putting things into practice, before theequipment. Others are innovating in the available at helloworld.cc/2I9qLQQ. busyness of the day-to-day routines takeway they teach, and rotating small groups over again.around specialist equipment so that they Sharing the learningcan all cover physical computing. We found out so much from the It’s really interesting to see that people educators we surveyed – if you wereFinding time who’ve been on Raspberry Pi training one of them, thanks for your feedback. are sharing what they’ve learned with At the Raspberry Pi Foundation, we’reAnother big challenge for educators is many others. Seventy-five percent have using this to shape the work we do withtime, particularly the time it takes for passed on their learning, but our survey educators, but we hope it’s useful forthem to learn new skills that they can seems to show they often focus on doing others to find out what’s happening inpass on to their students. Even those this at events such as TeachMeets and the community.who’ve been on training courses feel they conferences outside of their organisation. You can read more from our survey of Raspberry Pi Certified Educators, as well as other research carried out by the Foundation, at rpf.io/research. helloworld.cc 23

RESEARCH COMPUTATIONAL THINKING,CONFIDENCE AND PERSONALITY STORY BY Lucia FlóriánováWhat’s computational thinking? closely related to academic performance, education. Although computationalComputational thinking is a topic widely dealing with open-ended problems and thinking is a cognitive psychologicaldiscussed within computing education. It’s persistence in working on difficult tasks. process, it’s significantly influenced byconsidered to be a key thinking skill that non-cognitive factors. It’s thus paramountstudents should develop in order to live in Extraversion to teach computing in an environment thatthe technology-driven society. A positive link between computational welcomes different types of personalities thinking and extraversion, on the other and is freed from stereotypes about aLogic and problem solving hand, contradicts most existing research. ‘typical’ computational thinker.Computational thinking is generally It also challenges stereotypes aboutunderstood as a type of logical thinking computing. Although the consensus used To make children think computationally,that can help students problem solve; both to be that brilliant programmers are usually it’s important to focus on their developmentwith and without using computing devices. introverted, this seems to be changing. beyond cognitive abilities, such as boostingIt’s, therefore, seen to relate to children’s Computing is becoming less of a solitary confidence in programming. It would becognitive abilities, such as reasoning, spatial, activity, and involves more social interaction especially useful to improve children’s self-numeracy, or problem-solving ability. and collaboration. efficacy in specific computing tasks. Making children see their success through concreteMore than cognitive ability Improving computational thinking examples can be one way of making themRoman-González and his colleagues, These findings shine a fresh light on learn more.however, found out that this isn’t how we should approach computingnecessarily the right view. They studied Read the original article at helloworld.how computational thinking is linked to cc/2HJZxkl (Article is behind a paywall.)non-cognitive factors – self-efficacy andpersonality. Quantitative analysis suggeststhat only 27% of computational thinkingis explained by cognitive factors. Almostthe same proportion – 24% – is related tonon-cognitive factors, mainly self-efficacy,openness to experience, conscientiousness,and, surprisingly, extraversion.Self-efficacyThe study has found a possible linkbetween students’ computational thinkingand self-efficacy – students’ perception ofhow well they performed. It appears that iflearners believe that they can perform well,they’re more likely to achieve better results.Lower girls’ self-efficacy could also partlyexplain the gender gap in computing.Openness to experience and conscientiousnessComputational thinking also seems to belinked to openness and consciousness. Thisfinding doesn’t come as a surprise; theseare the aspects of personality that are most24 helloworld.cc

PROGRAMMING PEDAGOGIES: PRIMM STORY BY Oliver Quinlan A s more and more young people PRIMM stands for Predict, Run, Modify Students use the understanding are starting to learn programming, Investigate, Modify, Make. It has been they’ve developed of the code to changethere’s a need to develop the pedagogies developed by building on the Use- it to do different things.we use for teaching it. Teaching Modify-Create model from Irene Lee andprogramming is challenging: as an educator, colleagues. The model supports educators Make Using the concepts in the programyou can know the subject well yourself, but to design experiences where students that they’ve now understood andoften find students get exasperated with engage with code in a progressive variety of adapted, students make a new programmastering what you’ve taught them. ways that build their understanding. that solves a different problem. Dr Sue Sentance and the ComputingEducation team at King’s College London Predict Students start with the code for a This approach takes the evidence-found that there was a need for specific program that works, and are asked to look based approach of starting with existingstrategies educators can use to support at it and predict what it does. code, and building the students capacity for code tracing before asking them“ STUDENTS ENGAGE WITH CODE IN A to start writing code. It scaffolds their PROGRESSIVE VARIETY OF WAYS THAT developing understanding in a way that BUILD THEIR UNDERSTANDING teachers can repeat for working with different constructs and programmingthe development of understanding in Run They run the code and observe what approaches. The team at King’s havecomputing. Building on the literature the program does, testing their predictions. trialled this approach with teachers andsuggesting students need to develop seen some promising results. They’reaccurate code tracing before they can Investigate They then get into the details, currently undertaking a wider scalebecome successful in programming, they looking at the program line by line, and study into the approach with secondarydeveloped the ‘PRIMM’ model as a structure exploring how it does what they predicted teachers in the UK.for activities. and then observed when they ran it. You can read more about PRIMM and the ongoing research into this pedagogy on the Computer Science Education at King’s blog at helloworld.cc/2rh3yCl helloworld.cc 25

OPINION GREG MICHAELSON PROFESSOR OF COMPUTER SCIENCE FUNCTION FOLLOWS FORM Recursion can feel less scary if we focus on information structures rather than algorithms eople who first learn to program using iterative n Figure 2. Trees are made of trees P constructs like WHILE and FOR often find it hard In both cases, we can see the stereotypical notion of to get their heads round recursion. It’s commonly a recursive structure being defined in terms of itself.covered late in the syllabus, and motivation isn’t helped by However, I think it’s more helpful to think of recursivepointless arithmetic examples like Fibonnaci and factorial. structures being made up of components that are the sameMutterings about functional programming, and strange shape as the whole structure: a list is made of lists and aconcepts like anonymous and higher order functions, tree is made of trees. See Figures 1 and 2.add to the aura of mystique.I think recursion is prettystraightforward, but, like any technique, it makes most Recursive algorithms from recursive structuressense in an appropriate context. In general, ‘function follows form’ (riffing on the Once we’ve chosen a recursive structure, it can bemodernist slogan of ‘form follows function’) is a good guide processed by a recursive algorithm that traverses it byfor problem solving; that is, the structure of a program following the shape. Typically, we construct:should reflect the structure of the data it processes. Or,in computational thinking terms, the patterns in the data n A base case, where we return some final valueshould lead to corresponding abstractions in informationstructures and algorithms. n A recursion case, where we process the recursive components and combine the results with the current values.Recursive structures For example, to sum the values of a list of integers:Recursion is particularly useful for manipulating linkedinformation structures, like lists and trees. These naturally n If the list is empty return 0lend themselves to recursive descriptions and hence torecursive algorithms. n If the list isn’t empty, add the cell value to the sum from the rest of the list (Figure 3). In general, for a recursive structure we can distinguish: For example, to sum the values in a tree of integers:n A base case, where the structure is empty n If the tree is empty, return 0n A recursion case, where the structure has values andrecursive components. n If the tree isn’t empty, add the node value to the sum from the right branch and the sum from the left branch (Figure 4).For example:n A list is empty or is a cell with some value and the rest ofthe listn A tree is empty or is a node with some value and left andright branches which are trees. n Figure 1. Lists are made of lists n Figure 3. Summing a list26 helloworld.cc

