Student Engagement
Connecting to a MySQL database using Python 3 #compsci #SQA #AHcomputingscience
Students completing the SQA Advanced Higher Computing Science course need to create their projects with a major and minor in mind. The major – the main area of content their project will showcase – can be either Software Development (e.g. Python), Web Design and Development (PHP) or Database Design and Development (e.g. MySQL). The minor […]
Read MorePython Programming Challenges and open book assessments
Given that it is Computer Science in Education week and the last few weeks of term I wanted to wrap up my practical programming lessons for the term with some Python programming challenges. Why programming challenges? In the past I’ve used these successfully with lower age groups. In my opinion it helps to validate the […]
Read MoreDiagnostic Questions for Computer Science #DQ #CompSci
With my classes on exam leave or preparing for their end of year assessments I have been teaching a variety of revision sessions and lessons recently. While I feel it is valuable to prepare students with exam style or past paper questions, time management strategies, peer review of answers I realised we hadn’t reexamined student […]
Read MoreCryptography #iGCSE #ComputerScience
One of the nice and not-so-nice things about vague arrangements documents is that you have to work out how to best fill the gap. Encryption methods are part of the Computer Security section of the course – symmetric and asymmetric encryption to be exact – and, while I could simply put two slides up on […]
Read MoreSocial media generated art in Python #ThisIsMyClassroom #Programming #STEAM
For the third blog post on this topic I wanted to use Python to generate different pieces of art without relying entirely on the random function. I decided to use the tweepy library, mainly because I had already used it to post content to Twitter but had never investigated how it could be used to […]
Read MoreSOUND GENERATED ART IN PYTHON #THISISMYCLASSROOM #PROGRAMMING #STEAM
I had a lot of fun experimenting with the subroutines and Python Turtle methods yesterday but wanted to push it a little further and find out if I could make use of a new Python library to help create automated art. Somehow I’ve never built a program that utilises and analyses audio before, so challenged […]
Read MoreComputer Generated Art #thisismyclassroom #programming #steam
I wanted to create a task that allowed students to create a computer program in Python that would automatically create its own artwork but be customisable so that each student could experiment and personalise their own program to their tastes. It’s a rough Python 3 program using the Turtle library and an array of Turtles […]
Read MoreUsing CodeBug tethered via USB on a MacBook
It has been a few weeks since our CodeBugs arrived here in Milan and after playing around with some of the sample programs and thinking about their features I have decided to use these with next session’s Year 10 students as an introduction to the iGCSE Computer Science course in September. While they worked really […]
Read MoreAdding some WSQ to my #flipclass
I’m nearly a month into my flipped classroom approach and I’m already seeing the benefits (some of which I’m sharing as part of a whole-school INSET on Wednesday): Students are – in the main – responding well to the video introductions or lessons My tasks are becoming more diverse to cater for students who need […]
Read MoreInspiration from “The ON House” Milano #thisismyclassroom
I was lucky enough to find out about this house through a parent of the school and visited it today. The ON House has been created by Simontech to demonstrate the various home and office automation products that they sell and how they can be integrated together via an overarching web app. As you might […]
Read More