Grade 03: Computing

In this unit, 'Pictures and shapes in a drawing program', you learn to rotate, resize, colour and save a picture. 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 'Pictures and shapes in a drawing program' on a teacher screen or a safe device.
• Name the parts: write the key words and what each part does.
• Use it: rotate, resize, colour and save a picture. 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, Insert a shape: Farah opens the drawing program, selects the arrow shape from the shapes menu, and drags to draw an arrow pointing right on the page. The arrow has small square handles at its corners and edges.
2. Step 2, Resize: She drags the bottom right corner handle outward and the arrow grows bigger while keeping its proportions. Dragging a corner handle changes both width and height together, so the shape does not get squashed.
3. Step 3, Rotate: She grabs the round rotate handle above the shape and turns it a quarter turn clockwise. The arrow, which pointed right, now points down. She also uses the menu Rotate right 90 degrees and gets the same result.
4. Step 4, Colour: With the arrow still selected, Farah picks Fill, chooses green and sets the outline to dark blue. The arrow becomes green with a blue edge. Selecting before colouring is important, or nothing changes.
5. Step 5, Copy and check: She copies the arrow with Ctrl+C, pastes with Ctrl+V, and rotates the copy 180 degrees. Now one arrow points down and one points up, each green with a blue edge.
6. Step 6, Save: Farah chooses File, Save as, types 'arrows', picks the picture format PNG, and presses Save. The file arrows.png appears in the folder. She reopens it and sees both arrows unchanged.
7. Your turn: Draw a triangle, make it twice as large, rotate it 90 degrees to the left, colour it red, and save it as 'tri'. Model answer: drag a corner handle to double its size, rotate left 90, fill red, then Save as tri.png.

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. Rotate, resize, colour and save a picture: at least 4 of 5 attempts correct, said or written, with one real example from home or school.

In this unit, 'Typing and word processing basics', you learn to type a short text and format it. 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 'Typing and word processing basics' on a teacher screen or a safe device.
• Name the parts: write the key words and what each part does.
• Use it: type a short text and format it. 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, Posture and home row: Sultan sits straight with wrists level. His left fingers rest on A, S, D, F and his right fingers on J, K, L and the semicolon key. Thumbs rest on the Space bar. This is the home row.
2. Step 2, Type a short text: He opens the word processor and types 'The desert is hot in summer.' Then he presses Enter and types 'Camels can walk far without any water.' That is two sentences, 13 words in total.
3. Step 3, Check the count: Sultan counts: sentence one has 6 words, sentence two has 7 words. 6 plus 7 is 13. The word count shown at the bottom of the program also says 13, so his typing and counting match.
4. Step 4, Format the title: He adds a line at the top, 'Desert Facts', selects it by dragging, then clicks Bold, sets the size from 12 to 18, and clicks Centre. The title is now large, bold and in the middle.
5. Step 5, Format the body: He selects the two sentences and changes the font to a clear one, keeps the size at 12, and clicks Align left. Small, clear text for the body and large text for the title looks neat.
6. Step 6, Save: Sultan presses Ctrl+S, names the file 'desert-facts' and presses Enter. He closes and reopens it, and the bold centred title and two sentences are still there.
7. Your turn: Type a title 'My School' and two sentences about it, make the title bold and centred, size 16. Model answer: title is selected, Bold, Centre, size 16 from the size box; body stays at 12; save as my-school.

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. Type a short text and format it: at least 4 of 5 attempts correct, said or written, with one real example from home or school.

In this unit, 'Algorithms and loops without a computer', you learn to write and test a sequence of steps with a repeat. 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 'Algorithms and loops without a computer' on a teacher screen or a safe device.
• Name the parts: write the key words and what each part does.
• Use it: write and test a sequence of steps with a repeat. 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 algorithm is a list of exact steps. Picture a robot on a grid, facing north. It knows two commands: F means move forward one square and R means turn right a quarter turn. We want it to walk around a square with sides of 3 squares and end where it began.
2. Step 2, Write it with no repeat: F F F R F F F R F F F R F F F R. That is 16 commands, and the same group F F F R appears 4 times. When steps repeat, we can group them and say how many times to do them. This saves writing and makes mistakes less likely.
3. Step 3, Use a loop: repeat 4 times [F F F R]. Now there are only 4 commands inside the repeat. A loop has two parts: the steps that repeat and the count. The robot makes 4 sides of 3 squares and 4 right turns, then faces north again at the start square.
4. Step 4, Test by tracing on squared paper. Start at (0, 0). After the first F F F R you are at (0, 3) facing east. After the second you are at (3, 3) facing south. After the third, (3, 0) facing west. After the fourth, you are back at (0, 0) facing north. The test passes.
5. Step 5, Find a bug. Suppose someone writes repeat 3 times [F F F R]. Trace it: the robot stops at (3, 0) facing west, not back at (0, 0), so the shape has only 3 sides. Fix the count to 4 and test again.
6. Step 6, Your turn: write a repeat to walk around a rectangle 4 squares long and 2 wide, starting facing north. Model answer: repeat 2 times [F F F F R F F R]. It makes 2 long sides and 2 short sides, and it ends at the start.

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 and test a sequence of steps with a repeat: at least 4 of 5 attempts correct, said or written, with one real example from home or school.

In this unit, 'Online safety', you learn to say what to keep private and who to tell when something feels wrong. 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 'Online safety' on a teacher screen or a safe device.
• Name the parts: write the key words and what each part does.
• Use it: say what to keep private and who to tell when something feels wrong. 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, Sort private from public. Private information could help a stranger find you: your full name, home address, phone number, school name, birthday and passwords. Public information is safe to share, such as your favourite colour or a drawing of a cat. Make two lists and put each item in one of them.
2. Step 2, Keep passwords secret. Only you and a parent or carer should know them. A good password uses three random words and numbers, such as bluefish tree 27 joined together, which is longer and harder to guess than your pet's name. Never type a password for someone who asks in a message or a game chat.
3. Step 3, Treat online strangers carefully. A person you have never met face to face is a stranger, even if they are friendly, say they are a child, or offer a free gift. Do not reply to them, do not share photos, and never agree to meet. Tell a trusted adult if they ask to be your friend.
4. Step 4, Know the warning signs. Something feels wrong when a message is unkind, asks for a secret, asks for photos, or shows scary pictures. Do this: stop, do not reply, keep the message so a grown-up can see it, and tell a trusted adult such as a parent, carer or teacher. It is never your fault.
5. Step 5, Practise with a story. In a game chat, a player says, I am nine too! What school do you go to? Say, I do not share that. Then leave the chat, keep the message and go to a grown-up right away. You gave no private information, so you stayed safe.
6. Step 6, Your turn: name three things to keep private and say who you tell if a stranger asks for them. Model answer: my home address, my school name and my password; I tell a trusted adult, such as my parent or teacher, straight away.

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. Say what to keep private and who to tell when something feels wrong: 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.

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.

This course: Grade 03 Computing is at this level. Its units include Pictures and shapes in a drawing program; Typing and word processing basics; Algorithms and loops without a computer; Online safety.

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.