n Figure 4. Summing a tree int sum(int a[],int i,int n) { if(i==n)Recursive arrays return 0;We can also develop recursive algorithms for structures return a[i]+sum(a,i+1,n);that we’d normally think of as linear. For example, we }commonly treat arrays as linear and traverse them withloops, but we can rethink them as recursive: Then, starting with array a == [3,2,1]:n An ascending index array is empty or has a first element sum(a,0,3)➜a[0]+sum(a,1,3)➜a[0]+a[1]+sum(a,2,3)followed by the rest of the array (Figure 5). ➜a[0]+a[1]+a[2]+sum(a,3,3)➜a[0]+a[1]+a[2]+0➜ 3+2+1+0 ➜ 6 In general, to process an array according to thisrecursive definition, we need to keep track of the index It looks like we’ve reinvented the FOR loop.of the first element. If the index is the same as the array Let’s try searching an array for value v. We’ll return thelength, there’s no more array, so we’ve hit the base caseand the recursion stops. Otherwise, in the recursion case, index, or -1 if we can’t find the value:we increment the index to get to the first element of therest of the array. n If the array is empty, return -1 For example, to sum the elements of an array, we can n  If v is the first element, return the index of the firstmodify the linked list recursive algorithm: elementn If the array is empty, return 0 n Otherwise, return the index of v in the rest of the array.n If the array isn’t empty, add the first element to the sum int search(int v,int a[],int i,int n) from the rest of the array. { if(i==n) Suppose the array is of length n and the first element return -1;is at index 0. We’ll use a formal parameter i to keep track if(a[i]==v)of the index of the current element and increment it each return i;time we move along the array. We’ll know we’ve run out of return search(v,a,i+1,n);elements when i is n. } Coding in C: So: search(1,a,0,3)search(1,a,1,3)search(1,a,2,3)2n Figure 5. Arrays are made of arrays and: search(4,a,0,3)search(4,a,1,3)search(4,a,2,3) search(4,a,3,3) -1 Do we need recursion? Arguably, arrays are intrinsically linear and so should be processed by iteration. After all, Von Neumann machine memory is linear and manipulated by iterative loops built from tests and jumps. Recursive code must be compiled down to such loops, typically treating memory as a stack. Indeed, we could just forget about recursion and always write iterative algorithms. However, realising apparently simple algorithms to process recursive structures can be tortuous. I think that at the start of any problem, rather than worrying about the algorithm, we should focus on choosing the right information structure for our data. Then, that will be a good guide to how we should structure our algorithm. And if we can see different information structures in our data, we should follow Occam’s Razor and choose whichever makes our life easiest. helloworld.cc 27

FEATURE CS FOR ALL. BUT ARE WE LACKING VISION? The challenges facing young, visually impaired coders, and the importance of inclusion in clubs and the classroom STORY BY Steve Barton K ids love clubs. Scouts, Brownies, n Code Club member working with the T.E.D project creating imaginative, interactive Scratch swimming, athletics; they all offer projects whilst Ted just tinkered with thethat sense of belonging. A shared interest. some, as alien as it might sound to others, Big Trak in a space we’d cleared for him onA common pursuit. Social inclusion. coding is an enjoyable hobby. the floor, I couldn’t help but think that this Keen to find our eight-year-old son a wasn’t the inclusive club that I had set outsuitable extracurricular activity, we very And that’s how I first became involved to create. We had to do something more.quickly exhausted all the usual options; in Code Club. With no coding clubsArchie isn’t sporty and wasn’t realistically operating locally, I approached Archie’s But what? And how? How doesgoing to make the team at our local football school and offered my services as a someone who is blind even code? I’ve beenclub. And he lasted just one Sunday coding mentor if they would agree to host coding for around 25 years and, despite themorning taster session at Stage School, a club. Fantastically, they enthusiastically occasional outrageous brag to the contrary,brutally crushing his mother’s dreams of embraced the idea and, with the support I really can’t do it with my eyes closed.one day walking the red carpet at some of The Code Club network, within a few But then I came across an excellent articleglitzy West End opening night. Fortunately, weeks Deputy Head Mr Fry and myself “A Vision of Coding, Without Openingshe did get a full refund on her frock. were running our first meeting – full of your Eyes” written by Florian Beijers, a But Archie likes to code. That’s right enthusiastic, likewise children. A kind of coder from Arnhem in the Netherlands. In– he likes to code. As educators and IT Cub Scout meeting for geeks. In a very his enlightening piece, Florian, blind sinceprofessionals, we promote the educational cool way. birth, explains how all he needs to code (orbenefits of coding, but let’s never forget; for access any other apps for that matter) is a screen reader, which does exactly whatn T he T.E.D project uses just the arrow keys to navigate Programming blind n The T.E.D project uses voice prompts But week two threw a curveball when Ted joined the club. Ted is registered legally blind. We had access to a Big Trak programmable tank, which occupied him for a while. But come week three, as the other children sat in front of their computers28 helloworld.cc

n T .E.D project screen of their eyes when they build things,” Computer science for all adds Zersiax.it says on the tin and reads the text on the But moreover, and putting educationscreen back to him, in a kind of Siri fashion. Lack of development tools and career aspirations to one side, we’re excluding children from participating in I contacted Florian and, through various This is an issue. Currently, we’re expecting a fun, creative and engaging activity thatexchanges, learnt a lot from him. Mainly that children like Ted to follow the Computer other kids can just take for granted. If we’rehe’s pretty smart. Florian, or Zersiax as he’s Science (CS) curriculum and learn to code truly to embrace ‘CS for All’, and we should,known in coding circles, learnt to code at without making equivalent, engaging and then this needs addressing.just 10 years old, almost by accident, when stimulating development tools availablehe stumbled across an online HTML tutorial to them as we do for sighted children. So, what about Ted? What Scratchwritten by an older, also blind, student. And we’re putting them at a completely does have is an excellent sound library.Using his screen reader, he followed the unnecessary disadvantage. To engage and include him in the Codetutorial and taught himself to code. Club, I wondered if it would be possible Let’s put things into some perspective – to develop something using Scratch to See; I told you he was smart. figures published by the RNIB estimate the leverage that sound library along with But scarily, in coding terms, 10 years number of children aged 16 and under with some of the key code categories (Events,old is now practically ancient. The UK vision impairment in the UK and England Control, etc.). The goal was to give Tedcurriculum is asking children aged just six is 26,000. That’s 26,000 school kids who a real coding experience, the same asor seven to learn the rudiments of coding. aren’t receiving the same level of support everyone else. Of course it had to haveThis is of course where Scratch and other in Computer Science as sighted kids to voice prompts and use the keyboard as‘blocky’ code languages come into their meet the expectations set in the National little as possible; just the arrow keys toown. But here’s the snag; screen readers Curriculum. How’s that fair? navigate and the space bar to selectonly read text. The colourful drop and drag an option.code blocks of Scratch aren’t text, but What’s so disappointing about this isimages, and a screen reader simply can’t that visual impairment or blindness isn’t an The result was a somewhat rudimentarywork in this instance. As Zersiax explains, obstacle to becoming a great coder (I cite prototype Scratch project I eponymously“This makes getting started for a kid in this here the super smart Zersiax as one such dubbed ‘Talk Enabled Development’age group trickier than it should be.” example). The new CS curriculum was (or T.E.D for short). It’s basic for sure, But even with screen reader capabilities, introduced in part to tackle an industry but importantly Ted is now enjoyingthere’s a further challenge: “You need to skill shortage, and yet it’s inadvertently coding his own projects and sharingfind some way of giving these kids that eliminating 26,000 potential new coders. them with the rest of the club.same instant feedback sighted people And coding isn’t a bad job for anyone. Mission accomplished!get with Scratch almost morphing in front STATISTICS n Seven in 10 children and young people with vision impairment attend mainstream schools n The educational attainment of pupils with vision impairment up to the age of 16 isn’t as good as pupils with no special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) n Young people with vision impairment are twice as likely (44%) as their sighted peers not to be in employment, education or training (NEET) Steve is a volunteer Code Club Leader at St Michael’s C of E School in Farnsfield, Nottinghamshire, and founder of Eye Can Code, a charity providing support and resources to get visually impaired children coding. helloworld.cc 29

