Monday 7 December 2015

Last lesson - Perfecting your blog work for the Scratch Unit

Last lesson - Perfecting your Blog work for the Scratch Unit

This is your last chance to make all your Blog posts really good and detailed to get the best marks.  I need you to do the following tasks:

1.  Make sure you have no Blog posts saved as Drafts and not Published for this unit.  If you have, publish them!

2.  Make sure all your Blog posts have Scratch screenshots and an explanation of what programming you have added that lesson and what it should do (this can be done as a linked Google doc or directly on to your post - I don't mind which you do).

3.  On a new Blog post for this lesson, write an evaluation of your work this unit:
a) Did your game turned out as you expected?  If not, what was different and why?
b) Describe any problems you had with your programming and how you solved it.
c) Describe what went well with your programming - what you are proud of in your game.
d) Describe any features of your game you'd like to improve if you had more time and why you'd like to improve them.
e) Describe any new skills you have learned in Scratch this unit.
f)  Publish!

Wednesday 20 May 2015

Robotics Lesson 4

Robotics Lesson 4
Your work for this lesson

1.  On Google Drawing, draw out the subroutine and final flowchart program for the Subroutines Challenge (Slide 4 on Teacher's presentation for this lesson).

2.  Share this correctly - Click Advanced - change Private to Anyone with the link - Click Done and copy/paste the link to your new Blog post for today.

3.  Title your new Blog post the same as this post.

4.  On your Blog post, underneath your link; 
  • explain what a subroutine is
  • when it is used
  • give 3 reasons why it's useful.
5.  Try to explain why using subroutines is useful in keeping programs short - talk about binary coding, what it is and how short programs use up less memory space.

Friday 8 May 2015

Robotics - Lesson 3

Robotics lesson 3 - Repetition
Your tasks for this lesson

1.  From slide 5 on the teacher's presentation, draw out the 2 flow charts.  Use Google Drawing for this as you've done before.  I don't mind if you put both drawings on the same document or do 2 separate ones!

2.  Share your drawings properly - click Share - click on Advanced - then change Private to Anyone with the Link - click Save or Done and then copy/paste the highlighted web link to your new Blog post for today.

3.  Title today's Blog post the same as this one.

4.  Underneath your pasted web link write the following notes:
  • Explain what repetition is in a computer program
  • Give 4 reasons why repetition is useful in a program
  • Give an example of a program where repetition is used
5.  When you have finished, click Publish!!

Thursday 23 April 2015

Robotics Lesson 2

Robotics Unit - Lesson 2
Today's tasks!

1.  Go to Learning Computing - Year 7 - Robotics - Lesson 2.

2.  Open the teacher's presentation.  Try to work out what the robot is being programmed to do on the first slide - it's a screenshot of part of the Lego Mindstorm program that you'll be using later in the course.

3.  Read through the rest of the presentation.

4.  Open up a new Blog post for today's lesson and call it 'Robotics Lesson 2'.

5.  On your new post, explain what Selection is used for in programming - what does it allow a robot to do?

6.  Go to Slide 5 and, in Google Draw like last lesson, draw up a flowchart for that programming challenge.  You won't be using the sub-routine symbol this time.

7.  Call your drawing 'Using selection' and share it correctly - click Advanced then change Private to Anyone with the link.  Save that and then copy/paste the highlighted web link on to your Blog post, underneath your Selection explanation.

8.  Click Publish when you have done this.

If you finish before the end of the lesson, you could do some work on your homework task

Wednesday 11 March 2015

Keep on programming!

Keep on programming!

1.  Carrying on from last lesson, (you can check my Post before this one, if you can't remember last lesson!), you need to keep developing your Pacman game.

2.  By the end of the lesson, you should all have finished your background, your Pacman sprite and have added the little sprites that he'll eat in the game.

3.  Most of you should have also animated your Pacman to move around using the keyboard arrow buttons.

4.  Some of you may also have managed to get Pacman to open and close his mouth as he moves (in other words, continually switch between the 2 costumes he has).

5.  Next task will be to try and get a target sprite (the ones he eats) to disappear when he touches them.  Hint: This will need to be programmed on the target sprite, not Pacman.  Consider the 'Show' and 'Hide' program blocks...........

6.  10 - 15 mins before the end of the lesson, you need to take a screen shot of all programming evidence for each sprite and/or Pacman and paste to a Google doc. 

7.  How to take a screen shot....Desktop PCs - press Prt Scn button on right of F12 on desktop keyboards, Chrome books - press Ctrl and the button with lots of overlapping rectangles at the top of the keyboard, then bottom right 'Copy to Clipboard'.  

8.  Ctrl V to paste to the Google doc.  Give your doc a title - programming #2 - and Share (click Advanced - change Private to Anyone with the Link - copy/paste the highlighted web link to a new Blog post).  

9.  Call your Blog post 'Pacman programming #2' and click Publish.

Reminder - homework to be done by 20th March!!!!!!


Monday 9 March 2015

Making your Pacman game - continued

Making your Pacman game - continued

1.  Log into Scratch and open up your Pacman game that you started working on last week.

2.  Open another internet tab and go to your Blog and make a new post.

3.  Open up a third internet tab and go to Google Drive and open a new Google doc and call it Pacman Game, lessons 1 & 2.

