Teaching Primary Programming with Scratch

A Phil Bagge book review, by Phil Wickins!

Phil Bagge is one of the most enthusiastic people I’ve ever met. His passion for teaching and learning shines through everything he does, as does his vast experience of computing in education. His new book, ’Teaching Primary Programming with Scratch’ is absolutely packed full of explanations, tools, subject knowledge, pupil examples, project ideas, pedagogy, you name it!

Two Phils, having a right old laugh together!

Phil takes us on a journey from the most basic right through to the more advanced concepts, explaining and giving real school examples as he goes. You can study the book from cover to cover, vastly improving your expertise, however what Phil has cleverly done is design sections for teachers to dip in and out of depending on their need and confidence. Being a more experienced teacher, I found the pedagogy section particularly insightful, with new methods and ideas to try with my pupils. Whereas my colleague who is relatively new to computing explored the ‘concept before code’ section and has since been surprised at how this has revolutionised her teaching practice.

Phil anchors his content, examples and explanations with strong concepts such as algorithms throughout the book, demonstrating how to take abstract code back to first principles to aid understanding. This enables a greater transfer of skills so that even though the book focuses on the Scratch programming environment; the application of concepts within other programming languages would be quicker to grasp. This book could serve as a computing dictionary, glossary, companion, encyclopaedia, idea generator, lesson planner guide, inspiration; it is so versatile and you would do well grab yourself a copy to have in your toolkit, whatever stage of teaching computing you are at!

Buy it here: Teaching Primary Programming with Scratch Teacher Book: Research-Informed Approaches

October 3, 2023 0

Poetry in (all the com-) motion…

Poem Miss Tough Primary Computing Run Don't Walk

“Tell me a fact and I’ll learn. Tell me the truth and I’ll believe. But tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever.”
Indian Proverb

I met a fantastic teacher at the ‘Computing At School 2020’ conference in London, who really inspired me with her approach to helping students recall knowledge about computing.

Now I’m a huge advocate of learning through music and telling stories, but I’ve never come across this approach before and I think it is truly marvellous. Learning computing, through poetry!

Have a look at her website: TEACHING COMPUTING WITH POETRY – MISS TOUGH

Not only is it full of amazing poems, but if you check out the menu you’ll find riddles, downloadable booklets, inspired artwork and even an escape room puzzle!

So thank you Miss Tough, for taking our learning to the next level! I’ve added a quick sample, which is one of my faves!

April 3, 2020 0

Book review- “micro: bit in Wonderland” by Tech Age Kids

primary computing — Written by parents, for parents!

I have received a copy of micro:bit in Wonderland by Tech Age Kids (Tracy Gardner and Elbrie de Kock). It is beautifully illustrated using original images and quotes from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and is packed full of projects related to the story, to be created using BBC’s micro:bit.

This book is admittedly my first step into doing physical computing projects with my own children. I have three girls and one boy and I could tell straight away that this would appeal to all four of them. Despite the micro:bit being a completely new thing for me (I’ve so far only taught crumbles as a teacher), the book explains and describes everything, not only in a way that adults will understand, but all of the pictures and diagrams are super easy for the children to follow too.

In most books designed for schools, there are usually open challenges where they leave it up to you/ the child to work out what needs to be done to complete the projects. In this book, there are complete projects that show you all the code you need and how to make the actual models. This means it’s a great place to start if you’ve never done it before and you and your children can achieve success straight away. This said, the authors have also included challenges and next steps at the end of each project, meaning if you do want more open ended stuff, it’s there.

I absolutely love the illustrations and how the quotes fit the projects perfectly. My kids didn’t take that much notice of it to be honest (they still love the pictures and projects), but being a lover of classic literacy, it made me feel like the authors had really taken the time to appreciate and understand how to also hold an adult’s attention and made them feel welcome to this brave new world our children are entering into. I know that may sound silly, but linking computing to this beautiful book ‘Alice’s adventures in wonderland’ did more to catch my eye than theirs!

Being a bit of a geek, I also can’t help enjoying the symbolism of the original ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ having been written by Mathematician Lewis Carroll (real name Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, but you’ve heard of the Carroll diagram, right?), who apparently wrote it in 1865 as a scathing satire on new modern mathematics that were emerging in the mid-19th century. What better way to celebrate pushing the boundaries in computing for children!

Overall, I can’t recommend this book more. There are hardly any books out there for physical computing in primary/ early secondary school age, let alone any that appeal to girls. In a world where we are now trying to get our kids away from screens, these projects immerse them in a fantastic learning experience that I believe is also vital for their understanding of the future digital world.

Well done Tech Age Kids, and thank you!

October 18, 2018 0

Book Review: Crumble Creations by Phil Bagge

primary computing crumble — Two Phils are better than one…

I had the pleasure of receiving Phil Bagge’s new book: Crumble Creations this week and it is goooooood!

Having recently purchased Redfern Electronic’s Crumble micro controllers for my current school and introduced physical computing, I can totally recommend this book as the perfect starting place. It’s packed with detailed explanation and introduction to the crumble and its many components (old and new editions), plus a wealth of photocopiable lesson plans, worksheets, templates as well as photographs and wiring diagrams.

Phil captures pupils’ imagination through the book’s projects by invoking exploration and investigation; giving just enough away to scaffold their learning, whilst challenging pupils to find creative ways to problem solve. Examples of code (including the notorious servo block issues!) are included for teachers. He does not provide code for children to simply copy, but instead reveals on challenge cards/ worksheets parts of code for pupils to complete, building on their existing coding knowledge.

One of Phil’s strengths is his pseudo code ideas; encouraging learning through role play to consolidate further the importance of computational thinking. There are some great photocopiable pages of pseudo code ideas; one of the many resources in this book that teachers can literally pick up and run with straight away.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book to any primary teacher, even if you don’t yet have the equipment in school yet!

October 13, 2018 0