Grade 02: Computing

In this unit, 'Using a text editor', you learn to open, type, save and name a simple document. Lessons are short and playful, with objects, pictures and talk. You see it, say it, then do it alone.

• See it: watch or try the skill in 'Using a text editor' on a teacher screen or a safe device.
• Name the parts: write the key words and what each part does.
• Use it: open, type, save and name a simple document. Save your work in a named file or folder.
• Test and fix: run it, find one fault, correct it, and note what you changed.

Step by step.

1. Step 1, Open the editor: The learner clicks the Start button, finds the text editor in the list, and clicks it once. A white empty page opens with a blinking line at the top left. That blinking line is the cursor.
2. Step 2, Type a sentence: She clicks inside the page and types 'My cat is very soft.' She presses the Space bar between words and the full stop key at the end. Five words and a full stop appear on one line.
3. Step 3, New line: The learner presses Enter. The cursor jumps to the next line. She types 'The cat likes milk.' Now the page has two lines, each starting with a capital letter and ending with a full stop.
4. Step 4, Fix a typing mistake: She sees 'mlik' instead of 'milk'. She clicks just after the k, presses Backspace four times to delete all of 'mlik', and types milk again. The word now reads correctly.
5. Step 5, Save and name: The learner presses Ctrl and S together. A box asks for a name. She types 'my-cat' and presses Enter. The title at the top of the window changes to my-cat, which means the file is saved.
6. Step 6, Close and reopen: She closes the editor, then opens the Documents folder and double-clicks my-cat. Both lines come back unchanged, which proves the file was saved. Choosing a clear name made it easy to find.
7. Your turn: Type 'I like apples.' on line one and 'They are red.' on line two, then save it as 'apples'. Model answer: Ctrl+S, type apples, Enter. Reopening apples shows two lines, each with a capital letter and a full stop.

Activity. About 20 to 30 minutes of class work, then one short practice task for home. Keep evidence: one page in your learning book.

Standard to meet. Open, type, save and name a simple document: at least 4 of 5 attempts correct, said or written, with one real example from home or school.

In this unit, 'Drawing and colouring tools', you learn to use shapes, fill and undo in a drawing tool. Lessons are short and playful, with objects, pictures and talk. You see it, say it, then do it alone.

• See it: watch or try the skill in 'Drawing and colouring tools' on a teacher screen or a safe device.
• Name the parts: write the key words and what each part does.
• Use it: use shapes, fill and undo in a drawing tool. Save your work in a named file or folder.
• Test and fix: run it, find one fault, correct it, and note what you changed.

Step by step.

1. Step 1, Choose a shape: The learner opens the drawing tool and clicks the rectangle shape in the tool list. He drags from the left of the page to the middle, down and across, and lets go. A square outline appears for a house wall.
2. Step 2, Fill with colour: He clicks the fill tool, which looks like a paint bucket, picks orange, and clicks inside the rectangle. The whole wall turns orange. The bucket fills only inside closed lines, so the outline must have no gaps.
3. Step 3, Add a triangle roof: The learner selects the triangle shape, drags a triangle on top of the wall, then fills it brown with the bucket. The page now shows an orange wall and a brown roof, which is two shapes.
4. Step 4, Add a circle window: He selects the circle shape and holds Shift while dragging so the circle is round. He puts it on the wall and fills it light blue. Now the house has one round window.
5. Step 5, Undo: The learner accidentally fills the sky area black with the bucket. He presses Ctrl and Z once. The black disappears and the page returns to the step before. Undo cancels only the last action each time.
6. Step 6, Count and save: The finished picture has 3 shapes, a rectangle, a triangle and a circle, filled in 3 colours. The learner presses Ctrl and S, names it 'my house', and presses Enter to keep it.
7. Your turn: Make a boat from a rectangle hull and a triangle sail, fill both, undo one mistake. Model answer: draw the rectangle, fill brown; draw a triangle above it, fill white; if a wrong fill happens press Ctrl+Z once. Two shapes, two colours.

Activity. About 20 to 30 minutes of class work, then one short practice task for home. Keep evidence: one page in your learning book.

Standard to meet. Use shapes, fill and undo in a drawing tool: at least 4 of 5 attempts correct, said or written, with one real example from home or school.

In this unit, 'Giving clear instructions', you learn to write step-by-step instructions for a daily task. Lessons are short and playful, with objects, pictures and talk. You see it, say it, then do it alone.

