Member Article

Teesside University’s computer science event supports teachers across the country

Teachers across the country are benefiting from a computer science event run by Teesside University.

More than 1,000 lesson plans have been downloaded following the two-day event organised by the University to help teachers develop the next generation of computer scientists.

The University ran the Computer Science for Teachers event after receiving a grant from Google to train secondary school teachers how to deliver vital computing skills to their pupils.

Thirty schools from across the North of England sent representatives to Teesside University where they took part in workshops in a range of computer skills including binary and hexadecimal, databases, networks and the Internet and algorithms and flow diagrams.

There were also masterclasses on the use of the Raspberry Pi, handling the GCSE controlled assessment task, sorting and searching algorithms and teaching computing without a computer.

There was also a demonstration of Lego Mindstorms robotics during the lunchbreak.

At the end of each session, participants were invited to design a lesson plan to show how they would apply their newly-acquired knowledge and identify what they could use in the classroom.

These lesson plans were then uploaded and shared on the Computing At School website, www.computingatschool.org.uk.

Dr Michael Ryding, Teesside University’s School of Computing’s Head of Digital Enterprise, said: “Within 24 hours of the event the presentations, posters and lesson plans that were published on the CAS website had been downloaded over 1,000 times and the figure continues to rise.

“As this number is significantly larger than the numbers initially attending it is not unreasonable to assume that we are watching these computer science teaching artefacts having a national impact for teachers and schools.”

One of the aims of the event was to give teachers the confidence to teach computer science which is becoming an increasingly important part of the school curriculum providing both a supplement and an alternative to the existing ICT subject.

The Government recently raised concerns about a lack of computer science in schools and many teachers are now retraining in order to offer both ICT and computer science, including computer programming, in their classes.

To help run the event Google’s Computer Science for High School’s Initiative gave a grant of approximately £4,500.

Teesside University plans to run similar events for teachers in the future.

Dr Ryding added: “During the two days there was plenty of time for teachers to identify the holes in their knowledge of the subject and this has helped them voice their immediate needs for more computer science and more hands on programming than they currently have available.

“This information will be shared with all five Universities in the area so they can choose to respond in ways that are appropriate for their own organisation.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Teesside University .