‘Computational thinking’ is a skill children must be taught if they are to be ready for the workplace and able to participate effectively in this digital world.
(Peyton-Jones, in Berry, 2013)
The world is becoming increasingly technologically driven. There is no doubt about that. Therefore, the necessity to educate children in computing, preparing them to not only acquire the skills of using ICT (Information and Communication Technologies), but to develop an understanding of computer science is paramount. This is set to allow children access to maximise their potentials both safely and efficiently in the continuity of technological advances.
Because of this, it is essential as a training teacher to understand the how’s and why’s of teaching computing. In sight of this, I was set a task to research, plan and teach an activity based lesson with my year 1/2 class focusing mainly on the National Curriculum (NC) area of computing science.
(UK Assignment Club, 2019)
I began my research by reading through the NC (DfE, 2013) and finding out what exactly it is that children of 5 to 7-years-old should be learning at this stage. Coming across terminology such as ‘debugging’ and ‘algorithms’, were words I was hardly sure I was familiar with myself, so after educating myself, I began to think about how I could introduce them in an age-appropriate way.
- Algorithm – Algorithms are step by step instructions to get something done or the set of rules describing how something works. A recipe, or a set of dance steps, or the storyboard for an animation are algorithms. (Berry, 2014)
- De-bugging – Removing mistakes or ‘bugs’ from your programme. (BBC, 2019)
After speaking with the class teacher, we decided that because this would be the children’s first re-introduction since Reception and first formal learning of programming, that an easily accessible activity would see best fit. From this I planned a session using ‘BeeBots’ (programmable toys), which from experience in workshops, seems to be an engaging and successful way to introduce computing science to this age group.
(Bee-Bots, 2018)
I chose for these sessions to be small, with only four pupils at a time to ensure every child was able to have a go at programming their Beebot as I believed this is the most effective way for the children to understand the process. I began my first session with four year 2 pupils by asking them what they knew about what I was holding up (a Beebot). This allowed me to assess what they already knew about computing, something I could come back to at the end and compare with to see what they have learned (Assessment for Learning). It was clear to me that all the children understood and were confident with their directions (left, right, forwards, backwards) and they were confident in getting straight to the task.
The learning objective for my short session linked with the topic the children were focusing on at the time. Knowing that they were looking at the first solo female flight to Australia I located the big world maps out of the resources cupboard and used this as a start and finish for them to instruct their Beebots. Once the children had located both the UK and Australia (post-it-noting their location) we discussed how each of us would get our Beebot from A to B. As I could see, the children were very excited and keen to see if their ideas would work, so I let them begin. The children were in two sets of pairs so I could closely monitor their ideas and process and use any as a plenary. Much to my assumptions, it wasn’t long before one of the pairs found that their Beebot was facing too far the wrong way and although they had programmed and told their Beebot to turn around, it wouldn’t!
I bought the pairs together and we began to discuss reasons why the Beebot wasn’t doing as it was told. One child, who seems to have had more experience with programming raised his hand and stated:
“If you make a mistake you have to clear it all and start again!”
This was a brilliant answer which then allowed me to explain exactly how the programming system worked, introducing the new terminology.
We agreed that problem solving/trial and error was a very important part of this activity and came to the conclusion that, in fact, it didn’t matter if we made a mistake because we knew how to fix it! To which the children thoroughly enjoyed knowing. After this, we looked at different ways we could get from A to B, going through various countries the children have been to and advanced the activity further by allocating one child a whiteboard to jot down the sequence of instructions the other child made and vise versa.
The children were so eager to tell their friends back in the classroom about what they had learned, and through peer-teaching, the following day’s activity session we found ourselves on the laptops using a similar programming website: code.org. to which some of the children excelled in, gathering team points for each time someone correctly used the new terminology to explain what had happened. The peer and teacher prompting and questions was brilliant to watch and to be a part of as the children thoroughly enjoyed knowing that they were the ones cracking the codes and fixing the problems!
References
BBC. (2018). What is an Algorithm? [Online]. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/articles/z3whpv4 [Accessed 01/11/19].
BBC. (2018). What is debugging? [Online]. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/articles/ztkx6sg [Accessed 01/11/19].
Berry, M. (2013). Computing in the National Curriculum: A Guide for Primary Teachers.Bedford: Computing at School. [Online]. Available at: https://www.computingatschool.org.uk/data/uploads/CASPrimaryComputing.pdf [Accessed 01/11/18].
TTS. (2018). Bee-Bot – a teacher’s guide. [Online]. Available at: https://www.tts-group.co.uk/blog/2018/07/18/bee-bot-a-teachers-guide.html [Accessed 01/11/18].