FEATURE THE POWER OF NETWORKINGFor our young learners to better understand the internet, we need to follow the development of networking from the first connected computers STORY BY Nicholas Provenzano T he power of a single computer is first connected computers. Please note this ‘seeing’ the data but also passing it on. The well understood. The speed and isn’t a historically authoritative account. computer that puts the data in the ring canaccuracy with which it can run through an remove it if it returns. However, how do wealgorithm and solve the most complex of Early connections ensure the data only ‘goes to’ the computerproblems is outstanding. However, it’s the we want to send it to, since it clearly nowmere tip of the iceberg when compared to As computers developed, it was recognised goes through all computers?the power of networked computers. that they could be interconnected to share The internet is the biggest information. With two computers, it was The solution involves giving eachworldwide network of devices computer in our ring a unique address.and has truly transformed easy to provide a dedicated link Before we send our data out, we add thealmost every aspect of how between them and use electrical destination address on to the front of thewe live, work and play. voltages to represent the binary data. For the receiving computer to knowVirtually all our infrastructure 1s and 0s of the data to be sent.is reliant on this global The electrical signals who to reply to, we also add our ownconnectivity. The ubiquitous are referred to as address as the source address.nature of its availability together ‘Layer-1’ or ‘Physical This addition of a sourcewith ease of access has resulted in it Layer’ because they’re address and destinationreplacing costly dedicated connections address to the data forms aand transforming everything. Electrical the closest to the ‘frame’. The process of addinggeneration, water distribution, transport physical connections. this additional data is callednetworks, banks, government, the media, ‘encapsulation’. It’s similar toand most of education would all cease Three computers can placing the data in an envelope,to function with no network connectivity. be connected with threeChildren can relate to the loss of Facebook connections. Four computers putting the address of the destinationor Snapchat, but fail to realise there would need six connections, and so on. The on the front and the sender’s address onbe no power distribution and little food in advantage of the system was that each the back. The process that encapsulates thethe shops if there was no network. computer could choose where to send the data with addresses is called ‘Layer 2’ or When trying to explain how the internet information just by selecting the appropriate the ‘Data Link’ Layer. Thus the format of theworks, it’s vital to appreciate that it has been connection. The downside was the number frame is:a journey over some six or seven decades, of connections and thus connectors on eachwith a variety of technologies coming and device. What was needed was a way of SOURCE DESTINATION DATAgoing. Thus, the networks we have today using a single wire that all devices could ADDRESS ADDRESSand the rules they follow are partially a connect to and a way to somehow sharelegacy of older technology. If we had a clean usage of the wire between them all. Two As the frame is passed around the ring,slate and could start again, we wouldn’t distinct solutions evolved – the ‘ring’ andbuild the internet we have today. Hence, to ‘bus’ topologies. each computer compares the destinationunderstand the internet, we need to followthe development of networking from the Ring address to its own address. If there’s a Rather than connect each computer match, the computer reads the frame and directly to every other computer, they can be connected in a ring topology. The data has received the data. Computers that don’t passes round the ring, with each computer match just forward the frame on. Ring-type networks are used today in Synchronous Optical Networking (SONET) and Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) networks.30 helloworld.cc

Bus RESOURCESAnother option to connect multiple DESCRIPTION VIDEO SCRATCH ANIMATIONcomputers together is to connect them all Single ASCII character being transmitted to a common wire. Initially, this was a thick Word being transmitted using ASCII codes tinyurl.com/ycxoz3dy helloworld.cc/2rinxzYcoaxial cable, similar to a TV cable. Each Full meshed networked computers computer connected to the cable with a ‘tap’, Ring-based network tinyurl.com/y83vyauk helloworld.cc/2JPZ6l2which was a spike in a clamp, tightened Ethernet bus-based network up with a nut. This visualisation of many Ethernet hub-based network tinyurl.com/y9sw68c8 helloworld.cc/2IbSHDCcomputers being connected to a common Ethernet switch-based network wire coined the idea of similarity with a NIC sending data frame tinyurl.com/yb3yykhz helloworld.cc/2rdYrlIbus where people could get on and off as NIC receiving data frame they wished. tinyurl.com/ybse8hg9 helloworld.cc/2HMHp9y The single wire meant only one computer tinyurl.com/y7zc2zzs helloworld.cc/2jr5Uu0could send at any one time, and the datawould go to every computer on the wire. tinyurl.com/yas3z5sb helloworld.cc/2HSNq0sThe technology was called Ethernet andused a set of rules called CSMA/CD to tinyurl.com/y7sz9zj4 helloworld.cc/2KtpHpfmanage more than one computer trying tosend at the same time. Mechanical problems tinyurl.com/y7bz9xdd helloworld.cc/2KzQksCwith the taps and dry jointsled to these networks being wires twisted together in the same way Clearly, the device is now much more thanunreliable and difficult to fix. wires are twisted in a telephone cable. One our humble hub and is called a ‘switch’. pair is used to transmit data and the other An improvement used a Initially the switch will not know thethinner coaxial cable and pair to receive. addresses of the connected computers sospecial connectors called The cable is called it defaults to a hub behaviour and switchesBNC connectors to make the incoming frames out of all ports. However,connections. This was called Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) it learns which addresses are connected to‘Thin Ethernet’ and the original cabling was and is commonly, although which ports by examining source addressesretrospectively renamed ‘Thick Ethernet’. incorrectly, known as Ethernet on incoming frames which are stored in cable. Connection is made via a table within the switch. Hence, future Just like a ring network, all the computers RJ45 plugs. frames are switched to the right ports. Weneed an address. This is the Media Access call switches ‘Layer-Two’ devices becauseControl (MAC), Ethernet, physical or Hub they understand the headers at Layer Two,hardware address. Data is encapsulated the Data-Link Layer.with a header containing the source To provide resilience and simplifyand destination address to make a data connections, the bus was collapsed into a The function of encapsulation is providedframe. In early Ethernet networks, frames box called a hub. Each device connected by the Network Interface Card (NIC) inwere received by all computers and each directly to the hub on its own RJ45 port. the computer. Different interfaces such ascompared the destination address to its own Inside the hub, signals are received on one wired, wireless, 3G/4G will all have differentaddress. If there was a match, the computer pair, are then regenerated, and just like the NICs. No matter what the media (exceptreads the frame and had received the data, bus, transmitted out of all ports. This simple, fibre), there’s still the possibility of someotherwise the frame was just ignored. reliable and cheap way to interconnect electrical interference with the signal and computers led to a high growth in the spikes in the voltage. These ‘spikes’ result Thus the format of the frame is: number of Local Area Networks (LANs) in a binary 0 being interpreted as a binary with multiple computers connected using 1 or visa versa. It may not be obvious thatSOURCE DESTINATION DATA (up to an Ethernet hub. We call hubs ‘Layer-1’ or an error has occurred, so we use a ‘check-ADDRESS ADDRESS 1500 bytes) ‘Physical Layer’ devices because they just field’ at the end of the frame to enable us to(6 bytes) (6 bytes) regenerate the electrical signals with no detect errors. notion of the structure of the frame. Thus our Ethernet frame is now: SwitchCabling SOURCE DESTINATION DATA (up CHECK- Hubs just forward data frames out of all ADDRESS ADDRESS to 1500 FIELDWith Thin and Thick Ethernet networks, ports because they have no knowledge of (6 bytes) (6 bytes) bytes)the electrical signals that carried the binary which computers are connected to whichdata were protected from interference by ports and have no understanding of the When receiving the frame, we checkthe braiding in the coaxial cable. This literally data they’re forwarding. However, advances the ‘check-field’ to see if any errors haveshielded the inner conductor by providing an in electronics have allowed us to improve occurred. If an error occurs, we discardelectrical ‘Faraday’ cage around the core. the efficiency of our Ethernet networks by the frame. putting some ‘intelligence’ in the hub. They Improvements in technology resulted in can now inspect the frame and examine the The next evolution was thebeing able to send the data over a pair of source and destination Ethernet addresses. interconnection of all these LANs and the birth of the Internet Protocol (IP). helloworld.cc 31

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FEATUREn AI applications will transform the world in which young people live and work. AIinSchools helps them understand this technology AIINSCHOOLS PROGRAMMEBRINGS AI TO THE CLASSROOM AI will transform the lives of today’s pupils. The AIinSchools programme provides a practical understanding of this technology to help them navigate the AI future STORY BY Beverly Clarke A rtificial intelligence (AI) is rarely out inspiration and prepare a new generation EMBEDDING of the news these days. Although it for the intelligent industrial revolution. As AI WITHIN THEmay seem like something from a sci-fi movie well as equipping individuals to succeed in SECONDARYrather than part of our daily lives, most of us their future lives and careers, initiatives CURRICULUMin fact are regular AI users. Each time we use like AIinSchools have a vital role to playa digital assistant like Siri, Alexa or Cortana, in ensuring the UK is positioned to reap The AIinSchools scheme of work coversget a recommendation for a TV show from the economic and social benefits of AI. half a term (six weeks) based uponNetflix or have Google autocomplete our one-hour lessons. Each lesson hassearch term, we’re using AI. By providing a detailed SOW for ideas for starter and plenary activities, And these kinds of applications are just teachers, AIinSchools aims to supply main, extension, stretch/challenge andthe beginning. The World Economic Forum teachers with everything they need to support activities. A bank of questionsestimates that, by 2025, 90 percent of explore and apply AI with their students. is supplied to facilitate conversationjobs will require digital skills, and that 65 The teaching kit has been developed around morals and ethics of artificialpercent of children entering primary school in accordance with the requirements of intelligence. Teacher presentationtoday will work in jobs that don’t currently Key Stage 3 of the National Curriculum slides along with worksheets areexist. The lives of today’s young people in England. It includes lesson plans, also available. All resources arewill be transformed in many ways by this worksheets and activities, enabling teachers free. For further information, emailtechnology, so it’s imperative they receive a to deliver six one-hour lessons. [email protected] in its origins and principles. AIinSchools was created to help Understanding AI terminologydemystify and democratise AI. By putting and applicationsAI into the hands of pupils, the scheme ofwork (SOW) aims to remove fear, spark The ability to think about and discuss AI critically relies on understanding key vocabulary. To this end, the SOW starts34 helloworld.cc

