Python Challenges consists of the following: A Student PowerPoint presentation containing 100 Python coding challenges covering the skills required for GCSE level programming. Challenges are relatively short and increase in difficulty gradually. Skills covered start with simple inputs and outputs then progress through all topics including type casting, built-in functions, user-defined functions, lists, 2D Lists and file handling. A teacher version of the PowerPoint containing slides with example code for all challenges. A Challenge tracker grid that students complete as they work through the challenges. A Student Python script template where students write their code and discover the colour to shade the square on the grid for each challenge. A Teacher Python script containing example code for all challenges. The Python Challenges are a useful tool to use as recap on learning after a Python skill has been taught or as a revision aid later to check understanding and provide practice. You can set challenges either for a whole lesson or as a gap filler at the end of an assessment or theory lesson. Used successfully with GCSE Computer Science students. Please leave feedback!

This is an Excel-based reading comprehension activity that combines learning about different types of social engineering with a simple decoding task. It is aimed at KS3 students and works well as an in-lesson activity or as a post-assessment filler activity. The spreadsheet comprises of: a directions tab explaining what the student must do. a Read About It tab which contains a short text on the topic of social engineering. a Questions and Puzzle tab where students must answer ten questions based on the reading passage. Students receive immediate feedback when they get a question right or wrong. Each correct answer reveals a section of the cipher wheel. Once all questions have been answered correctly, the encoded secret word is revealed and students must decode it using the cipher wheel. Students must enter the secret word to complete the challenge. Included is a readme file containing the answers to the questions and the secret word. The spreadsheet comes in protected mode to prevent students from altering the structure or format. Please leave feedback!

An Excel spreadsheet containing seven worksheets covering binary to denary and denary to binary conversions and representing images and letters using binary. First worksheet takes students through basic binary to denary conversion using the concept of bulbs being switched on and off to represent 1s and 0s. Students are shown worked examples and provided with four questions to answer. They are given feedback on their answers, and when they have answered all questions correctly on the worksheet, the tab will turn green. This allows teachers to see progress easily and where students have moved on before getting 100% success in the previous tab. It also encourages students to persevere and compete with neighbours to ‘go green’ first. Tab two introduces denary to binary conversion where students switch bulbs on and off to create the binary number for four denary numbers. Worked examples are provided and feedback given. Tab turns green when completed successfully. Tabs three and four provide more practice of conversion with 8 questions with feedback on each. No bulbs to prompt this time. Tab five provides more practice with another 11 questions, the last five without scaffolding. Tab six is an extension task for students to try converting denary into binary then finding the letter represented by the code to discover the password. Tab seven is an extension task where students can colour pixels using binary and then try creating their own image using binary. NOTE: The spreadsheet uses macros which must be enabled in order to activate the feedback and tab colouring on completion of tasks. Used successfully with GCSE Computer Science students and with Level 3 IT Year 12 students. Also available – Binary to Hexadecimal conversion and Binary Addition spreadsheet activities. Please provide feedback!

An Excel spreadsheet containing three worksheets covering binary addition. The first worksheet takes students through basic binary addition including how to carry from one column to the next. Students are shown worked examples and provided with four questions to answer. They must include their carries and are given feedback on their answers. When they have answered all questions correctly on the worksheet, the tab will turn green. This allows teachers to see progress easily and where students have moved on before getting 100% success. It also encourages students to persevere and compete with neighbours to ‘go green’ first. Tab two provides more advanced binary addition examples that include overflow errors. Students then work through four questions independently and receive feedback on their answers. Tab turns green when completed successfully. Tab three provides an extension task where students are asked to create their own binary addition sums. They can then complete the answers themselves or can swap seats with a neighbour to complete each other’s sums. The spreadsheet uses macros which must be enabled in order to activate the feedback and tab colouring on completion of tasks. Used successfully with GCSE Computer Science students and with Level 3 IT Year 12 students. Works well with my other number representation activity spreadsheets as a revision aid or as a task to be included in a lesson on binary addition. Also available – Binary conversion and Hexadecimal conversion spreadsheet activities. Please leave feedback!

