Junior Cycle Coding 2.3.2022

This five-week webinar on Thursday 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd & 30th  March is suitable for  Junior Cycle teachers and suitable for Primary teachers also if they have an interest in introducing Coding for 5th/6th class students will cover:

Week 1/2

• Introduce basic coding concepts through Scratch coding
  • Variables, operators, loops, decisions
  • Assignment, arithmetic, comparison, Boolean combinations - arrays, lists
  • Functions / Procedures
• Design a simple ‘Lotto’ computer game in Scratch

Week3

• Algorithms and Flowcharts
• Creating Apps with Javascript and AppLab

Week4

• Coding using Minecraft for Education
• Designing a website with HTML
• Components of a computer system – Hardware/Software - CPU, memory, main storage, I/O Devices
• How the internet works / protocols for communication

Week5

• Binary/Octal/Hexadecimal Number Systems – Bits/Bytes/Switches/Pixels
• Machine Code / Assembly Language
• Sequential / Parallel flow of control
• Python Coding
• Coding the Raspberry Pi single-board computer

There are also video tutorials available to complement the lessons.

Prerequisite: The only prerequisite for this course is an interest in learning about computer coding.

Equipment: You must have access to a computer with an internet connection to participate.

Learning Outcome: At the end of this course, the participant will have the basic coding skills and resources to enable them to teach Coding to a 5th/6th/Junior Cycle class.

Facilitator:     Seán Murphy. Bachelors Degree in Electronic Engineering from UCC and a Masters in Electronic Systems from DCU.

I changed career to teaching after completing the Hdip in Education in NUIG in 2006 and I have been teaching Maths, Physics and Applied Maths to Leaving Cert Honours level for the last 11 years in CBS Ennistymon, Co. Clare. I also teach Junior Cycle Science and Coding. I have a website www.hardsums.ie where I share my teaching resources for these subjects with other teachers/students.

From 2012 – 2015, I worked as a local facilitator for the Project Maths Development Team. This involved giving courses to Maths teachers in the