by explaining core terms like artificial Unplugged activities summative assessment, which ranges from intelligence, machine learning and deep multiple choice, to short answer to long learning, and makes clear how these AI theory is supplemented by hands-on answer questions. There’s also an activity often-confused terms relate to one assignments. Pupils work on an image for pupils to look at famous women in AI. another. Pupils also gain exposure to recognition task and gain knowledge of Lesson activities allow for paired, group and concepts such as ‘broad AI’, ‘narrow AI’ common AI frameworks such as Google individual work. and ‘super AI’. In addition, there’s focus on Tensor Flow, Torch, MX-Net, MSFT and concepts such as ‘the Turing test’ to give Caffe. Pupils gain knowledge of Links with the national curriculum are pupils an understanding of the roots of labelled datasets, supervised and made, and spiritual, moral, social, cultural machine learning. unsupervised learning. (SMSC) development is promoted alongside British values. There are no specialist This is followed by a focus on deep They also gain an appreciation of the tools required to teach this unit, and neural networks, including where and how contribution made to AI by different delivery is suited to a specialist or they’re used. Understanding of neural compute models as they utilise cloud-based non-specialist teacher. networks is underpinned with a whole- graphics processing units (GPUs) class unplugged activity. Pupils further to recognise their images with varying AIinSchools was unveiled at the Bett develop knowledge on the layers within a degrees of accuracy. There’s no education technology show in London on neural network and gain an understanding programming in this task or in the SOW, as 26 January. Six schools will participate in an of how mathematics is used to adjust the not every pupil will be a programmer. The initial pilot project, following which the kit weightings in a neural network. Throughout, lesson shows how easy it is for anyone to will be made available to secondary schools the SOW provides prompts for teachers to build AI systems. across the UK. question the class, so pupils gain a deeper understanding of concepts and can discuss In all lessons, pupils are encouraged If you’re interested in participating or them with peers. to look beyond the lesson and see would like to learn more, please contact real-world implementations of AI and to [email protected]. While a basic understanding of terms is think of possible AI innovations. There’s useful, it’s equally important to inspire pupils further development on how AI is changing Beverly is a former secondary school teacher and our future with focus on agriculture, Director of Computing who now combines roles as an author and education consultant for BCS “ BY PUTTING AI INTO THE HANDS OF Chartered Institute for IT. She is also a subject PUPILS, THE SCHEME OF WORK AIMS TO matter expert and Computing At School (CAS) REMOVE FEAR AND SPARK INSPIRATION Outreach Support for the South West region, a CAS Master Teacher and former hub leader. HerImage courtesy of nvidia.co.uk with real-world examples of how AI is shopping (automated services), cooking, book, “Computer Science Teacher – insight into being applied in ways that are relevant and transport including driverless cars accessible to them. The theoretical elements (roads), medical diagnosis and assembly the computing classroom,” was published in of the SOW are grounded by a focus on AI line manufacturing. August 2017. She is also a CAS Board member usage in specific industries such as internet As well as being a qualified teacher, she is a services, education, transportation, medicine The concept of a chatbot is also explored. Chartered IT Professional (CITP) and National and healthcare, media and entertainment, Pupils interact with a variety of chatbots Professional Qualification in Senior Leadership and helping the elderly/disabled. and look at the way in which they work. (NPQSL) qualified. She is the subject matter Other emerging AI concepts such as expert for BBC Bitesize videos on Computational Through discussion, these verticals affective computing are also delved into. Thinking, and specialises in the Key Stage 3 combine to prompt an investigation of the concept of smart cities, including emphasis Cross-curricular links element of the new Computing curriculum. on big data generated in a smart city and Within schools, Beverly has successfully led how this is used, and an understanding Each lesson has a bank of keywords to departments, been seconded to “Sharing of Best of the Internet of Things (IoT). Pupils will facilitate discussion. Cross-curricular Practice teams,” and managed whole school then design their own smart city and look links are also provided with areas such as projects. She also works with BCS Chartered at a variety of considerations for a smart biology (neurons), mathematics (through Institute for IT, writing subject material and city. They can also use the knowledge and understanding a weights matrix and also inspiration gained during this lesson to reading of charts when training the AI delivering workshops to trainee teachers. enter a national competition (currently in system), geography and eSafety. She has spoken at a variety of conferences and the pilot stage and run by the All Parties events such as the BCS Inclusion in IT launch, Parliamentary Group for AI) to design Formative and summative assessment CAS South West regional conference, Future Sync their smart city or workplace of the future. ideas and resources are given for each of conference, numerous CAS hub meetings and the six lessons, and the AIinSchools scheme Surrey Subject leader meetings. Beverly is the of work is pulled together with a short creator of the AIinSchools scheme of work and resources. helloworld.cc 35

FEATURE THE BEE-BOT JUST WHAT IS A COMPUTER?Could you explain it? Could the children in your class? We spend so much time learning how to use, program and control computers, we often don’t take the time to recognise what they are STORY BY Sway Grantham W henever I teach anything, I try to device and computer are synonyms with n E ach drawing leads to interesting discussions give the children a context – why one another. The other commonality isis this something useful to know? I’m describing the computer’s function, as if get a mixture of a desktop computersure this is the same for many of you, as to define it we just need to know what or a games console connected to a TV.it gets children excited about the real- it does. This definition greatly reduces Again, we talk about the parts. Is there aworld impact they can have with this the potential a computer has to only screen? What about a keyboard? Now wenew knowledge. Computing is ideal for ‘searching’ or ‘gaining information’, and can have a discussion about there beingthis. There’s not much of our children’s this understanding is going to hinder no keyboard on a games console butlives that isn’t impacted by programmed the children’s acknowledgement of the instead there’s a controller. I then repeattechnologies, from household appliances, application of computing to anything this process twice more, but this time Ito public safety measures, to everyday beyond personal use. change the question to ‘what objects doobjects in supermarkets and shops, yet you think have a computer inside of them?’.how many of these things do the children With younger children, first we get a Each drawing they do leads to interestingrecognise as needing to be programmed piece of paper and ask them to fold it into discussions, from traffic lights to remoteor even having computers inside of them? quarters. In the first box, they have two control cars or ipads.Barely any. minutes to draw a picture of a computer. Nearly all of them will draw a laptop. Then Does it really matter?What is a computer? we discuss what they drew – did their laptops include a keyboard and a mouse? I’ve already mentioned that I think it’sAt the start of last year, I asked the What about a screen? By acknowledging important to show children a context forchildren in Key Stage 2 the question: the parts of a computer, we can later what they’re learning, but recognisingwhat is a computer? Their answers varied explore which parts are necessary for a what a computer is and what devicesbut many had similar themes. Here are computer to work. Now we move ontomy favourites: box two. This time, I ask them to draw a ‘different type’ of computer, and I usuallyn A piece of technologyn  A keyboard and a screen n Is there a computer inside?n A search enginen  A machine used for workn A metal brainn A machine with a keyboardn  Information devicen It’s electric. This simple activity can show us thebeginnings of a wealth of misconceptions.For example, many children identifieda computer as needing ‘a keyboard’ tomake it a computer. There’s also a beliefthat machine, technology, electrical36 helloworld.cc