An Excel spreadsheet containing two worksheets covering hexadecimal conversion. The first worksheet takes students through converting denary to hexadecimal via a binary step. Students are shown worked examples and provided with six questions to answer using the denary->binary->hexadecimal process. Students are given feedback on their answers. When they have answered all questions correctly on the worksheet, the tab will turn green. This allows teachers to see progress easily and where students have moved on before getting 100% success. It also encourages students to persevere and compete with neighbours to ‘go green’ first. Tab two provides worked examples of converting hexadecimal to denary via a binary step. Students then work through six questions independently and receive feedback on their answers. Tab turns green when completed successfully. The spreadsheet uses macros which must be enabled in order to activate the feedback and tab colouring on completion of tasks. Used successfully with GCSE Computer Science students and with Level 3 IT Year 12 students. Works well with my other number representation activity spreadsheets as a revision aid or as a task to be included in a lesson on binary addition. Also available – Binary conversion and Binary addition spreadsheet activities. Please leave feedback!

This is a PowerPoint template designed to be filled in with practice questions, past paper questions, exam style questions, practice problems for any subject. The students access the PowerPoint in slide show mode and spin the wheel to pick a question. They click on the link on the wheel to be taken to a question/problem to complete. Each question slide has a link back to the wheel and is followed by an answer slide (also with a link back to the wheel). When students have completed 29 questions, there is a bonus question 30 which is not on the wheel. This can be a super-tricky or more involved task to complete. The question pot luck slide pack is aimed at making completing practice questions a little bit more engaging. Students do not get to choose which question to complete, the wheel does it so it helps to encourage them to move beyond questions they are comfortable answering. I have used this successfully with Y11 Computer Science (GCSE) students but the concept can be used for any theory subject at any level. The slide show can be placed in a shared area for students to access. This means teachers can refresh questions when students complete them all, or swap in questions when they identify areas of weakness on certain topics. Students do not write answers in the PowerPoint. The model/mark scheme answer slides should provide the ability for students to mark their own work and gain a good understanding on the criteria for a model answer. NOTE: This is a template only providing a slide deck for entering your own 30 questions for your subject and exam board. It provides the wheel and some instructions if you wish to create your own bitmoji character to replace the default one.

A two -page .pdf with a vocabulary matching activity on the topic of Big Data. Print first page for a fun knowledge checking activity as part of a lesson or print both pages for a longer activity that requires students to create their own puzzle using other computing related vocabulary. Students must match the correct term with it’s definition to reveal the letters to solve the mystery word. This activity is designed to be completed on paper and has been used successfully as a post-test activity and as a homework for Y9 students. Download includes a teacher version with solution. Please leave feedback if you download and use my resources!

This is an almost 80 slide PowerPoint that guides students through the process of coding a quiz game based on theory topics for GCSE Computer Science, This resource includes the slides to be taught across 10-12 lessons or thereabouts and combines students revisiting of theory topics with creating a quiz comprising multiple question types from True/False through to multiple choice and second chance questions. There are just under 20 tasks plus the quiz tournament at the end and certificate templates are also provided. The tasks are designed to get students programming, restructuring their code and re-using and modifying it. There are ample opportunities for debugging and learning about the benefits of modularising code along the way. There are teacher notes in the PowerPoint along with example code for each task (also provided separately in a series of .py files). Python topics covered include: Python topics covered within this unit of work include: Importing libraries Local and global variables Creating and call procedures/functions with and without parameters Creating and casting variables String concatenation and manipulation Getting inputs Selection using if, elif, else Iteration using while and for loops List creation and manipulation Arithmetic calculations Opening, reading and writing to files Teachers can decide on the topics students should write questions on and these can be written in lesson or as homeworks. The slide deck should provide a flexible approach to teaching revision lessons. A starter template is supplied and approximate timings for each task (exact timings will depend on ability), I have used this unit twice with Year 10 students preparing for Mock exams but it could also be used as part of a revision schedule for Year 11 students. It is an engaging way to recap on both theory and programming and in my experience, students engage with the revision and enjoy the competitive element. It is up to teachers to provide scaffolding as required, I do this by providing sneak quick peeks at the example code or print outs of code for very weak students. Please leave feedback if you download and use my resources.

I designed these sheets to be printed and laminated and used by Year 10/11 students who are new to data conversions or as a scafffold to help those who are not confident. Each sheet takes the student through a worked an example and provides a working area where they can work through more examples themselves based on questions provided by the teacher. They simple use whiteboard markers and wipe away their working after each question. The first double-sided sheet covers Denary to Binary, Binary to Denary, Denary to Hex and Hex to Denary. The bonus sheet has a worked example and working area for converting Hex to Binary and Binary to Hex. The first sheet is intended to be printed one per student. The bonus sheet has two per page and so can be laminated in A5 size. Both sheets have working areas outlined in red to signpost them to students. Please leave feedback if you download and use any of my resources.