Technology and Digital Skills Curriculum: aged 13-18

Our Technology and Digital Skills Curriculum aims to support teachers to prepare pupils with skills and resilience, so they can thrive in this changing and unpredictable age of technology.

The curriculum covers topics such as cybersecurity, data analytics, web and app development and internet of things. It helps students make connections between technology topics they might be interested in and potential careers in those areas, as well as develop multiple employability skills. Sessions are between 45minutes-1hour long.

Lesson summaries by topic are included below. Those lessons that require the use of computers are indicated with an asterisk (*).

We have also created some additional guidance for parents/carers on using the toolkit resources at home.

Lessons

Lesson 1: Problem solving

Getting students excited and connecting their own personal interests to computer science.

Lesson 2: What is a Computer?

Students develop a preliminary definition of a computer by categorising different items based on whether they are or aren’t a computer.

Lesson 3: Data Science & Analytics

Students look at how data is collected and used by organizations to solve problems in the real world. They then have the opportunity to apply this knowledge to solve two different scenarios.

Lesson 4: Hour of code*

Learners of all ages get an introductory experience with coding and computer science and the potential careers these skills can lead to. Students have the opportunity to choose a number of lessons from Minecraft to Star Wars to Frozen. All lessons provide the opportunity for students to learn the basics of coding in a fun and engaging way.

*Lesson requires students to use computers.

Lesson 5: Creating Webpages*

Students learn the basics of creating webpages using HTML and CSS coding languages through an online tutorial. With this lesson, students are able to use these languages and see these changes come to life on sample webpages.

*Lesson requires students to use computers.

Lesson 6: App Development

Students look at the prototyping phase of app design, testing ideas and assumptions on a paper prototype and identifying ways to improve the product for its next iteration.

Lesson 7: Intro to App Lab*

This tutorial is designed to quickly introduce the App Lab programming environment as a powerful tool for building and sharing apps.

*Lesson requires students to use computers.

Lesson 8: Cybersecurity*

Students are introduced to the need for encryption and simple techniques for breaking (or cracking) secret messages before trying to crack an encoded message.

*Lesson requires students to use computers.

Lesson 9: Internet of Things

This lesson will guide students through an abbreviated version of the design process they will be seeing throughout this unit. Students first brainstorm a list of potential users of smart clothing. As a class, they then group these ideas into broad categories and each group will choose one category of user. Groups repeat this process to brainstorm needs or concerns of their user, eventually categorizing these needs and choosing one to focus on. Finally, students design a piece of smart clothing, using the specific needs and concerns they brainstormed to guide their decision making.