CS 4 the CSO

Holiday Workshop

Coding and Computational Thinking

You may have heard of initiatives like the Hour of Code or have read articles that argue that all students should learn how to code. Coding and Computational Thinking are now included as core concepts of the new Digital Technologies learning area of the national curriculum. BOSTES has also recommended incorporating Coding and Computational thinking across the curriculum and has created a guide to help teachers do this.

But, what are Coding and Computational Thinking, and why should students be taught these in K - 12? In this workshop I will introduce these concepts, explain some reasons for bringing these concepts into K - 12 and explain their links to the field of Computer Science. We will then work through some example activities that you will be able to use with your students.

Workshop Activities

This session will include 2 main activities:

The introduction presentation (as a PDF file) is available for download here.

You are welcome to use or adapt any of the material from this workshop, but you will have to keep the acknowledgements that reference the original authors of the lessons or graphics.

Computer Science 4 Schools

I run Professional Learning workshops, titled Computer Science 4 Schools, with a team of other reearchers at the University of Newcastle. There is more information about these workshops available here.

We will be running a workshop for Primary School teachers on November 21st and 22nd 2016. You can register for this workshop by completing this form.