Welcome to ECS Outreach

Hi everyone. This is Pravin Vaz, Outreach Coordinator at the school of Engineering and Computer Science at Victoria University. I am keeping John Barrow's excellent work as is, and will only reorganise as required while adding new resources to the page. Please feel free to contact me for feedback on the wiki or if you would like to run a CodeClub/Outreach Programme at your school. My email address is vazpr@ecs.vuw.ac.nz

This is a potential plan teachers could use, please feel free to use and modify it as you please:

Where to start?

This is the most common question I get. What is out there? where does it fit? how can I use it? As a starting outline:

Year 1-8:

For Year 1-8: Tim Bell's unplugged: http://csunplugged.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/unplugged-book-v1.pdf

Year 4+: Bristlebots: PROS: engaging and simple across a wide range of ages, great lead in. CONS: Somewhat simplistic. Bristlebots http://www.bristlebots.org/workbook

Bristlebots Workbook.pdf

Year 7-10:

For electronics see the resources being developed and posted further down this page.

Year 7-10: Scratch: https://scratch.mit.edu/ PROS: Free, great tutorials, great books, links across a number of technologies (such as LEGO). CONS: Limited by the drag and drop interface for higher levels. Copied by many in different forms.

Year 7-10: Appinventor: You can extend students with appinventor: http://appinventor.mit.edu/explore/ PROS: Builds on scratch, also free, can make you own apps for Android phones, has a software emulator for Android phones. CONS: To make a fully fledged app this is a good start but not the complete story. (see below for resources).

Year 8-10: Tickle: https://tickleapp.com/ Apple flavoured Scratch. Free, same pros and cons as Scratch. Can be used to program Sphero's (BB8) and other supported devices. The extra cost around the devices is what can make it restrictive to get a full set for a class. Leads into Swift programming and the Apple suite of products.

Some excellent Scratch, HTML and intorductory Python resources can also be found here: https://codeclub.nz/page/code-club-projects/

Basic Robotics:

Year 5-10: Edison robots: PROS: Nice with LDR, Ultra-Sonic and IR sensors all ready to go. They have some excellent PDF supporting documents. Starting with bar codes for programming, so easy access for lower Year levels (5-6), leading to drag and drop programming (Years 7-9). They can be extended with LEGO kit as well. This is then completed with programming in Python through the online portal: http ://www.edpyapp.com / (which has the default scripts for the functions for you to explore). CONS: I have found some units to be a bit flakey, however support for them is excellent. https://meetedison.com/.

Year 7-10: Makerbots mBot: PROS: Robust. Nice design with good motors, blue tooth wireless links, IR and Ultra-sonic sensors. Can start programming with Scratch and then move onto C for more advanced skills. Expandable with cost effective sensors. Customised Arduino board to support motors and two sensors (so nice build). Some nice basic code pre-installed. CONS: Somewhat more difficult to expand on but has some nice options available. http://www.makeblock.com/mbot-v1-1-stem-educational-robot-kit

Breaking it up:

Try some of the code battle type portals to add some interest and competition to students work:

A lot of students are now doing Scratch (or the equivalent) at Intermediate. Therefore shift Appinventor to Year 9, HTML in Year 9 and 10, and add code battles to both years.

Year 11-13:

Year 11: See the Arduino NCEA level 1 unit below

Year 12: In development

Year 13: In development

Whangaparaoa College has put some excellent resources online which you may use as well:

Year 11

Year 12

Year 13

From Otago University for Year 12 Programming in Java:

Year12ProgJavaNov2013.pdf

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Arduino Unit NCEA Level 1:

This unit is intended to be a number of lessons and projects for NCEA level 1, for 20 credits:

• AS91044 - Undertake brief development to address a need or opportunity: Internally assessed, 4 Credits.

• AS91046 - Use design ideas to produce a conceptual design for an outcome to address a brief: Internally assessed, 6 Credits.

• AS91057 - Implement basic procedures using resistant materials to make a specified product: Internally assessed, 6 Credits.

• AS91050 - Demonstrate understanding of the role of subsystems in technological systems: Externally assessed, 4 Credits

Unit Plan (this is still being worked on currently and contains the skeleton):

Unit Plan for Arduino.doc

A unit plan currently running at St Patricks College in Silverstream:

Level 1 DMT course booklet.docx

Arduino Unit

Sumo Bots, Project 1:

The first of the projects to be completed for the unit. Students build their own simple robot:

Lesson 21 - Sumo bots introduction.pptx

Lesson 22, 23 - Sumo bots Assembly.pptx

Lesson 24 - Sumo bots ultrasonic.pptx

Lesson 25 - Sumo bots testing.pptx

Lesson 26, 27 - Sumo bots competition.pptx

Lesson 28 - Sumo bots results.pptx

The laser cutting files can be found here:

https://github.com/makenai/sumobot-jr/tree/master/cutting_plans

Nodebots Sumo.7z (laser cut files in 7 ZIP format)

