CS in Schools Year 8 Classroom

Welcome to the CS in Schools Year 8 coding classroom! Before you do any exercises, please sign up to repl.it.

Lesson 1

Welcome to the first lesson! This course assumes you’ve finished the CS in Schools Year 7 coding classroom.

In this lesson, you’ll learn about number variables and how to use them to do maths.

To get started, watch the first video on Youtube. You can follow along with the slides if you like.

When you’re done, please sign up to repl.it and then return to this page. Write down your username and password somewhere safe!

Now, complete the following three coding exercises:

  1. 01.01 – Magic Number!
  2. 01.02 – W/AFL Points!
  3. 01.03 – Feet and Metres!

To finish the lesson, try out the glossary flashcards app. Fork the code, and try adding your own question and answer!

Lesson 2

In this lesson, you’ll learn about how to convert strings into integers. This allows you to take numbers that users type in and use them to do maths.

To get started, watch the first video on Youtube. Here are the slides.

If you’re not logged in to repl.it, you’ll need to do that now here. Then, you can complete the following four coding exercises:

  1. 02.01 – I Vote to Vote!
  2. 02.02 – Cat’s Years!
  3. 02.03 – Thumbs Up and Down!
  4. 02.04 – Cafe Simulator!

To finish the lesson, in repl.it click on “My repls” and open your version of the glossary flashcard app. Add these new definitions:

  • int: A numeric data type representing whole numbers
  • casting: Changing one data type to another

Lesson 3

In our introductory programme, you learnt about the if statement. In this lesson, you’ll learn about how to make more complex decisions with the else and elif statements.

To get started, watch the third video on Youtube. Here are the slides and here is the flowchart handout.

If you’re not logged in to repl.it, you’ll need to do that now here. Then, you can complete the following three coding exercises:

  1. 03.01 – Win a Car!
  2. 03.02 – Your Solar System!
  3. 03.03 – In the Burrows!

To finish the lesson, in repl.it click on My repls and open your version of the glossary flashcard app. Add these new definitions:

  • else: A statement that means only if everything above is False, do the following
  • elif: If the statement above is False, check if this is True

Lesson 4

In our introductory programme, you learnt about how to add loops to code with the goto statement. In this lesson, you’ll learn about how to write loops with the while statement and about the boolean variable type.

To get started, watch the fourth video on Youtube. Here are the slides.

If you’re not logged in to repl.it, you’ll need to do that now here. Then, you can complete the following three coding exercises:

  1. 04.01 – Gingerbread Man!
  2. 04.02 – Storyteller!
  3. 04.03 – Countdown!

To finish the lesson, in repl.it click on My repls and open your version of the glossary flashcard app. Add these new definitions:

  • infinite loop: a loop in code that goes on forever
  • boolean: a type of variable that can only be True or False
  • while loop: a type of loop in Python that reduces the chance of writing spaghetti code

Lessons 5+

These will be added to the classroom soon. Please check back!