have computers inside of them is more n What happens when you press the button to cross? we can talk to it using Siri (a microphonethan that. After three years of a new input). What code runs when we pressComputing curriculum, my children computer is and how to recognise one. the home button? Something like ‘whencan explain that an algorithm is ‘a clear They start with spotting buttons, wires, button pressed, show home screen’ andand detailed set of instructions that batteries etc and then we talk about what then the output? How do we know it’sexplain what you want the computer they do. If they recognise that when a done what we wanted it to? We can seeto do’. They can also tell you that a button is pressed there are instructions to it on the touchscreen. This simple modelprogram is ‘a set of instructions that follow, they’re beginning to understand allows us to test different machines orruns on a computer to tell it what to what a computer is and where you’re items of technology and tell if they’re ado’. Both of these meet the National likely to find them. As children move computer or not.Curriculum requirements for Computing through Key Stage 1, we begin thewell. Following this, we might get out a technology hunts, spotting buttons One misconception I regularly hearprogrammable toy such as a Bee-Bot, and discussing what might happen if is children referring to a monitor, or theand request they program it. However, we press them. This is where we start interactive whiteboard, as a computer.to them, this isn’t a computer. If it’s not a differentiating between those things that Using this model, we can test thiscomputer, it can’t run a program, so what just use electricity and those that run misconception – what’s the input? Thereare they learning from playing with it? a program. A light switch doesn’t give are some buttons. So what happensSuddenly, their learning seems disjointed when we press them? It says ‘no input’.and nonsensical. What’s the program it’s running? It’s not doing anything because there’s no laptop As the children get older, it becomes plugged in. Then is it a computer? No. Wemore and more important that they now have a way to start conversationsrecognise the programs that are working about whether or not a device is aall around them. The National Curriculum computer and therefore whether or not astates that children in Key Stage 2 device is running a program.should ‘work with variables and variousforms of input and output’. This only As we work our way through uppermakes sense if they can acknowledge Key Stage 2, we add to the challenge.what an input and an output are. Which What about when inputs are sensors?parts of the computer are vital and Can the children work out how automaticwhich are optional? Inputs and outputs doors work? I’ve heard many amazingcan vary – are you going to control possible ways in which automatic doorsyour robot with a keyboard? Or do you can work, from a man watching a camerawant a voice-controlled robot? If you and pressing a button all day to heatdo, the input would be a microphone. detectors checking you’re allowed to enter, but once again the children are“ EVEN THE YOUNGEST OF LEARNERS START exploring their misconceptions of the LEARNING ABOUT WHAT A COMPUTER world and developing their understanding IS AND HOW TO RECOGNISE ONE of how the subject of computing is applied all around us.Is your robot going to have a screen? an instruction to a light, it just breaksIt’s unlikely that this is the most useful the circuit. It’s important that children learnoutput for a robot. Earlier, those children what ubiquitous programming is sowho described a computer as having By Key Stage 2, we explore the world that they grow their understanding of aa keyboard are unlikely to be able to around us and try to work out what world they’re a part of. Once you startthink of alternative forms of input that the algorithm would be. We use ‘input’ these conversations, you never knowtheir program could make use of and -> ‘process’ -> ‘output’ to decide if where they’ll end up! Take some timethus not be able to achieve this part of something has a computer inside or not. this week to ask your class: is a Bee-Botthe curriculum. Each time we use this model, we reaffirm a computer? what an input and output are as well asWhat should I do about it? the basic concept of programs running on Sway teaches Computing at Giffard Park Primary computers. For example, what’s the input School in Milton Keynes as well as being a digitalEven the youngest of learners at our on an iPad? How do we tell it what to do? technologies consultant. She was part of the firstschool start learning about what a There’s a home button, a touchscreen, or Picademy to become a Raspberry Pi Certified Educator and loves engaging in conversations about the pedagogy of computing. Find her on Twitter @SwayGrantham helloworld.cc 37

FEATURE GP, SNAP!, SCRATCH NEW STRATEGIES FOR NEW CONCEPTS What’s different with block-based programming? STORY BY Sven Jatzlau and Ralf Romeike C hoosing the right programming n Instead of instantly executing the loop, making it hard Without this delay, sprites language for your class is a tricky to see what happened, the sprite will slowly rotate 360° could shoot out of thething. The designers of the language have stage boundaries instantly,made choices about what it looks like and introduced new concepts such as nesting without the user beinghow easy it is to use. The choices made of sprites, events, or first-class objects. able to understand whatin block-based programming languages While several of these concepts are found happened, because theysuch as Scratch, Snap!, or GP make them in Scratch, a number of concepts outlined couldn’t see. To protect usersvery different from text-based languages in this article are only found in its sibling from experiencing this, all thelike Java or Python. In these languages, we languages, Snap and GP. As they didn’t loops, wait blocks and motioncan find new concepts, and with them new undergo many of the simplifications found blocks were equipped withapproaches to solving problems. This also in Scratch, these languages lend themselves a delay. Snap! in particularmeans we need to make learners aware of to secondary education. Teachers need takes this one step further:these new concepts and possibilities. to know something about the different activating ‘visible stepping’ enables the concepts in order to more effectively teach user to not only see which block is currentlyWhat’s different? them to their students! being executed, but to control the execution speed manually. For debugging purposes,In 2005, Scratch made its debut. Developed Delayed execution this is an invaluable tool!by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group atMIT, it represented a new approach to Most of the new concepts exist for a Nestingintroducing programming to learners: based pedagogical reason: making the languageon the ideas of ‘low floor, wide walls, high intuitive and easy to use. One of the ways Visual programming creates newceilings’ by Seymour Papert, its popularity this is reflected is that code scripts are approaches to solve new problems. Spritegrew rapidly. At the time of writing, some executed slower than the environment nesting is a great example of this. It creates22 million projects, guides, animations, and (and the computer!) would normally allow. a hierarchy between two objects/sprites bygames have been shared by a continuously making one the owner (or ‘anchor’ in Snap!),growing user base of 19 million users. In and the other a part. While Scratch doesn’tschools, block-based languages display a support the nesting of objects, Snap! andsimilar success: compared to text programs, GP do. Dragging and dropping one spriteblock-based environments enable students from the sprite palette onto the other oneto achieve better results on average. They on the stage nests the two objects intoachieve these results faster, and with more each other. From that point onward, they’llmotivation. At the same time, however, move and turn as a single unit, referencethese block-based visual programs also each other using the anchor/ owner and38 helloworld.cc

parts blocks, but will still be consideredtwo objects for the purpose of the program.This also means that they can still rotatethemselves – it’s easy to think of it as apart-whole structure, like a car: it consistsof many single parts, like tyres, mirrors,the engine, etc. When the car drivesand turns, all of its parts (naturally) turnand move with it. However, parts can beremoved and added, and some can eventurn by themselves (like the tyres) without itaffecting the rotation of the entire car.In block-based programming, this conceptenables the user to detect which part ofan object collides with another object, tocreate composite objects consisting ofsmaller parts, and even to create physics-based simulations!First-class objects n In this Snap! program, when the ferris wheel turns, the cabins turn with it. Each individual cabin constantly points downwards to simulate real physicsWhilst there are loads of complexdefinitions of the term, essentially the ideabehind the concept is that it should bepossible for every object in a programmingenvironment to be used freely – thereshould be no limitation on the context inwhich an object can be placed: as the value“ BLOCK-BASED ENVIRONMENTS that can be found in Scratch, Snap!, and GP. ENABLE STUDENTS TO ACHIEVE Because events are intuitively understood BETTER RESULTS ON AVERAGE as something one can react to, learners instinctively program parallel solutions toof a variable, an input to a procedure, etc. n Mapping the function over values returns a list of 1, 4, 9, and so on. problems: an object reacts to a button inputAn example of this can be seen in Java: Higher-order functions made simple! with one script, and to touching anotherIntegers, Strings and Booleans can be used object with another script. If both eventsas the input, or parameter, of a method, them as inputs for other functions, therefore occur at the same time, the object doesor as the return type. They can also be making them higher-order functions! both things at the same time! Learnersassigned as the value of a variable. It seems implement these solution without eventhat there are no limitations on what we Event-based programming realising why that’s a hard thing to docan do with these data types; this makes in other languages. This opens up thethem first-class objects. But what about There have always been event-driven possibility of learning about concurrencymethods? Methods can’t be assigned to programming languages (events such as and dependency in simple, intuitivea variable, used as the input to another user input, sensor readings, or messages environments and contexts.method, or returned by another method. from other threads control the flow of theDo these limitations make them second- program). This is the type of programming What does this mean?class objects? The growing presence of these In Snap! and GP, all objects are first programming languages brings great, newclass, therefore putting no limits on what possibilities to classrooms. At the samethe users can ‘do’ with them. This concept time, however, new teaching strategiesis closely related to the term ‘higher-order are needed in order to teach these newfunctions’: being able to store methods (or concepts and their possible applications.blocks in our case) in lists allows us to use The more concepts learners understand, the more options they have to choose from to implement their solution, and more complex problems may be solved. helloworld.cc 39

FEATURE WHAT TO DO AFTER SCRATCH? TRY GP!GP lets students explore advanced computational ideas in a playful, blocks-based language G P, from the implementors of STORY BY John Maloney used at a university in Germany to teach Scratch and Snap!, is a blocks- programming to science majors, withbased programming system that supports gives those students another path, allowing examples ranging from barcode scannersgeneral-purpose computation. Think of GP them to go beyond what’s possible in to celestial mechanics. This year, at aas ‘Scratch meets Python’. Like Scratch, Scratch without struggling with syntax. high school in Texas, GP was used in anGP’s built-in graphics and animation help Advanced Placement course to introducestudents see and understand program Educators can use GP to explore class-based object-oriented programmingoperation whilst creating projects that Computer Science and STEAM subjects before transitioning the students to Java.connect to their own interests. Like Python, without having their class get bogged down Finally, at the middle-school level, tens ofGP can do many things, such as process by the steep learning curve of a text-based thousands of students have done GP’spixels, sound samples, data structures, language. They can focus on concepts and popular ‘Hour of Code’ tutorials.music, statistical and scientific data, and ideas rather than programming mechanics,much more. possibly engaging students more deeply as What can you do with GP? The gallery Students who start with Scratch often a result. page on the GP website (gpblocks.org)hit a wall when they attempt to jump into a shows some examples: manipulatingtext-based language like Python or Java. GP Who uses GP? the pixels of a photograph, simulating an ecosystem, exploring mathematical ideas GP is being used around the world, with students ranging from Year 5 through to university. For example, GP is being n A nimation helps students see how Quicksort outpaces Bubble Sort as N increases. Students can implement and animate additional algorithms40 helloworld.cc

