Computer Science for Fun (CS4FN)

Why might robotics companies want to employ animators and actors...The beautiful film 'The Wild Robot' illustrates some reasons why. It is all about emotions. cs4fn.blog/2026/10/25/t...

New book. Get your teens off their phones and give them something else to do. Great for long car journeys or revision brain breaks. Would make a good stocking filler. Available on Amazon now link.amazon/B0clsRqSf #puzzle #screenfree #wordsearch

Margaret Hamilton - it sounds like she was a pioneer of "defensive design". news.mit.edu/2026/margare...

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Every month we will be releasing a free CPD video for Computing teachers on our YouTube channel, which teachers can access anywhere. To start we have the incredible Professor Michael Kölling talking about coding and how to teach it in school. Watch the full video here: zurl.co/I9JIQ

Did you know, UK Schools can apply for free trees from The Woodland Trust? Details here www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/plant-trees/...

Saw the absolutely brilliant Wiesenthal at Wilton's Music Hall yesterday. A one man show on Simon Wiesenthal set on the day he retired. Powerful way to remind us why we must not just bring those committing war crimes to justice whoever it is against but also ..remember wiltons.org.uk/whats-on/wie...

Some people's chats with Claude AI found to be publicly available online www.bbc.co.uk/news/article.... Nice one to discus privacy with students and why it’s important!

Free online public talk Wed 22nd, 6pm on Quantum Computing & AI from @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social QUANTUM LEARNING QUANTUM: Quantum Computers and AI www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/online-pub... (it's also in-person but tickets for that are sold out). Full details www.imperial.ac.uk/events/21137...

Happy #WorldEmojiDay - here's an emoji film quiz I put together for kids a couple of years ago as part of an EPSRC public engagement with computing project* that @cs4fn.bsky.social was PI on cs4fn.blog/emoji/ *emoji as a digital comms tool and also about the way different demographics use them.

Workshops coming up at Centre of the Cell - I will be doing AI and Medical Machine Magic : fun workshops looking at overlaps between biology / healthcare and computer science for kids aged 7-11

Got Primary 1/Reception class next year? You are the luckiest teacher in the school. Here’s why. #EduSkyPrimary

What a surprise ….. “Is AI ruining our skills? Early results are in — and they’re not good Reliance on artificial-intelligence tools degrades the abilities of physicians and software engineers, studies show.” www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Shortly to give a 2-minute lightning talk about careers in and around computing & tech (for delegates at the KCL / Computing At School Computing Teachers' Conference) based on my collection of ~130 archived computer science job packs techdevjobs.wordpress.com/kclcas/

My latest @newscientist.com cartoon

1 of 2: Free event for students and recent graduates considering data science careers linked with the life sciences, part of London Data Week #LDW26 Data careers in life sciences Tue 7 July 2-4.30pm, One Triton Square londondataweek.org/ldw26-events... cc @cs4fn.bsky.social

Become an Early Years Pupil Premium Champion. Apply for a unique funded opportunity, making a difference and growing your network. Apply by 16 July: tinyurl.com/dp28d8jx

Includes effective interventions to improve maths

I did not doubt her bravery when I saw what she was flying in at the Science Museum's Cosmonauts exhibition.

Had a great time teaching the computer science of algorithms by teaching magic tricks in Dundee as part of the Digital Schoolhouse Festival of Play. How can you do a magic trick, moving a card invisibly from one place to another when you don't know how you did it? www.abertay.ac.uk/news/2026/fe...

Want to think about how artificial intelligent agents could work together? Try reading Shroud by @aptshadow.bsky.social Actually about alien intelligence, as with his other books, it explores other forms of intelligence (and consciousness) in a gripping way. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shroud_...

My latest cartoon for @newscientist.com

What do you do when you have run out of funds to build your revolutionary machine that will change the world? Charles Babbage turned to game AI. Find out why he gave up having decided he could build it in our latest blog... cs4fn.blog/2026/06/11/b...

Just saw the really inspiring Royal Shakespeare Company musical "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind" about William Kamkwamba, the young teenager who worked out how to make a wind turbine from scrap to bring electricity to his Malawi village. Here is a CS4FN article about him cs4fn.blog/2026/06/07/w...

Problem solving in maths is about more than getting the right answer. Visualisation, discussion, reflection and curiosity all help pupils develop stronger mathematical thinking across the key stages. ow.ly/Ytkf50Z4yKo

Now published in The Computer Journal: my editorial, “In Memoriam: C. A. R. Hoare”: doi.org/10.1093/comj... A brief tribute to Tony Hoare’s extraordinary contributions to computer science, and to the journal’s particular connection to that legacy through the publication of “Quicksort” in 1962.

Every summer I repost this article on how to spot drowning. Please read it and pass on. In the last few years I’ve had SIX messages from people who saved a kid’s life after clicking on the link from my feed. slate.com/technology/2...

