Computational thinking and programmingKey Stage 2

Subject content for KS2

Pupils should be taught to:

• design, write and debug programs that accomplish specific

goals, including controlling or simulating physical systems;

solve problems by decomposing them into smaller parts

• use sequence, selection, and repetition in programs; work

with variables and various forms of input and output

• use logical reasoning to explain how some simple

algorithms work and to detect and correct errors in

algorithms and programs

Decomposing problems

“solve problems by decomposing them into smaller

parts” - Subject content KS2

Decomposition is the process of breaking a problem

down into smaller problems so that ultimately the

bigger problem can be solved (and explained clearly to

someone else or to a computer).

Sequence, repetition &

selection“use sequence, selection, and repetition in programs” - Subject

content KS2

Sequence: putting instructions in an order where each one is

executed one after the other

Repetition: one or more instructions are repeated a number of

times or until a condition is met or the program is stopped

Selection: instructions are executed depending on whether a

particular condition is met

Selection lies at the heart of the ‘intelligence’ of a computer

program.

Activity #1 Hour of Code

Working in pairs, follow the Hour of Code beginners

tutorial. Your challenge is to complete this in 30 mins!

http://learn.code.org/hoc/1

NB: This tutorial introduces the key programming

concepts of sequence, repetition and selection

Debugging at KS2

“design, write and debug programs that accomplish

specific goals” - Subject content KS2

This builds upon children’s experience of debugging at

KS1. As their programs become more sophisticated

the debugging becomes more challenging.

Activity #2 Hungry Monkey 1

http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/23390939/

Can you make the monkey sprite move left and right

when the left and right arrow keys are pressed?

Activity #3 Hungry Monkey 2

http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/23390750/

Can you make the monkey jump to catch the

bananas?

Variables

“work with variables” - Subject content KS2

Variables are containers for data. They enable us to

store, retrieve or change data. A variable could be

used in a game to keep track of a user’s score or to

remember a player’s name.

Activity #4 Hungry Monkey 3

http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/23390032/

Can you make the score board work to keep track of

the number of bananas monkey has caught?

Subject content for KS2

Pupils should be taught to:

• design, write and debug programs that accomplish specific

goals, including controlling or simulating physical systems;

solve problems by decomposing them into smaller parts

• use sequence, selection, and repetition in programs; work

with variables and various forms of input and output

• use logical reasoning to explain how some simple

algorithms work and to detect and correct errors in

algorithms and programs

Follow up from today:

Turvey K. et al. (2014) ‘Programming and

computational thinking’ in Primary Computing and ICT,

Knowledge, Understanding and Practice, London:

Sage.