How to Raise a Tech Genius: Develop Your Child's Computing Skills Without Spending Any Money

by Shahneila Saeed

Overview

Teach computing concepts without computers! How to Raise a Tech Genius makes the computing curriculum accessible for parents and families.

We live in a digital world - one in which our children are surrounded by technology. It's a part of their lives in a way that even the most tech-savvy adults aren't fully able to comprehend. What we do know is that the workplace of tomorrow will require our children to harness the power behind the technology, to be able to understand key concepts and apply them. Logical reasoning, creativity and problem solving are skills that are becoming increasingly essential in the world of work.

How can we best prepare our children to enter this world? How to Raise a Tech Genius is a practical book that assumes no prior knowledge or understanding of computing and enables parents to learn skills and concepts alongside their children. The quick, easy and fun fifteen-minute activities within the book have been developed using first-hand teaching expertise and are fully mapped to the computing curriculum taught in schools.

From a deck of playing cards to the story books on your bookshelf or even the contents of your fridge, How to Raise a Tech Genius uses everyday objects that can be found around your home to illustrate core computer science concepts. Children and adults alike will enjoying playing games while developing their algorithmic thinking and logical reasoning skills. This book demystifies the computing curriculum for adults, showing parents a whole new side of computing, coding and technology so that they can help their child become a computing genius!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781472143631
Publisher:	Little, Brown Book Group
Publication date:	07/16/2020
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

With over twenty years of experience in Computing education, Shahneila has seen the changes to the computing curriculum from many perspectives. As a teacher and Head of Department she led her department's transition to computing several years ahead of government changes. As a founding Computing At School Board Member she helped develop the Computing Programmes of Study.


In 2014 Shahneila joined Ukie (UK Interactive Entertainment Association) to become Head of Education and Director for the nationwide Digital Schoolhouse programme. She is the author of Hacking the Curriculum: Creative Computing and the Power of Play, a book that uses play-based learning to teach computing in the Digital Schoolhouse programme.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Why is this all so important? xi

So, what are our children learning in school? xiii

What are our children doing in their free time? xiv

1 Unpicking the National Curriculum for Computing 1

Key Stage 1(KS1) 4

Key Stage 2 (KS2) 6

Key Stage 3 (KS3) 10

Key Stage 4 (KS4) 14

2 A Brief Introduction to Computational Thinking 17

Logical reasoning 18

Algorithmic thinking 18

Generalisation 19

Abstraction 20

Decomposition 21

Evaluation 21

Let's Play … 23

3 Algorithmic Thinking 25

Colour Sequence: Following Instructions in a Sequence 25

Unjumble Instructions 30

Dancing Algorithms 34

The Computational Duck 38

Programming the Computational Duck 41

4 Data Representation 47

Lego Brick Binary Place Value 47

Binary Light Switches 52

Binary Playing Cards 55

Ten Green Bottles 61

A Binary Story 71

Binary Shift Playing Cards 77

The Mind Boggles: Boggle Pictures! 83

Hama Bead ASCII 86

Bracelet ASCII 92

Kitchens Rock! 96

5 Logical Thinking 99

Dot to Dot 99

The Seven Bridges of Claydon 101

I Want to See Everything! 104

You'll Not Get Your Dinner, Mr Fox! 107

What's for Dinner? 110

Corny Chickens! 111

It's Tea Time, Go and Wash Your Hands 115

Does the Light Really Go Off in the Fridge? 119

6 Memory and Storage 123

Paper Discs 123

Space-saver 126

Storage Trump Cards 130

Virtual Lego 134

Volatile (Re)vision 137

7 Programming 141

Dotty Boxes 141

Creating a Pizza: Selection 146

Making Your Bed: Procedures 151

Dancing Character: Programming 156

8 Systems Architecture 163

Pizza-box Computer 163

All Together Now 166

What's in Your Brain? 169

Exploding Decoding 172

What's Cooking? 175

Cache in Hand 178

What Chores? 180

Sock It to Me! 183

Hot or Cold? 186

ISpy 188

Let's Get Smart 190

9 Safety and Security 193

Twenty-One Questions 193

Home Security Check 197

You Can't Do That 200

Caesar Cipher 203

Mastermind 207

Packet Sniffing 213

What Can I Find Out About Mum and Dad Online? 217

What Makes a Strong Password? 219

Conclusion 223

Useful Links and Resources 227

Index 231