Queen Mary University of London (QMUL)’s award-winning outreach project, Computer Science for Fun (cs4fn) launches its free magazine ‘A Bit of cs4fn’, helping teachers teach computer science to primary school children.
Computer Science for Fun (cs4fn) is a global campaign from QMUL’s School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science to enthuse both students and others about inter-disciplinary computer science research.
The new magazine for primary schools features articles on both the history of computing and leading-edge research written in a simple, accessible and fun way. It will answer questions like, what is the link between the Romans and your digital camera? How can machines help invent new instruments? And, is an invisibility cloak possible? Activities such as pixel puzzles and cryptic code wheels included in articles will help make learning interactive and memorable.
Professor Paul Curzon, Project Director of cs4fn, said: “We hope our new magazine ‘A Bit of cs4fn’ will help primary teachers inspire their students about computing showing it is fun and much more than just programming. The magazine also aims to draw out the links to other subjects. We hope it will give teachers a resource that helps with literacy and numeracy as well as with computing.”
Teachers have described the magazine as a ‘Valuable resource for teaching in STEM subjects’, and praised it for being ‘a magazine for children, teaching them about technology’.
Sister publications included the secondary school magazine cs4fn sent free to over 2,000 schools, booklets on computer science magic, and a series on computational thinking.
Over 100 primary schools have subscribed to receive free copies of the new magazine, with 2,000 copies being distributed to those who presubscribed. Schools interested in receiving copies of this or future issues of ‘A Bit of cs4fn’, can sign up here.
‘A Bit of cs4fn’ magazine is funded by the QMUL Centre for Public Engagement with additional funding from the Mayor of London and the CAS Network of Excellence funded by the Department for Education.
Issue one is available for free download online, where children can also explore computer science in their own time and in an accessible way.