EXTENDING GP For advanced or curious learners, GP offers something that no other blocks-language offers: the ability to view the GP system itself, including its libraries and IDE, as blocks. Adventurous users can even extend the GP system. n In a few hours, a teacher can create a tree visualisation framework to help students explore tree traversal and manipulationsuch as the Mandelbrot set, or displaying agraphical view of a musical score as it plays.Teaching CS with GP n Using GP to visualise and understand real data from a 450 megabyte website log file with over 2 million recordsFor Computer Science teachers, GP can bea compelling way to teach object-orientedprogramming. The GP interface makesclasses and instances visible and useconventional vocabulary. In addition, since GP has Scratch-likeanimation and graphics built in, datastructures can be made visible andalgorithms can be animated with just alittle extra code. For example, a teachermight create an animated version of“ DATA STRUCTURES CAN BE MADE VISIBLE a bit faster than the browser version AND ALGORITHMS CAN BE ANIMATED and can use local files, serial ports, WITH JUST A LITTLE EXTRA CODE server-side sockets, and other facilities that are blocked by the browser sandbox.Bubble Sort, then challenge students to beyond mere classroom exercises. For It can also explore a GP project as aimplement a faster sorting algorithm, such example, the author used GP to analyse standalone executable, a feature that canas Quicksort, or students might understand and graph a 450 megabyte server log file be very motivating for students.tree operations through animation. containing over two million records to gain a better understanding of the GP website If you love Scratch and are lookingWorking with data usage patterns over time. for a way to take it to the next level, give GP a try!GP also allows students to work with real Where to get GPdata such as text or CSV files. Students John was the lead developer for Scratch formight be asked to write programs to count You can learn more about GP at its first 11 years. For the past few years, he hasthe number of unique words in text files of gpblocks.org. GP runs in all modern been creating GP with Jens Mönig and Yoshikibooks from the Project Gutenberg website, browsers and on Chromebooks. It can Ohshima at several research labs. John has athen compare the working vocabularies of also be downloaded as a standalone Ph.D. in computer science from the Universityvarious authors (e.g. Jane Austin vs Louise application that runs on Windows, MacOS, of Washington and has been working on live,May Alcott). Data analysis in GP can go and Linux. The standalone version of GP is beginner-friendly programming systems for over 25 years. helloworld.cc 41

FEATURE n Space Invaders implemented using Scratch COPYING IS ALLOWED! Copying is important for learning, not just to teach skills but also for inspiration. Help give your class a flying start by encouraging it! STORY BY John Arnold opying - everyone knows it’s bad, Code Club – copying is... I pause to see if they’ll fill in the gap... allowed! This usually C right? Copying the schoolwork of raises a smile or a laugh. The second rule of Code Club – if you’ve made something cool, the kid next to you or copying someone show it off! I have other rules – no playing else’s style in art? These are universally games unless you wrote them yourself, no frowned upon. Shouldn’t we develop our YouTube, don’t talk about Code Club – but own style? Use our creativity and make those first two are really important. something new? Well, ideally yes, but there’s a lot to be gained from looking at The first rule of Code Club the work of others, especially when you’re developing a new skill like programming. First of all, copying is a long tradition in programming. Professional programmers all I teach Code Clubs in two local schools build on the work of those who came before. and I always begin the year by telling the kids my two golden rules. The first rule of42 helloworld.cc

The use of library code and well-understood SOFTWAREprogramming patterns is the bedrock of our DEVELOPMENT CYCLEprofession. And I want the kids in my clubto understand that there are no extra prizes work so that others can build on it. When The software development cycle loops around.for reinventing the wheel. If your friend on they look at a project they like, they can Begin with design, implement it in code and thenthe next desk has written something cool remix it. That’s just a straightforward copy. test. Refine the design, write more code andand you want to do the same, steal their The remixer gets all the code and all the test again. This iterative process helps refine thecode. Give credit, sure. Modify it if you wish. images for free. They’ve essentially copied program until it’s perfect!But steal. Make progress. After all, is that so everything the first coder did and it givesdifferent from typing a game listing from a them a flying start for their own project. I’ve favourites. Or classic arcade games oftenmagazine into your Commodore 64 all those have simple rules that are easy to code.years ago? Of course not. found that different kids Work with them to describe in words what are interested in different the rules of the game are. Then figure out The real benefit of copying aspects of software what sprites you’ll need and how each spritein this way is that those development. Some love behaves. Only when you’ve talked all thatkids who really understand the act of coding. Some love through and perhaps drawn a little on awhat’s going on will pick working on the graphics. And whiteboard, let them start dragging Scratchapart what they’ve stolen some are filled with ideas blocks around. This is the design phase ofand build on it. And those for cool game mechanics. the software development cycle and it’sfor whom the penny hasn’t We need all those skills important because it’s where they learn tocompletely dropped yet will in industry, and a remixed pull apart a problem into smaller problemsmake progress and have fun. project gives each one what that can be solved in code.They’ll produce more work they need to explore their area of interest.and, hopefully, the more they do, the more With programming just as with art, wethey’ll understand. And, let’s face it, in an Stealing from the past practise and develop our techniques and,after-school club like Code Club, the point is eventually, when our skills mature and ourfirst of all to have fun. Inspiration is key in teaching kids tastes develop, our own style can emerge. programming. Once you’re through the Creativity doesn’t always mean inventingJob number one is to inspire! first few weeks of following the excellent something from a blank page. Give your kids Scratch projects on codeclubprojects.org, starting points and inspiration. EncourageSo how about that second rule? If you’ve many will want to start making something them to copy and to give credit. Very quicklymade something cool, show it off! Well of their own. They’ll start out with an empty you’ll see them producing uniquely creativethis is about copying too. If a kid has done Scratch project and imagine they can create and unusual projects that you’ll want tosomething they’re proud of, they want to something simply by dragging random show off for them!show it off. That’s great because it gives you blocks around. Of course that doesn’tthe chance to review what they’ve done, work. Programming is all about telling thehave them explain it to you and check their computer what to do, and you can’t if youunderstanding. Review is a great teacher. don’t first know that yourself. So don’t beBut if they also show their classmates then afraid to steal designs too.it inspires the others. It gives them ideas. Itgives them the chance to copy. Help your kids generate game ideas by suggesting games they know from the apps I see inspiration as my number one task in world. Flappy Bird is one of my enduringCode Club. I’m certainly there to teach themprogramming skills, answer questions and John is a small business owner in Cheshire withsolve their problems. But, more importantly, a background as a professional programmer. HeI want them to see where programming can teaches Code Clubs in two local schools becausetake them. I want them to have ideas and set he wants kids to love programming as much as heabout implementing those ideas. So when did when he learned on his beloved Commodore 64.a child has made something cool, I want tocelebrate that and share it around. I wantothers to be inspired by it and make theirown versions of it. The Scratch website understands this andprovides a mechanism for kids to share their helloworld.cc 43