• See it: watch or try the skill in 'Giving clear instructions' on a teacher screen or a safe device.
• Name the parts: write the key words and what each part does.
• Use it: write step-by-step instructions for a daily task. Save your work in a named file or folder.
• Test and fix: run it, find one fault, correct it, and note what you changed.

Step by step.

1. Step 1, An instruction is a short order that tells someone exactly what to do. Choose a daily task: brushing teeth. Say the first step: Put a pea-sized dot of toothpaste on the wet brush. Good instructions start with an action word, such as put, brush, rinse or spit, and tell what to use.
2. Step 2, Write all the steps in order. 1 Pick up your brush. 2 Wet the brush. 3 Put on a small dot of toothpaste. 4 Brush the top teeth for 1 minute. 5 Brush the bottom teeth for 1 minute. 6 Spit and rinse your mouth. There are 6 steps, and each one has a single job.
3. Step 3, Order matters. If you swap step 3 and step 6, you spit before you brush, which makes no sense. Check each step by asking, does this have to come before the next one? Put numbers next to the steps, or the words first, next, then and last, so nobody gets lost.
4. Step 4, Test the instructions with a helper. Read them aloud while the helper acts them out exactly, doing only what you say, like a robot. If the helper stops and says, how do I open the toothpaste?, a step is missing. Add a step: Take the cap off the toothpaste.
5. Step 5, Fix and improve. After adding the missing step, there are now 7 steps. Make the words clearer: replace do the teeth with brush the top teeth. Read the list again from step 1 and check that the helper can finish the task, with a clean smile at the end, without asking questions.
6. Step 6, Your turn: write step-by-step instructions for putting butter on a slice of bread. Model answer: 1 Take a slice of bread. 2 Put it on a plate. 3 Open the butter. 4 Scoop some butter with a knife. 5 Spread it across the bread. 6 Close the butter.

Activity. About 20 to 30 minutes of class work, then one short practice task for home. Keep evidence: one page in your learning book.

Standard to meet. Write step-by-step instructions for a daily task: at least 4 of 5 attempts correct, said or written, with one real example from home or school.

On the slide: L1 Basic · What a computer does

Notes: Name the four jobs of a computer: input, process, output and storage. Notes: use a washing machine or a phone and label each job with a sticky note; no screens are needed. Learners say which part is the input and which is the output.

This course: Grade 02 Computing is at this level. Its units include Using a text editor; Drawing and colouring tools; Giving clear instructions.

On the slide: L2 Awareness · Steps and algorithms

Notes: Describe an algorithm as ordered steps and put a set of steps in the right order. Notes: cut up the steps for making a sandwich and mix them; learners order them and find what breaks if two swap. Work unplugged. Safe knife use is for an adult only.

On the slide: L3 Foundation · Code loops and variables

Notes: Write a short program that uses a variable and a loop to give a predicted output. Notes: for i in range(1,6), print the square of i. The output is 1, 4, 9, 16, 25 and their total is 55. Learners predict the output first, then run and compare. Take breaks to rest eyes.

On the slide: L4 Practitioner · Binary and image size

Notes: Apply binary and storage sums to convert numbers and estimate file size. Notes: 45 in binary is 101101, since 32 plus 8 plus 4 plus 1 is 45. A raw picture of 800 by 600 pixels at 24 bits needs 1,440,000 bytes. Learners check by working back from binary to decimal.

On the slide: L5 Specialist · Network transfer and security

Notes: Analyse how data moves over a network and compare protections against common threats. Notes: a 50 MB file is 400 megabits; at 20 megabits per second the transfer takes 20 s. Learners work out the time on a slower link and list two safe habits for passwords and updates.

On the slide: L6 Advanced · Complexity and search

Notes: Apply Big O reasoning to compare linear and binary search. Notes: a sorted list of 1,000,000 items needs at most 20 comparisons by binary search, since 2 to the 20 is 1,048,576, instead of up to a million for linear search. Learners trace a search on 16 numbers by hand.

On the slide: L7 Super expert · Secure system design

Notes: Evaluate a small system for security risk and design controls. Notes: a 12-character password from 62 symbols holds about 71.5 bits of entropy, since 12 times log2 of 62 is 71.45. Learners rank threats, choose controls, and test only on systems they own or have written permission to test.