Sumobot code book.docx

An alternative to sumo-bots using the Tamiya tank track kits, courtesy of Wellington College:

12DTSCrawlerUnit.docx

Students individual Projects, Projects 2:

Lesson 29 - Individual projects.pptx

Fritzing diagrams for all exercises: (this will be updated as the last few are completed, currently all lessons are covered here)

Fritzing.rar

Code book. A compliation of all the scripts used in all of the exercises:

Code Book for Arduino.docx

The Arduino introductory workshop: Workshop - Standard.pptx

Impress your friends with a geeky tune after the workshop with Darth Vaders help: Darth_Vadar_tune.ino

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Electronics:

Electronics Lesson 01.pptx (an introduction)

Electronics Lesson 02.pptx (Series and Parallel)

Electronics Lesson 03.pptx (Ohm's law and resistence)

In development:

Lesson 4 (Exploring electricity)

Lesson 5 (Generating electricity)

Lesson 6-10 (Project)

Lesson 11-20 (Breadboards and 9V battery circuits, soldering, multimeters)

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AppInventor

We help with a number of after school computer clubs. Through this we develop resources which we make available to teachers. This is a new project so more resources will follow when they are done.

Project 1.pdf

Project 2.pdf

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Raspberry Pi

Lesson 00 - Installing Raspberry Pi.pptx

Lesson 01 - Raspberry Pi.pptx

Raspberry Pi Web Svr.pptx

Raspberry Pi with Kodi.pptx

pi my life up linux cheat sheet v2.pdf

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Misc:

Some EXCELLENT Physics resources in both English and Te Reo can be found here

Squishy circuits.pptx (an introduction to insulators & conductors, Series & Parallel)

Makey Makey musical keyboard.pptx

Programming in Tickle.pptx (an introduction to Tickle, has some advanced concepts)

VUW SECS Quizmaster board files: VUW Quizmaster Board Files.zip

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CS4HS Presentation Notes & Material:

Web site for the event can be found here: http://cs4hs.ecs.vuw.ac.nz/

Link to the zipped files: 2017_CS4HS.zip

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UC have made an excellent online Field guide for high school students. This would cover all areas of the NCEA External Reports in Digital Technology. http://www.csfieldguide.org.nz/en/

Quick link to unplugged Resources: https://csunplugged.org/en/resources/

Unplugged, aimed at Years 1-8 CSUnplugged_OS_2015_v3.1.pdf

Downloadable versions of the field guide are here (Teacher and Student Version): Computer Science.zip

Tim would be happy to hear from you and help where possible: Tim.Bell@canterbury.ac.nz and http://www.csse.canterbury.ac.nz/tim.bell/

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Eagle Technologies and ESRI have put together GIS resources which can be found here:

http://gisinschools-nz.maps.arcgis.com/home/index.html

http://denverro.maps.arcgis.com/home/index.html

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Wellington Water has some excellent resources online which can be found here: https://wellingtonwater.co.nz/publication-library/

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Google has a number of resources freely available that can be found with these links:

Classroom materials (also useful for community groups):

• CS FIRST - free & open source
• CS Unplugged - free & open source
• Computational thinking resources from Google + partners
• Start with Code - resources for parents, teachers & students
• Blockly - free & opensource drag & drop programming interface
• Khan Academy - curriculum and online editors for JS, HTML, and SQL
• Made with Code - free & open source
• Code.org
• MIT App Inventor - free introduction to programming and app creation Coding clubs and organizations that work in schools & in the community:

*This is a list of programs we know have strong impact metrics for results, not just reach.

• FIRST Australia - STEM & robotics programs from grade 2-12 - nationally run
• Code Club Australia - code clubs & information/material to set one up
• Robogals - promoting STEM education to girls
• NCSS - national CS summer school in Jan each year at the University of Sydney
• NCSS Challenge - annual programming competition.
• PC4G - programming challenge for girls

Career Information:

• Careers with Code - free online resource highlighting CS + X careers and university pathways

Teacher PD opportunities:

• Digital Technologies MOOCs from Adelaide University (free online courses, mapped to the Australian Digital Technologies Curriculum for teachers from grades K-8.)
• CS4HS workshops - nationally by various universities & non-profits with support from Google

Online Communities:

• AU/NZ teachers - an online community of teachers who share resources.

Diversity Engagement resources:

• Engage CS EDU - resources for use in the classroom & best practices for inclusive teaching developed by Google and NCWIT

Unbiasing - resources to raise unconscious bias in the workplace & for individuals. Includes Google’s internal training & free workshop material.

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Contact Details

Pravin.Vaz@vuw.ac.nz

Phone: 04 4636765

Website: www.techteacherslog.net

Twitter: pravin_vaz