FEATURE AGILE METHODOLOGIES IN THE CLASSROOM Beyond giving students a taste of what working as a software developer entails, introducing agile practices into the classroom has lots of other benefits STORY BY Harriet Ryder gile is an adjective applied to a testing and then finally delivery. Between work in a more agile way. I won’t go into all the first and final stages, years might have of them, just a few favourites that we employ A range of methodologies that have passed. Years is a long time in the tech in the classroom every day. world, and by that time the requirementsbeen developed to improve the software might well have changed. But too late – the Pair programmingdevelopment process and lifecycle. Being product’s signed, sealed and delivered.agile means moving and responding For us, this is the most important agilequickly. It means being able to respond to Why in the classroom? methodology we use. During a projectshifting requirements, industry changes and (which we call a ‘sprint’ and for usunforeseen problems. It usually involves I teach software development to adults, lasts two days), we pair students forcross-disciplinary teams of developers preparing them for work in the industry. about half the time. We give studentscollaborating, planning and reviewing Exposing them to common industry a quarter of the allotted coding timesoftware together, and one of its key tenets practices and structuring the classroom like a initially to explore aspects of the problemis to work in short iterations, building development shop is important in preparing alone, and then we randomly pair themthe minimal product you need and then them for work. However, the techniques up to continue working. When they pair,refactoring and improving it later. and ideas that I’m going to talk about can be they have to start again, integrating ideas applied to all areas of life and provide tools for from both of their initial explorations. It stands in contrast to the more tackling any project or problem. At the end, they split again andtraditional ‘waterfall’ approach, where independently finish up the project ina product flows down through several There are a whole range of methodologies whatever way they prefer.fixed stages – from initially deciding the and frameworks that can be used to help yourequirements, through design, building, n Free tools such as trello.com can be used as Kanban boards to organise workflow44 helloworld.cc

n Students driving and DRIVING AND navigating on a project NAVIGATING The driver role: n   Is the one using the computer n   Listens to the navigator n  I mplements the ideas of the navigator n   Can question the navigator The navigator role: n   Directs the driver n   Explains their ideas n   Doesn’t touch the computer n   Can use pen/paper to help explain their thinkingHow to pair to explain what they’ve been working on, cards, add additional information and what they found challenging and whether upload attachments.Whilst pairing, students work on one they’ve overcome it, and what they want tosingle computer and follow a strict driving- achieve today. We use this in combination Github also has a similar board systemnavigating model, as explained in the boxout. with Kanban (explained below). We think called Projects. Github Projects are greatWhilst pairing, students have no choice it’s really important for every student to because you can integrate your cards withbut to try to explain and communicate their hear what other students struggled with, as Github Issues and link to parts of your code.ideas. This can be challenging at first, but everyone will be struggling with something.continual practice at explaining technical Many students on our course end upconcepts and ideas really helps students We also encourage group retrospectives, using Kanban to organise everything –embed what they’re learning and discover where upon finishing a sprint the group will from independent studying, job hunting towhat areas they don’t fully understand. discuss what went well, what didn’t go well, general life tasks!“ PRACTICE AT EXPLAINING TECHNICAL ‘Just make it work’ CONCEPTS AND IDEAS HELPS STUDENTS EMBED WHAT THEY’RE LEARNING Another concept we spend a lot of time talking about is the Minimum Viable Product. Every 30 minutes, we ask students to and what could have been done differently. Building an MVP means building the mostswap roles. This might involve using a version Sometimes, students will keep ongoing blogs barebones version of the product thatcontrol system to push their work to a service or logs of their work on a project and use this will work. We discourage students fromlike Github and then pull it down on the other during retrospectives to refer back to. trying to create the most amazing, all bells-student’s computer, or it could just mean and-whistles product on the first attemptswapping who’s using the same computer. Kanban because who knows how the specification might end up changing later and how muchScrum The principle of Kanban methodology is time we will have wasted. to be able to visualise work and tasks toScrum is a framework for managing roles be completed. ‘Kanban’ means billboard in But beyond practical implication,and workflow in an agile way. A few Japanese and that’s usually what you use - stressing the importance of ‘just make itthings we’ve borrowed from Scrum are some kind of billboard divided into columns. work’ encourages small wins, which boostthe concepts of stand-up meetings and Tasks can be moved from column to column confidence. Students can improve, refactorretrospectives. If students are working on a as they progress through the development and rethink their initial attempt, but at leastproject over several days in a small group, we workflow. Sometimes, the board is drawn up they’ve got something to show. Creatinghelp them organise stand-up meetings at the on a whiteboard, but free software such as something that ‘just works’ also gives abeginning of the class, where they stand in Trello (www.trello.com) can also be starting point to talk about how we cana circle and each student has a few minutes used. You can also tag individuals on make the code cleaner and more modular, or consider edge cases. Harriet teaches software development to adults in one of the UK’s leading bootcamps. helloworld.cc 45

FEATURE USING MAKERSPACES TO EXPLORE ENGINEERING IN THE CLASSROOM Makerspaces are becoming a hub for STEAM in schools and they’ve become an invaluable tool in bringing engineering to the forefront of school programmes STORY BY Nicholas Provenzano acquired by utilising the space. To help you understand, I’ll break down the levels and provide examples to explore in your space.  n Ella H helps repair the team robot after competition. Exploring Beginner engineering level n Starting with arts and crafts to prototype designs is a great robotics is a great way to get students involved in engineering entry-level tool to engage beginners in the engineering process We all have to start somewhere, and the T eachers have begun to explore the beginner engineering level is where many A fun project I’ve done with students power of bringing makerspaces to people will begin their STEAM journey. At is to give them a set number of largetheir schools and classrooms, and they’re this level, students and teachers are marshmallows, usually 10-15, and astarting to see how they can fully support going to spend their time exploring handful of smaller marshmallows, and 30the various aspects of STEAM. While all the design process. They’ll identify pieces of long, uncooked spaghetti noodles.aspects of STEAM are well supported in problems in their home, school, or Once they receive these supplies, they’remakerspaces, engineering has really taken community and try to come up with instructed to work in their group and builda hold in many spaces around the world. solutions to those problems. the tallest tower possible with the supplies As a teacher, looking at new provided. I give the students an hour, andmakerspaces and seeing all of the tools Designing solutions to problems is we measure the towers at the end. I’vecan be intimidating, but there’s space for all one of the main aspects of every type of done this with adults too and it’s alwayslevels of learning. As students and teachers engineer. It’s a skill that can help anyone fun. Students learn the value of taking theirexplore engineering in a makerspace, their in any job or life situation. For the beginner time, designing a possible solution, and thenconfidence with the various tools and level, students and teachers should use building. This is always more successfulconcepts will grow, and the space will cardboard, popsicle sticks and other crafting than building right away and figuring it outgrow with them. It’s best to break down supplies to explore what design and as they build. This entry-level project withthe approach of utilising a makerspace prototyping will look like. students and teachers is a great way toto explore engineering into three levels: start exploring what engineering looks likebeginner, intermediate, and advanced. A n Students explore the early stages of engineering by creating using basic tools and arts and crafts. Oncestudent or teacher’s level has nothing to projects with littleBits in the school makerspace, The Knight’s Forge everyone feels comfortable in this area, it’sdo with age, but rather the skills they’ve time to explore the next level.46 helloworld.cc

Intermediate engineering level engineering that interests them. This TOOLS FOR is a great time to support students EACH LEVELFor the intermediate level, it’s time to as they look to bring the digital andexplore the digital side of engineering in physical world of engineering together BEGINNERSTEAM. Scratch is an excellent block-based to create a multitude of projects. Cardboard, scissors, glue, duct tape, string, yarn,coding system that’s perfect to explore for The sky’s the limit for this skill level for popsicle stickspeople new to coding and design. Scratch students and teachers. Exploring robotics INTERMEDIATEcan help any user new to coding begin to and IoT are common projects for those Scratch, Raspberry Pi, Arduino, 3D printers,build a foundation in computer engineering looking to stretch their engineering and Makey Makeythat could grow into so many different areas design muscles. ADVANCEDof programming and design if they stick littleBits code kit, Python, Raspberry Pi Sense HAT,with it. A great example to weave this type A wonderful example of this is when various sensors, motors, servosof design and engineering into a curriculum I had a student use littleBits and theirthat utilises the makerspace was a project code kit to create her own robot. Thecreated by one of my Maths teachers. robot had a motion sensor and speakerShe had students create their own arcade that would play sounds based on motiongames using Scratch to help them gain a it detected. It could also be controlledbetter understanding of how objects move through a bluetooth connection on heralong an X/Y plane. phone. This student is in 6th grade, and she was able to design, code and build her own The students had to design the game robot. She gained the confidence to do thisthey wanted and explore how to make by exploring physical computing earlier inthat game possible using the code“ A MAKERSPACE SHOULD HAVE ALL THE TOOLS STUDENTS NEED FOR THEIR EDUCATIONAL JOURNEY n Makerspaces are a great spot for young girls to explore theavailable in Scratch. As an extension to the year with Raspberry Pi and modelling different areas of STEAM with their friendsthis project, some students designed their ideas in cardboard. She took all of theown controllers using Makey Makey and skills she learned over the course of the In a makerspace, students have access to a varietycardboard. Students spent time designing year and put them together to create of different tools to support them as they exploretheir controller to be able to control the her own robot using littleBits. Her build is a the different aspects of engineering. Some studentsgame they created. This is a wonderful testament to the power of STEAM in the will be focused on 3D prototypes, while others willexample of students taking the design classroom and how engineering can be dive into computer engineering and explore writingand engineering process from concept a great way to introduce many important code. No matter what they choose and what levelto product. As students begin to become STEAM concepts over the course of a they’re at, a makerspace should have all the toolsmore comfortable with the tools that are student’s education. students need for their educational journey.available in the makerspace, they’ll pushthemselves creatively and start to focus on There are many different parts to Nicholas is a technology coordinator andlarger projects that require more complex engineering, and a student or teacher might makerspace director at University Liggettengineering and design. The same is be advanced in one aspect, intermediate in School in Michigan. He’s also an author, speakertrue for the teachers who are learning in one, and a beginner in another. It’s important and consultant. He writes on his website,the makerspace as well. Their projects to remember that every person is on their TheNerdyTeacher.com, Edutopia.org, as well aswill increase in complexity to support own personal educational journey and many other prominent educational websites. Hethe students who are fine-tuning their they’ll arrive at different times. By having has been awarded the Technology Teacher of theskills. The advanced level for makerspace options for these learners to explore at all Year by MACUL and the International Society ofengineering is where students and teachers levels, it encourages them to keep going and Technology in Education. Nicholas is a Googlecan really let loose. push themselves to get the most out of Certified Innovator, ASCD Emerging Leader, their learning. Raspberry Pi Certified Educator, and a TEDEdAdvanced engineering level Innovative Educator. His best-selling book Your As educators look to expand the types of Starter Guide to Makerspaces is available onFor the third, and final, level, students lessons that harness the power of STEAM Amazon. Nicholas shares plenty of nerdy things onand teachers have the opportunity to content, check out your local makerspace Twitter and Instagram at @TheNerdyTeacher.dive into all of the different aspects of and see how the tools there can empower you and your students. helloworld.cc 47