4.  Make a screenshot of your Pacman game, making sure that it shows any program scripts you have written.  If you are on a Chrome book the print screen button is along the top and looks like a series of overlapping rectangles.  Then on your Google doc, press ctrl V together on your keyboard and it should paste the screenshot to the page.  On a desktop PC, look for the button with Prt Scn to take a screenshot.

5.  Explain the work that you did last lesson underneath the print screen.

6.  Continue working your Pacman game using the Activity 1 help sheets.

7.  Your aim for this lesson is to get the Pacman animated and to add in the little sprites that it will eat.  Remember to make sure the sprites it eats are a completely different colour to any other colours used in the game so far.

8.  Try to work out how to make the sprite disappear when the Pacman touches them - Hint: use the 'forever if' script block and look for 'show' and 'hide' blocks - you want your sprites to 'show at the start but then 'hide' when the Pacman touches them.

9.  15 minutes before the end of the lesson - take another screenshot and paste it to the same Google doc with an explanation of what you have done this lesson.  Make sure the script blocks are showing.

Title your Google doc the same as this lesson, Share correctly (Advanced - Anyone with the link) and copy/paste the weblink to today's Blog post.  

Title today's Blog post the same as your Google doc and Publish!

Reminder - homework to do and posted as a Homework Blog post by 20th March!!

Thursday 26 February 2015

Unit 3 'Scratch' - Lesson 2

Your tasks this lesson!

Hopefully, you will be able to start work on your assessed Pacman game project this lesson.
Your final assessment for this unit will be based on the project you submit.

1.  Go to Unit 3, Scratch.  If you didn't finish all 5 tasks on Lessons 2 and 3 last lesson, please make sure you quickly finish these now.

2.  Go to Lesson 4.  Read the teacher's presentation.

3.  Use the link on Activity 1 help sheet to see an example of finished game and then follow the instructions on the sheet to start creating your own.

4.  15 - 20 minutes before the end of the lesson you need to take a screenshot of your program so far and paste it to a Google doc.  Explain what you have done with your program so far and whether it works correctly.

Share this correctly (Anyone with the Link) and copy/paste the link to a new Blog post for this lesson.

Publish your post

5.  Don't forget to save your project at the end of the lesson!

6.  Homework reminder!!!  Due in 20th March.  See the first screen in Unit 3 for the task

Monday 2 February 2015

Lesson 3 - Binary Code and Storage

Here is the work that you need to do.  (You can look at the teacher's presentation in lesson 3 of the Building a Computer unit for help).

1.  Open a new post on your Computer Science blog and title the Post the same as this one.

2.  Explain how computers use binary code?

3. What numbers in binary code represent the electric current inside the computers being turned off and on (don't forget to say which is on and which is off!)

4.  Write a short description of the activity you did with torches sending messages to each other.  What was that activity trying to show?

5.  Write down the information from the teacher's presentation (slide 8) listing the different units of data storage (bits, bytes, etc).

6.  When you have done all the work above, click Publish!  :-)

7.   If you don't finish this in the lesson, you'll need to either finish it at lunchtime or at home.  Deadline is the next lesson! 

Thursday 22 January 2015

Unit 2 - Building a Computer, Lesson 2

Lesson 2 - Input and Output devices Work for today!

Computers cannot be worked unless they have input and output devices.  These are pieces of computing equipment that we use to put data (information) into the computer (eg keyboard) and to get data out of them (eg screen/monitor)!

1.  Check through the teacher's presentation if I don't go through it with you.

2.  Watch Video 1 and do the Quiz.  You must score at least 8/10!  Keep doing it until you do!

3.  Open a new Blog post and title it Lesson 2 - input and Output Devices.

4.  Write down a list of 3 or 4 input devices that are used with computers. 

5.  Watch Video 2

6.  Open Activity 2 work sheet and go File - Make a copy before you work on it (keep it's name as Copy of Horses for Courses).  Do your work on the copy!

7.  When you have finished this worksheet (or before the lesson ends), Share it correctly (Click Share and then Advanced and choose Anyone with the link).

8.  Copy and paste the link on to your blog post

Publish your blog post before the lesson ends.  If you haven't finished your work, you can edit it later.  

All work to be finished ready for next lesson!

Thursday 8 January 2015

Unit 2 Building a Computer, lesson 1

Welcome back!

You are now starting a new unit - Unit 2 'Building a Computer'.

Your work for this lesson!

1.  Go to Learning Computing, Year 7, Unit 2, lesson 1.

2.  Open the teacher's presentation and read through each slide so you know what the lesson's about.

3.  Watch the video

4.  Open Activity 1 and do the task set.  Remember to add notes around your phone explaining what all the parts do.  Make it as futuristic and crazy as you can!

5.  Open up a new tab and go to your Comp Sci Blog.

6.  Make a new Blog post for this lesson - call it Building a Computer lesson 1.

7.  Share your phone drawing correctly - click Share - Advanced - choose Anyone with the link - click Done.  Copy the blue highlighted weblink and then paste it on to your Blog post.

8.  On your Blog post, write down what Hardware means - give an example of a piece of computing hardware.

9.  Write down the 4 different types of hardware

10.  Publish your post!

If you don't finish your drawing, still share it and paste the link on your Blog post.  You can finish it off for homework and the latest version will be there when I look at it to mark it later.  You do not have to re-share it and paste another link.