OpenSTEM

Pseudocode and Flowcharts are ways of showing algorithms or processes. Both pseudocode and flowcharts are in used in many places, so it’s important to know how to read and understand them, but also to also how to create them!

Since inside a computer everything is stored as a number, people needed to decide on how to store the alphabet, numbers and other characters (like an exclamation mark or a comma). Every character needs to its own unique number. We call this encoding.

In this activity, a group of students explore the concept of an Algorithm by performing Sorting operations. Doing this as an activity encompasses all learning styles and thus offers maximum engagement for students.

Tux Paint is an award winning creative drawing program for young kids. Because of the way it takes over the entire screen and uses nice big icons for the various functions, it has shown to be an excellent tool for youngsters to develop and practice their mouse navigation skills whilst having fun and being creative. Tux Paint is freely available for many platforms including Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, as well as Android and iPad.