Families
Digital Technologies
The following collection of activities have been designed for you to complete in your home or around your local community to assist in building your child’s knowledge of the Digital Technologies curriculum. These activities require minimal preparation from you and the knowledge required to enable you to complete the tasks with your children has been included.
A colour key provides the main Digital Technologies concept being covered. Select a colour key to learn more.
Filter activities by age.
5-7
Students create a simple touch game using Scratch Junior about animals that live on a farm.
Creating a visual guide to packing the school bag
Students will capture photos using a peripheral device, e.g. camera, of the items that go into their school bag each day.
After discovering a digital system of interest, create a model of the chosen device that can be used during role-play situations at home.
Children take a walk around their local area to collect some data about the animals and plants they can find during one of the four seasons.
Did you know many of your items of clothing need to be washed in different ways? Some items are delicate and need to be hand washed, some cannot be ironed. How can we tell which is which? Clothing has writing and symbols on it that can tell us!
Children create a dance routine based on a set of robot movements. They then share their dance instructions with a classmate / family member to see if that dance routine can be easily followed.
By drawing animals in different circumstances to represent different ideas, students learn about abstraction and data representation. This activity suits two siblings working together.
We’re going on a computer hunt
In this activity students explore digital systems around them and consider the components that make those systems, and what the purpose of the system is.
8-10
In this activity you will make an animated card using the Scratch programming blocks. You will use three functions: selecting a background, make the character (sprite) say something, and moving the sprite.
Your child will describe the sequence of steps and decisions needed to successfully play a simple card game such as Snap.
This activity is designed for you and your child to explore some commonly used peripheral devices around your home.
Students learn to spell different words using the semaphore system with flags and movement. Children can get other members of the family to guess the word they have spelled.
Interview grandparents and parents to find out the different types of information systems available when they were growing up and contrast these to the information systems we have today.
Did you know many of your items of clothing need to be washed in different ways? Some items are delicate and need to be hand washed, some cannot be ironed. How can we tell which is which? Clothing has writing and symbols on it that can tell us!
Find all the technology words on the sheet and in your house! A fun find-a-word activity to improve younger students’ awareness of Digital Systems and develop their vocabulary and spelling.
Discovering information systems in the community
This activity will take your family on an exploration of different services in your community. At each different location, children will find and identify an information system in the environment.
This activity is designed to teach decision making in programming as well as starting to teach students about variables. The game is based on a path up a mountain blocked with a number of smaller ‘if mountains’ that must be passed to reach the finish.
By drawing animals in different circumstances to represent different ideas, students learn about abstraction and data representation. This activity suits two siblings working together.
11-13
This activity will help you identify and discuss some of the issues that may occur when using technology and communicating online.
As a family you can investigate different forms of connectivity and discover which types can be paired with the digital systems you own.
This is a collaborative activity for you and your children. Together, you will create a blog to document the activities the children participate in or places they visit during their break.
In this activity you will play the game of Memory, collecting cards when you match a binary and decimal number.
Students learn about the power of advanced search options to help narrow results when looking for resources.
Play a game with a partner where you guess a 3 digit code. Change the game to create codes using favourite superheroes, foods or music. Take your new skills and learn how to create passwords with superpowers.
Number Guessing with Algorithms
Play a number guessing game, then think about the best way to play the game to win. Create a set of instructions anyone can follow to guess a number in the fewest number of guesses. Create an algorithm and use it in a harder version of the game.
Create an algorithm, or set of instructions, to navigate through a maze. Choose from a finite set of commands, and create the best instructions you can to get through the maze with the fewest number of instructions.
NASA has lost 4 spaceships in deep space. Probes have been deployed to gather data. Your job is to triangulate the data to find the missing spaceships and save the astronauts. Are you up for the challenge?
This activity is designed to teach decision making in programming as well as starting to teach students about variables. The game is based on a path up a mountain blocked with a number of smaller ‘if mountains’ that must be passed to reach the finish.
In this activity students use logic and follow an algorithm to find missing carrots on a grid.
13-15
Basic coding course: Beginners
This lesson sequence provides a bridge between visual coding (eg. Scratch) and General Purpose Programming languages (eg. Python or JavaScript).
Coding course Chatbots: Intermediate
Teachers and students are led through the coding in Python of a chatbot, a conversational program capable of responding in varied ways to user input, including with the use of smart sentiment analysis.
Book analysis with AI techniques
This learning sequence explores text analysis through Natural Language Processing, a significant application of Artificial Intelligence.
Play a game with a partner where you guess a 3 digit code. Change the game to create codes using favourite superheroes, foods or music. Take your new skills and learn how to create passwords with superpowers.
Unscramble a hidden message by figuring out missing letters in common words. This activity uses a a substitution cipher, and students can go on to create their own hidden messages. Substitution ciphers are an example of encryption, which is used when data needs to be sent securely.
Number Guessing with Algorithms
Play a number guessing game, then think about the best way to play the game to win. Create a set of instructions anyone can follow to guess a number in the fewest number of guesses. Create an algorithm and use it in a harder version of the game.
In this challenge students are taught the steps in volved in Bubble sort algorithms by comparing and switching unsorted cards. They then use that method to classify how scrambled different card sequences are from their sorted form.
NASA has lost 4 spaceships in deep space. Probes have been deployed to gather data. Your job is to triangulate the data to find the missing spaceships and save the astronauts. Are you up for the challenge?
A fun find-a-word activity to improve students awareness of Digital Systems and their roles in a wider technology context.
In this activity, students solve seven puzzles to navigate their way around the house to find a hidden treasure. Puzzles are solved by applying a range of data representation, binary number, pixel graphic, morse code and simple cryptography skills.
In this activity, students learn about Voroni algorithms and how they are used to determine with certainty the shortest distance to key locations on a map.
Students will consider how different people use their TVs, and how the remote control for TVs either helps or hinders them. They'll be guided through the process of coming up with a better design, and some of the things you think about when designing enjoyable user experiences.
15-16
Coding course Chatbots: Intermediate
Teachers and students are led through the coding in Python of a chatbot, a conversational program capable of responding in varied ways to user input, including with the use of smart sentiment analysis.
Book analysis with AI techniques
This learning sequence explores text analysis through Natural Language Processing, a significant application of Artificial Intelligence.
In this challenge students are taught the steps in volved in Bubble sort algorithms by comparing and switching unsorted cards. They then use that method to classify how scrambled different card sequences are from their sorted form.
Students apply an algorithm, described by a simple set of rules, to create a self replicating emoji patterns across a grid.
In this activity, students solve seven puzzles to navigate their way around the house to find a hidden treasure. Puzzles are solved by applying a range of data representation, binary number, pixel graphic, morse code and simple cryptography skills.
In this activity, students learn about Voroni algorithms and how they are used to determine with certainty the shortest distance to key locations on a map.
Students will consider how different people use their TVs, and how the remote control for TVs either helps or hinders them. They'll be guided through the process of coming up with a better design, and some of the things you think about when designing enjoyable user experiences.
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