Computer Science Education Week | Ages 7-11 | KS2 Topic Pack - BBC Bitesize (2025)

Computer Science Education Week is celebrated each year in December for the week which includes the 9th December. This is to honour the famous computer scientist, Grace Hopper, who was born on 9th December 1906.

The aim is to encourage children of all ages to celebrate and learn about computer science. Computer science play an important role in lots of aspects of every day life.

Find out more about:

• The history of computers
• How to code
• How to be creative with technology
• What jobs exist in Computer Science
• How to touch type with Dance Mat Typing

Grace Hopper (1906-1992) was a computer scientist, mathematician and admiral in the United States Navy.

She was known for contributing to computer programming and software development as well as her career in the Navy.

Hopper wanted more people to feel comfortable using computer so designed programs that used words as commands instead of symbols.

The parts that make up a computer are called hardware. You can see some of the hardware such as the monitor, the mouse, and the keyboard, but some of the hardware, such as the processor and the memory is built in the computer itself.

A computer can't run by itself and needs programs to tell it what to do - this is called software.

Find out more about computers and how they work in these Bitesize guides.

The instructions that we give to a computer to tell it what to do is called a computer program.

Computers can't understand everyday words like we can. We have to write the computer program using a computer language or code.

Discover more about code and coding with BBC Bitesize and the BBC micro:bit.

Technology can be used to be creative. From stop motion videos to digital art work and online games, developments in computer science has opened up a whole new creative digital world.

Discover how you can use computers, phones and tablets to be creative.

With robots playing football and creating computer-generated visual effects to simulating F1 racing, these videos help teach computing and creative computer programming.

Internet safety is also important so you will also find videos to help you stay safe and find your way around the online world.

When you can do it well, touch typing is the fastest way to write! Build and test your primary computing skills with these touch typing challenges.

Learn and practise how to:

• Type letters in rows
• Type keys on the home row
• Type capital letters, apostrophes, slashes and full stops

Happy typing!