FEATURETEACHING DATABASES USING BIG DATA Databases are fundamental to modern society. So why do many young people (and their teachers) find the topic less engaging than other parts of our courses? STORY BY Tony Harkins T here has been major curricular a day? In this article, I’d like to explore an need a database to store 10 records? A change in Scottish computing approach to beginning to learn about spreadsheet or even a table in Word wouldeducation in recent years. Previously, databases that show pupils the relevance allow us to store and see the informationthere have been separate qualifications of understanding and being able to extract at a glance.in Computing and Information Systems. meaning from modern datasets.To generalise, the former focused To see the need, the power and theon programming and the second on Big data value of databases, we must use bigdatabases. The new qualifications, data; datasets with thousands of records,introduced in 2014, combined these two Imagine an introductory database lesson data that requires queries and sorts inseparate qualifications into one, new that talks about the millions and billions order to tell us something meaningful.qualification called Computing Science. A of records and fields contained in the Multiple, linked tables can then showrecent update has introduced SQL queries databases of Amazon or Twitter. Pupils, why careful design of databases isat all levels of Computing Science. keen to have an insight into the technology so important. At a recent meeting with local computing behind these huge enterprises, are thenteachers, we were discussing, first, the directed to Microsoft Access, where they Close to home, Glasgow City Councilimportance of databases in the study of have to create a single table, declare a and the Scottish Government publishcomputing science and, second, how it few fields then create a handful of records a range of datasets that could be usedcan be difficult to engage pupils in a topic in an Address Book or Music database. in class. helloworld.cc/2HHHFCu andthat can be drier than programming or This discrepancy, between the reality helloworld.cc/2w8RBDY have datasetsdesigning websites. of huge, enterprise-scale databases on crime, education, environment and How can a topic that underpins so much and what pupils can actually create, population amongst others. We couldof modern technology be seen as boring or is huge. How many amongst us have answer the question ‘Does it always rain inirrelevant by pupils who, unwittingly or not, had pupils enter five or 10 records into Glasgow?’ definitively by analysing the datainteract with huge datasets multiple times a database – busy work with no actual at helloworld.cc/2IbUoAK. thought or educational value? Why do we The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, helloworld.cc/2HKf0wB, isHOSTS Has LISTINGS Has LISTINGS n In a simplified AirBnB database, one host can have many listings, and one listing can have many reviews. Using Edinburgh data, over 6,200 listings from around 4,400 hosts had been reviewed over 100,000 times48 helloworld.cc

Field(s) listing_url, summary, price, bedrooms IMDBTable(s) ListingsSearch criteria Bedrooms > 1, price <=60, zipcode=EH99% Many of our young people will be big fans of online streaming services,Sort order review_scores_rating Desc and will likely be familiar with the Internet Movie Database. Datasetsn B y identifying which tables are being queried, you can spot any joins that are required. Thinking at this stage about fields, criteria and ordering leads from IMDb and its vast library of films and television series can be found at naturally to writing the query in SQL datasets.imdbws.com, with information about the data at www.imdb.com/already an excellent, interactive example of The SQA exam board plan queries as interfaces. This could be an engagingdata being used to analyse and compare shown above. context to explore and manipulate.huge amounts of socio-economic data. It’s then trivial to code this query:Simply comparing Glasgow and Edinburgh SELECT listing_url, summary, do we have the right to extract, store andshows stark differences, but what can price, bedrooms manipulate it? How can bot software bewe say about the educational, health and FROM Listingsemployment opportunities for children WHERE bedrooms>1 AND price 0growing up in rural versus urban areas? <=60 and zipcode LIKE ‘EH99%’Drumchapel and Bearsden are neighbouring ORDER BY review_scores_ratingareas of Glasgow but have vastly different DESC;opportunities for young people growing upa few streets apart. programmed to scrape the data? WhyAirBnB Looking at a single listing on the AirBnB might the web server view the scraper website will show you the listing, some software as some kind of attack?AirBnB has disrupted the world of host information and a summary of their Then we can look at the social andtravel and accommodation, and the reviews. What better illustration of a join? economic implications of AirBnB. Wouldsite helloworld.cc/2JFzaso allows you This view is created dynamically using you like to live alongside someone whoto download vast amounts of data for data from all three tables. lets out their apartment 250 nights ofmany of the most popular destinations Data on InsideAirBnB is updated the year? What impact has the site hadin the world that has been ‘scraped’ from regularly. Pupils can click on the URLs on the hotel industry? What impactthe site. This context allows us to see contained in the database and verify does it have on cities that welcomethe real-world website and the database that the data they’re examining is for a lots of tourists each year? Does AirBnBbehind it. real host with a real listing in a real city. I drive up rents and restrict availability forThese datasets still require some analysis believe this authenticity and the quantity local residents?and work before they can be used in aclassroom situation. Using the Edinburgh “ TO SEE THE NEED, THE POWER AND VALUEdata, insideairbnb.com/edinburgh, I OF DATABASES, WE MUST USE BIG DATA,downloaded listings, hosts and review DATASETS WITH THOUSANDS OF RECORDSdata for thousands of destinations in thecapital and imported this into Access. Somefields required a little work to be usable.Creating a relational database of the dataallows us to illustrate the cardinality of of data used will start to show pupils the There are lots other sources ofthe data. value of database management software. large datasets, so the challenge willWith the data, too much to take in by The focus on SQL will mean they don’t be finding examples that will grab thelooking through the tables, we can start to become experts in Access but, instead, attention of the young people in ourconstruct queries. If I wanted to stay near understand the underlying structure of classes, which they’ll want to manipulatethe Scottish Government building in the databases and the language used to query and manage.EH99 postcode area, but could only afford this data.£60 a night for at least two bedrooms, Then we can have other discussions Tony is head of Computing Science,which table(s) would I look in and what too. Is it legal to ‘scrape’ data? None of the St Aloysius’ College, Glasgow.criteria would I use? downloaded data is hidden or hacked, but helloworld.cc 49

LESSON PLANAGE RANGE LIGHT UP YOUR WORLD7 – 10 years In this lesson, you’ll create a light sensor using the micro:bit toLESSON TYPE indicate when you need more light for your classroomPhysical STORY BY Fiona HallComputing E nable your students toREQUIREMENTS become inventors and engineers using the micro:bit and• M icro:bit JavaScript Blocks Editor. This basic• PC/laptop lesson gets children excited about• Internet access what they can create with a few• Torch simple blocks of programming, a burgeoning imagination and a small but powerful device. n Programming to complete light sensor task Children will use a few programming blocks to put together a program that will display an image when the light level in the classroom is too low. They’ll also program it to display a different image when the light level is acceptable. This lesson brings programming from the computer to a tangible device and enables children to explore physical computing in a supported environment. Students will further their programming confidence and ability whilst controlling a physical system. They’ll cultivate their imagination to consider how they could develop their sensor invention further – what could they create? How would they program it? Could it be used for good or for evil? Allow children the time and flexibility to explore the50 helloworld.cc