Specifications that use this resource:
Resource list
Teachers and students may find the links to the resources below useful in their delivery/study of our new AS/A-level in Computer Science.These resources are by no means exhaustive and we'll continue to add further resources.
Many of the resources to support our current GCE Computer Science specification (2510) can also be adapted and reused.
Books
A-Level Computer Science AQA Unit 1, by Kevin Bond, published by Educational Computing Services, ISBN TBC, Available April 2015 (date TBC)
A-Level Computer Science AQA Unit 2, by Kevin Bond, published by Educational Computing Services, ISBN TBC, Available April 2015 (date TBC)
A-level Computing, by Peter Kemp, available on WikiBooks: Wikibooks – AQA A-level Computing
Raspberry Pi Assembly Language (2nd edition) by Bruce Smith, published by Creative Space, ISBN 978-1-4921-3528-9
AS Computer Science AQA Units 1 and 2, by Kevin Bond, published by Educational Computing Services, ISBN TBC, Available April 2015 (date TBC)
AQA Computer Science A-level, by Bob Reeve published by Hodder, ISBN TBC, Available April 2015 (date TBC)
Useful websites
Computing at School – a community of Computing teachers, industry professionals and other interested parties, with an active discussion forum and resource sharing website
Computer Science... without a Computer! – CSUnplugged’s resources on how to teach Computer Science concepts without the need of a computer
CS4FN (Computer Science for Fun) – Website run by Queen Mary College, University of London, produces an online and in print magazine for students and teachers covering a range of Computer Science topics
CSTA – lesson plans and resources relevant to teaching computer science from the American Computer Science Teachers Association
Stack Overflow – 'A language-independent collaboratively edited question and answer site for programmers'
Online Interactive Modules for Teaching Computer Science – animations covering Computer Science concepts, from Virginia Tech
Teaching Materials for computer science teaching – Swiss educational site (site is not in English and may need translating).
What is functional programming? – a teacher guide to functional programming.
Python Programming on YouTube – Python tutor videos with schematic animations
Resources for specific topics
Code and Ciphers Teaching Resources Website – University of Plymouth site with lesson plans, slides, student exercises and further links for a range of cryptographic and coding techniques
Google Turing Machine – simple introduction to Turing Machines
JASP Toolkit – program to teach processor fundamentals, by Brittunculi
JFLAP – Finite State Machine, Turing Machine and Regular Expression simulators produced by Duke University
Learn Programming with Kara – Finite State Machine and Turing Machine simulator
Logic Lab – web based logic gate simulator
Peter Higginson’s LMC – web based Little Man computer simulation that demonstrates the fetch decode execute cycle
RAPTOR – Flowchart based programming language
Smartim – a logic gate simulator (created as part of an A-level project)
W3Schools – Online tutorials for a range of web technologies including JSON and XML
Python tutor videos – Python tutor videos with schematic animations on Logic Gates, Booleen Algebra, Number Systems, Machine Code and many more.
Ethics and AI
Centre for the Study of Existential Risk – University of Cambridge
The Cathedral and the Bazaar – essay on Open Source software development by Eric Raymond
General computer science courses (with video support)
Carnegie Mellon University – Principles of Computing
Harvard University – Free Online Computer Science Course
Stanford University – Coursera, Computer Science 101
Virginia Tech – Introduction to Computer Science
Programming
Programming resources
C#
C# Programming – Home and Learn
C# Programming – MSDN
C# Programming – Wikibooks
Java
Java Programming – in BlueJ
Java Programming – Oracle
Java Programming – Wikibooks
Pascal
Delphi tutorials – Delphi Basics
Pascal tutorial – Tutorialspoint
Pascal and Delphi tutorials – Pascal Programming for Schools
Python
x tutorials – Python official website
x tutorials – Python official website
x tutorial – Dive into Python
x tutorial – Dive into Python
and 3.x code visualisation tool – Python tutor
Programming – Wikibooks
Introduction to Python Scripting for Blender 2.5+ – Blender foundation, for A-level project work
PythonByteSize – Python tutor videos with schematic animations
VB .net
VB.Net tutorial – Tutorialspoint
VB.Net tutorial – Wikibooks
Programming downloads
C#
Microsoft ImagineCut (free version of the IDE – Windows only)
Mono Project (Multiplatform Command line tool)
Mono Develop (Multiplatform IDE)
Java
Netbeans (Multiplatform IDE)
Eclipse downloads (Multiplatform IDE)
Free Java development environment for beginners (Multiplatform IDE designed for education)
Pascal
Python
Python download (Multiplatform IDE)
Portable Python (Multiplatform IDE)
Python coding in Visual Studio
VB .net
Dreamspark2 (for institutional and student licensing – Windows only)
Visual Studio Express (free version of the IDE – Windows only)
Cross platform, open source .NET framework (Multiplatform Command line tool)