Computer Science Resources

A series of four lessons covering introduction to binary and hexadecimal, conversion between number bases, negative binary numbers, binary arithmetic, and binary shifts. Each lesson includes a teacher’s PowerPoint, clear annotated examples, practice questions (with solutions), and homework (with solutions).

Full lesson - The Internet and WANs. This lesson builds on the previous introduction to networks and introduces the concept of WANs and the Internet backbone. It covers the implications that the Internet's structure has for reliability and security. Includes starter activity, teacher’s PowerPoint, activities, and homework. Answers are provided for all activities and homework. Fully editable resource.

Full lesson - Binary shifts. This lesson explains the concepts of logical and arithmetic binary shifts (left and right) with clear, full screen diagrams and examples. Practice questions and a full worksheet (with solutions) are included. Fully editable resource.

Full lesson - end of basic hardware unit. Starter is a recap of previous hardware concepts. The main lesson activity covers the advantages and disadvantages of cloud storage. The final activity / homework activity is an assessment task. Pupils must select a suitable computer specification for each of five scenarios, designed to test their understanding from earlier in the unit. Guidance for assessment is given. Fully editable resource.

Full lesson - Introduction to data representation and binary numbers. This lesson introduces the concept that everything in a computer is represented as binary, explains how binary works, and covers binary to denary conversion. Includes teacher’s PowerPoint, activities, and homework (with solutions). Fully editable resource.

Full lesson - Introduction to representing negative numbers in binary. This lesson recaps binary representation and then introduces negative numbers. To aid understanding of two’s complement, binary addition is also covered. Both sign and magnitude and two’s complement are covered, with worked examples, exercises, and an explanation of the problems with sign and magnitude notation. Includes teacher’s PowerPoint, activities, and homework (with solutions). Fully editable resource.

Full lesson - Introduction to hexadecimal. This lesson recaps binary representation and then introduces hexadecimal. The lesson covers conversion between denary and hexadecimal, binary and hexadecimal, and vice versa. Includes starter, teacher’s PowerPoint, activities, and homework (with solutions). Fully editable resource.