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Computational thinking cut out cards

This set of printable cards provides definitions of six aspects of computational thinking.

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Exploring digital systems unplugged: networks: years 5-6

This PDF provides activities in which students identify features of digital systems, and create models to demonstrate their operations. Students are encouraged to demonstrate their understanding of Domain Name Servers (DNS), routing, and transmission control and internet protocols (TCP/IP).

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Expert webinar video: Nathan Alison, Digital Learning and Teaching Victoria (DLTV): Focus on systems thinking. How do we teach it well?

Nathan Alison from Digital Learning and Teaching Victoria (DLTV) explains what systems thinking is and how it is used in the context of Digital Technologies. Nathan explains what we need to consider when teaching digital systems, covering topics such as networks, hardware and software protocols, people and processes.

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Books for exploring Digital Technologies concepts

This PDF provides a list of suggested books or similar that identify and discuss key concepts, key ideas and related ways of thinking about Digital Technologies.

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Expert webinar video: In conversation with Paul Mead from She Maps: A wide-ranging discussion from women in Technology and unconscious bias to digital systems and the ethical and safety considerations of using drone technologies

Paul Mead, from STEM education provider She Maps, discusses unconscious bias in young students and how She Maps is spreading the word about women who work with technologies in the field. He discusses digital systems and explains how geospatial systems and geographical information systems are used to collect, analyse and ...

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Curzon & Bell et al. review: Computational thinking

This article explores the concept of computational thinking within computer science learning and in relation to other learning areas. The authors assert that because of its focus on analysis, computational thinking is not only suitable for computation but also the development of systems-based on computation.

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Scratch 2.0 tutorial

This tutorial provides step-by-step instructions to support the learning of Scratch, a visual programming language. The tutorial is designed for educators who would like to learn how to use Scratch.

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Visual to text coding: Lesson 7

This is the seventh in a series of lessons to transition from visual coding to text-based coding with a General Purpose Programming language. This lesson may take two to three 45-minute periods. It introduces iteration (also called loops).

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Home automation with AI

Home automation is all the rage. You talk to your mobile phone to control the lights, the fan, the air conditioner, or your pool pump. But how does it work? In this lesson, we explore the AI that could power a home automation system.

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DT Challenge - 5/6 Blockly - Smart Garden

Learn how to program a BBC micro:bit using Blockly — no experience required. Learn the basics of programming in Blockly with our full BBC micro:bit simulator. Create a Smart Garden device to monitor the health of your plants, measuring temperature and wiring up a simple soil moisture sensor.

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Visual to text coding: Lesson 5

This is the fifth in a series of lessons to transition from visual coding to text-based coding with a general purpose programming language. This lesson may take two to three 45-minute periods. It introduces how to create and use arrays (also called lists).

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Visual to text coding: Lesson 4

This is the fourth in a series of lessons to transition from visual coding to text-based coding with a General Purpose Programming language. This lesson may take two to three 45-minute periods. It introduces the combining of logical operators and and or for more complex decisions.

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Sphero: Catch me if you can

By years 5 and 6 many students may have had some experience with a visual programming language such as Scratch or Blockly that is the basis of the Hour of Code. Sphero will take the screen based control of an image to the next level by introducing a robotic device controlled by a visual programming language. This lesson ...

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Ciphering a sentence

A cipher is a message that has been written in such a way (encoded) that it is unreadable by others. In this lesson, students will use mapping to encode a sentence. Students will work with a partner to create an algorithm that describes the encryption process. They will also examine encoded and decoded messages to recognize ...

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Design a flag with Pencil Code

Design your own Australian flag by firstly examining common elements of flags, creating a step by step process (algorithm) to program your design after exploring a ‘block-based’ turtle drawing program such as Pencil Code.

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Visual to text coding: Lesson 3

This is the third in a series of lessons to transition from visual coding to text-based coding with a general-purpose programming language. This lesson may take two to three 45-minute periods. It introduces how to generate and use random numbers.

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Visual to text coding: Setting Up

This series of lessons is to help students to transition from visual coding to text-based coding with a general-purpose programming language. This section provides guidance on how to set-up the particular programming environment including Scratch, Python and JavaScript.

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Visual to text coding: The Basics

This series of lessons is to help students to transition from visual coding to text-based coding with a general-purpose programming language. This section provides the basics in order to use the programming environments: Scratch, Python and JavaScript.

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Cross age making a robot

This lesson sequence is a cross-age project that can be used for students in year 5/6 in collaboration with students from years 1-2. In this project, students collaborate on a code for an unplugged robot. They design, test and modify the robot and create instruction manuals.

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Choose your Ozo adventure

Using Ozobots students use and develop unusual types of data: Redefining “What is data?”. This lesson idea was created by Ben Jucius.