Help shape the Mayor's AI and Jobs Taskforce to understand the impact of AI on Londoners’ jobs, and how we can support: what's AI actually doing to your work, your sector, your city? Take our @mayoroflondon.bsky.social survey; join the online discussion; RT! www.london.gov.uk/talk-london/...

"Human-centred design recommendations to help The National Archives shape the future of the data economy" www.projectsbyif.com/work/public-...

Strong practice starts with sharp diagnosis. Not: “Which pupils are disadvantaged?” But: “What barriers are making success harder here — and how do we remove them?” tinyurl.com/2drkf87e

Misread Signals. How History Overlooked Women Codebreakers. Sir Dermot Turing (nephew!) www.computerconservationsociety.org/lectures/202... Free talk this Thursday afternoon 21st (online Zoom or in-person, London), 2.30pm, at the Computer Conservation Society. cc @cs4fn.bsky.social

Oh, dear Used in ways to harass "women only find out about the videos of them after they gain traction, and often abuse, online" but "plans to add facial recognition technology ... meaning wearers could not only ... surreptitiously record anyone, but quickly identify them, as well."

Ancient Egyptian binary in multiplication and division algorithms. What are the origins of binary? Binary may be linked to modern technology, but it goes back a long way. Even the Ancient Egyptians used a form of binary around 4000 years ago. Read more at cs4fn.blog/2026/05/10/a...

Born #OnThisDay in 1900 was Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin. In her doctoral thesis she concluded stars are primarily composed of hydrogen & helium, an idea dismissed by the establishment of the day. It was later described as "the most brilliant PhD thesis ever written in astronomy."

Yet new challenges we need to confront to ensure technology is for good ... "...artificial intelligence (AI) and digital platforms are enabling traffickers to "recruit, groom and control victims [of modern slavery] at scale"." "It will spread further and become harder to stop unless we act now."

Hands up can be misleading. A few confident answers don’t always reflect what the whole class understands. Explore how to check and adapt your teaching: tinyurl.com/228nhbm8

New on the CS4FN blog: Riasat Islam of @qmuleecs.bsky.social tells us about his research as part of a team investigating how technology can best support faith. cs4fn.blog/2026/05/05/w...

Learn about Computer Science from Star Wars on #StarWarsDay from out Computer Science for Fun Collection cs4fn.blog/the-computer... #MayThe4thBeWithYou

🔊Calling UK science & physics teachers. Could you lend me your voice to help us fight the devastating funding cuts planned for UK astronomy and particle physics? Please sign this open letter, which we will be delivering to the UKGov next week. 🧪🔭⚛️🎢 #STFC ✍️ ras.ac.uk/news-and-pre... Thank you!

Nice article by John Naughton about the curiosity-driven research creating a "vintage" pre-1931 trained (so public domain only reference texts) Large Language Model, Talkie. AI as interactive reference library. observer.co.uk/news/columni...

Play isn't just for the playground. Because one idea + one class + one lesson is all it takes to start something new. zurl.co/3OYgt #PlayBasedLearning #ComputerScience #DigitalLiteracy #CreativeTeaching

Reception teachers 🔢 Take part in the Maths Through Picture Books trial: a 10-week programme using shared reading with the aim of supporting early maths. The trial will explore if this approach helps pupils develop foundational number understanding. 👉 tinyurl.com/3wtsp5f9

Your magnetic personality A combination of physics, engineering and computing brought together allow us to see inside our bodies including seeing them work. From the CS4FN archive: cs4fn.blog/2026/04/27/y...

The Hampster Dance website in 1999 This website was one of the earliest examples of an Internet meme and it was created by Deidre LaCarte in 1998. #InternetHistory

What’s the impact of student grouping? Today we’re pleased to publish new research with @ucl.ac.uk @ioe.bsky.social comparing pupils’ attainment in maths classes grouped by attainment and mixed-attainment classes. Explore the report: tinyurl.com/3rbmrfdk

UK (primary) Computer Science teachers (also librarians / home educators) who are on @cs4fn.bsky.social's mailing list for 'A Bit of CS4FN' - have you received your mini-magazines and what did you think? We hope you and your class / children enjoyed them :) cs4fn.blog/bitof6

This morning led an Ri Masterclass at @qmuleecs.bsky.social on what intelligence (so artificial intelligence) is and how people build them. We played against Intelligent Paper, tried to spot the AI, built a brain that plays snap and made a learning machine to play Ladder. cs4fn.blog/2025/05/19/t...

Silly sequences and data compression: What comes next, why and... 1 11 21 1211 111221 312211 ... answer and find the link to data compression algorithms here cs4fn.blog/2026/04/24/s... in the new CS4FN article by Daniel Gill of @qmuleecs.bsky.social