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Lockwood & Mooney review: Computational thinking

This article provides a literature review of how computational thinking fits into a school curriculum. The aim of the report is to provide educators with an overview of the current research in this field and the work that is being done in teaching computational thinking.

Online

Understanding weeds: life cycle

Weeds compete with native plants in our natural environments, and can dominate both natural ecosystems and areas of agricultural production. This competition limits biodiversity, as well as the economic potential for farmers. This activity will look closely at three different weed forms and children will learn about their ...

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Newsletter – July 2018

This newsletter from the Digital Technologies in Focus project includes information about schools' projects, the Australian Curriculum and useful resources.

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Faith Lutheran School

Faith Lutheran College is a secondary co-educational independent school in Plainland, Queensland. It has more than 700 students and was established in 1999. Sarah Atkins is the curriculum officer who works with the school to support implementation of the Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies. Teachers at the school ...

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South Kalgoorlie Primary School – PL ecosystem

This document illustrates the network of people and resources that make up South Kalgoorlie Primary School's Professional Learning ecosystem.

Video

St Mary’s Primary School – Progress report 3

This video explains the progress that St Mary's Primary School, Moruya, has made in the Digital Technologies in Focus project. It is the third in a series of four.

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Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies assessment task – Year 1 Assessment focus: Data Student task sheet: Stepping out

This PDF includes a self-assessment task for students and a marking guide for teachers.

Downloadable

Fighting floodwaters

This is an illustrated story retelling the real-life engineering decisions made to mitigate flood damage to a Queensland town that experiences frequent, dangerous flooding. It focuses on the value of being an engineer and how It benefits local communities. The downloadable PDF includes classroom activities.

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Create dichotomous keys lesson

In this lesson students engage in a hands-on exploration of local diversity. Students research and record local wildlife, learn about biodiversity in Australia, and conduct a ‘bush blitz’. They learn how to create dichotomous keys and translate their keys into a wildlife discovery app prototype. The resource includes links ...

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Visualising climate change lesson

In this lesson, students explore different approaches to data representation, with the aim of engaging audiences with scientific data. They explore local temperature and rainfall datasets over time and represent trends in innovative ways. Students learn about different ways to visually represent climate change, looking ...

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Asunda review: STEM integration

This article explores the benefits of an interdisciplinary STEM program in the quest for providing students with a holistic approach to problem-solving that reflects real-world practice. This is supported by a conceptual framework that comprises four constructs: systems thinking, situation learning theory, constructivism ...

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Activities that promote Digital Technologies concepts and incorporate Numeracy: part 4: Tessellations

This video provides suggestions for ways in which Digital Technologies can be used to develop students' learning in the Numeracy Learning Progression.

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Newsletter – December 2019

This newsletter from the Digital Technologies in Focus project includes information about schools' projects, information for parents and teachers, the Australian Curriculum, and useful resources.

Video

St Mary’s Primary School – Progress report 4

This video explains the progress that Bethany Christian School has made in the Digital Technologies in Focus project. It is the last in a series of four.

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Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies Years F-2 Sample Assessment Task: Digital Systems - Presentation materials

The Digital systems presentation materials to support the assessment task provides a scaffold to teach about and assess students’ understanding of how digital systems can be used to collect data about the school environment. Students are guided to use digital systems such as photo apps on digital devices and online maps ...

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Scratch coder

Build a simple yet engaging game from the ground up, all within the free block coding program Scratch.Scratch is a browser-based open-source game engine free for anyone to use. Scratch uses block coding, meaning you can learn how to code us-ing pre-programmed blocks, rather than typing out long lines of code to create a ...

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Curzon & Bell et al. review: Computational thinking

This article explores the concept of computational thinking within computer science learning and in relation to other learning areas. The authors assert that because of its focus on analysis, computational thinking is not only suitable for computation but also the development of systems-based on computation.

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Voskoglou & Buckley review: Problem solving and computational thinking

This article explores the relationship between computational and critical thinking as it applies to solving technological problems. Research evidence derived from classroom experiments strongly suggests that using computers to solve problems enhances students’ abilities in solving real-world problems involving mathematical ...

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Expert Webinar video: Professor Stephen Heppel: The impact of environmental factors on learning

In this video Professor Stephen Heppell, discusses the aggregation of marginal gains in learning environments. He provides examples from the Learnometer project, designed to help students monitor their classroom environment for factors that may hinder learning.