Computer Science Education Week | Ages 7-11 | KS2 Topic Pack

When is Computer Science Education Week?

Computer Science Education Week is celebrated each year in December for the week which includes the 9th December. This is to honour the famous computer scientist, Grace Hopper, who was born on 9th December 1906.

The aim is to encourage children of all ages to celebrate and learn about computer science. Computer science play an important role in lots of aspects of every day life.

Find out more about:

The history of computers
How to code
How to be creative with technology
What jobs exist in Computer Science
How to touch type with Dance Mat Typing

Who was Grace Hopper?

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Grace Hopper with an early computer.

Grace Hopper (1906-1992) was a computer scientist, mathematician and admiral in the United States Navy.

She was known for contributing to computer programming and software development as well as her career in the Navy.

Hopper wanted more people to feel comfortable using computer so designed programs that used words as commands instead of symbols.

History

The computer

When you picture a computer, you probably imagine a small, sleek device that connects to the internet. However, they haven't always been like this. Discover how they have changed over time.

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In 1833, Charles Babbage, a British mathematician and inventor, designed the Analytical Engine powered by steam. If it had been built, it would have been the very first computer!
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Ada Lovelace was another British mathematician. She is known as the world's first computer programmer. She studied the plans Charles Babbage had made for the Analytical Engine and made notes, described as early computer programs, detailing how it could be used.
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1940 - Alan Turing was a British mathematician who worked with a team of people during World War Two. They created a machine, the British Bombe, which could read secret Enigma coded messages used by the enemy in World War II.
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1944 - The world’s first large-scale electronic digital computer, the Colossus, designed by the engineer Tommy Flowers, arrived at Bletchley Park to break the complex Lorenz coded messages used by the enemy during World War II.
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1948 - The first computer program ran on a computer when the world's first stored program computer called ‘Baby’ was invented by Freddie Williams and Tom Kilburn at The University of Manchester.

The internet

It is hard to imagine a time before the internet. It has changed how we communicate, learn and do jobs. In the early days of the internet it was used quite differently and didn't run nearly as fast! Find out more about the evolution of the internet.

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1969 - ARPANET was the first version of the Internet.
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1971 - The first email was sent.
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In 1982 the first thing on the Internet of Things was a fizzy drinks machine in the USA that reported how many drinks it contained.
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In 1989 the World Wide Web was invented by Tim Berners-Lee. He introduced web pages shared via the Internet so that scientists could share the data from their experiments.
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Over time people started to have computers in their homes and in the 1990s the internet was available in homes and email became popular.
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Today we have portable computers - smartphones and we can access the internet when we're on the move.

Computers have evolved from huge machines that fill a room to tiny, connected devices that fit in the palm of our hands. Find out more about how they have evolved through the years.

Computing

How do computers work?

The parts that make up a computer are called hardware. You can see some of the hardware such as the monitor, the mouse, and the keyboard, but some of the hardware, such as the processor and the memory is built in the computer itself.

A computer can't run by itself and needs programs to tell it what to do - this is called software.

Find out more about computers and how they work in these Bitesize guides.

What is coding?

The instructions that we give to a computer to tell it what to do is called a computer program.

Computers can't understand everyday words like we can. We have to write the computer program using a computer language or code.

Discover more about code and coding with BBC Bitesize and the BBC micro:bit.

Art and Design

How to be creative with technology

Technology can be used to be creative. From stop motion videos to digital art work and online games, developments in computer science has opened up a whole new creative digital world.

Discover how you can use computers, phones and tablets to be creative.

Citizenship

Careers in computing

There are lots of jobs in Computer Science and more are being introduced each day as technology evolves. There are now jobs in artificial intelligence (AI) that didn’t exist a few years ago!

Digital sustainability

Technology helps us stay informed and connected, but electronic devices can be harmful to the environment and too much screen time can be bad for our health. How can we reduce the harmful impact of technology on the world?

Staying safe online

The digital world offers lots of opportunities and benefits but it is also important that we know how to be safe online. Just like how roads allow us to travel to see friends but can be dangerous when the cars drive unsafely, the internet is similar.

Across the BBC

With robots playing football and creating computer-generated visual effects to simulating F1 racing, these videos help teach computing and creative computer programming.

Internet safety is also important so you will also find videos to help you stay safe and find your way around the online world.

Play: Dance Mat Typing

When you can do it well, touch typing is the fastest way to write! Build and test your primary computing skills with these touch typing challenges.

Learn and practise how to:

Type letters in rows
Type keys on the home row
Type capital letters, apostrophes, slashes and full stops

Happy typing!

Computer Science Education Week - KS2