DCF Cymru Digital competence for Wales

Cover Lessons

Cover lesson ideas linking to the DCF, for a range of subjects, both offline and digital.

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Designing a Spreadsheet for a Slate Quarry Ledger

Year 8 · History · Intermediate

DCF: Data and computational thinking → Data and information literacy

Pupils plan on paper a spreadsheet for one month of an invented 1895 bargain ledger from a north Wales slate quarry. They choose headings, units and data types, decide which cells are data and which are calculated, then find and correct 2 clerk's errors using totals from the quarry's other books and write validation rules to stop them. They write formulas for gross pay, deductions, net pay and pay per man, including SUM and AVERAGE, and check them by calculating by hand with working shown. Finally they sort and filter the results to ask whether the bargain system was fair, linking their findings to the Penrhyn dispute of 1900 to 1903.

Resources required

Tools required

  • Pen and paper
  • Calculator
  • Ruler

Software / weblinks

See a completed example

Searching Archives: Industrial Wales

Year 8 · History · Intermediate

DCF: Producing → Sourcing, searching and planning digital content

Pupils follow one pupil's five archive searches about children in the south Wales coal mines in the 1840s, using the result counts to explain how filters, period words, OR and Welsh-language terms change what a catalogue finds. They judge eight saved records as primary or secondary and useful or not, log the best three with reference numbers, and plan a search of their own on Senghennydd, Penrhyn or Merthyr.

Resources required

Tools required

  • Pen and paper
  • Highlighters

Software / weblinks

See a completed example

Ergonomics in the Workplace

Year 8 · IT · Beginner

DCF: Citizenship → Health and well-being

Pupils inspect a described home workstation against real HSE display screen equipment guidance, list six faults with the body part each one puts at risk, and design an A4 safety poster for the ICT room. Paper-based; no computers needed.

Resources required

Tools required

  • Computer/Laptop

Software / weblinks

See a completed example

Reading Image Licences for a School Website

Year 8 · IT · Intermediate

DCF: Citizenship → Digital rights, licensing and ownership

An invented teacher thinks six photos from an image search are free to use because "if we give credit we can use anything". Pupils read real Creative Commons licence conditions (BY, NC, ND, SA, CC0) and an all rights reserved notice, decide which photo can be used for a cropped web banner, hoodies sold for a school trip and an unchanged news story, and answer close-reading questions that quote the exact licence wording and infer what each photographer wanted. They write TASL credit lines and an 80 to 120-word reply recommending a photo for each job. Paper-based; no computers needed.

Resources required

Tools required

  • Pen and paper
  • Highlighters

Software / weblinks

See a completed example

Digital Budgeting for a Trip

Year 8 · Maths · Beginner

DCF: Data and computational thinking → Data and information literacy

Pupils build a spreadsheet budget for a Year 8 trip to Cardiff from a real cost list, using formulae rather than typed totals. They produce the grand total, the money left against a 900 pound budget, a cost per pupil, and a short written recommendation to the head of year.

Resources required

Tools required

  • Computer/Laptop

Software / weblinks

See a completed example

Designing a French Online Survey for a Twin School

Year 8 · MFL · Intermediate

DCF: Data and computational thinking → Data and information literacy

Pupils check a draft online survey in French that an invented twin school in Brittany wants both schools to use about free time. They find what is wrong with it: required questions for name, email and date of birth that a hobbies survey does not need, screen time options that overlap at 1, 2 and 3 hours, a leading question about sport, and a free-text box. They rewrite the questions in French with fair, non-overlapping options, sort 30 typed French replies into a frequency table and check the total, explain why surveying the football club would bias the results, and compare the 2 schools using percentages. They finish by explaining why the schools should share only totals.

Resources required

Tools required

  • Pen and paper
  • Calculator

Software / weblinks

See a completed example

Planning a French Trip Online

Year 8 · MFL · Beginner

DCF: Producing → Sourcing, searching and planning digital content

Pupils plan a Monday out in Nantes, Cardiff's twin city, from eight printed French search results, rejecting an advert, an out-of-date forum post and a result about the wrong city. They produce French search terms, a trust check, a costed itinerary of 30 euros or less with a source letter for every fact, and four sentences in French using je vais.

Resources required

Tools required

  • Pen and paper

Software / weblinks

See a completed example

Streaming Royalties Explained

Year 8 · Music · Intermediate

DCF: Citizenship → Digital rights, licensing and ownership

Pupils follow one month of an invented streaming service's money to an invented Aberystwyth band: they separate the song and recording copyrights, work out what one stream is worth, and split the band's income between label, publisher and four members. They then compare a label deal with self-release and pro-rata with user-centric payment, and explain why a streaming library is a licence rather than a collection.

Resources required

Tools required

  • Pen and paper
  • Calculator

Software / weblinks

See a completed example

Writing a Safe Online Biography for a School Band

Year 8 · Music · Intermediate

DCF: Citizenship → Identity, image and reputation

Pupils rewrite the first-draft biography of Y Dyfrgwn, an invented Year 8 folk-rock band, for a public music profile. They find the 10 details that overshare, such as full names, a form group, a home village and a mobile number, and explain the risk to each member's identity and reputation and why every member must agree. Then they correct 10 misspelt music words, build a bank of precise vocabulary for genre, instruments, texture and tempo, fix tense, person and sentence errors, and write a safe 120 to 150 word bio in the third person and present tense.

Resources required

Tools required

  • Pen and paper
  • Highlighters

Software / weblinks

See a completed example

Plotting Plank Hold Times on a Line Graph

Year 8 · PE · Intermediate

DCF: Data and computational thinking → Data and information literacy

Numeracy in PE: representing data. From two invented pupils' 8-week plank challenge log, with some times recorded in minutes and seconds, pupils convert every time into seconds, choose a vertical scale that starts at 0 and fits the grid, and draw a line graph with two lines, a key, a title and labelled axes. They describe each trend with numbers, find the steepest section, explain an outlier (a week with a heavy cold) and two dips using the pupils' notes, calculate percentage improvements (82.2% and 18.6%) to judge who made more progress, and explain why a line graph suits data that changes over time. Nobody exercises.

Resources required

Tools required

  • Pen and paper
  • Ruler
  • Calculator

Software / weblinks

See a completed example

Stop-Motion Animation Planning

Year 8 · PE · Beginner

DCF: Producing → Sourcing, searching and planning digital content

Pupils plan an 18-second stop-motion animation that teaches one PE skill: six shots storyboarded at 12 frames per second, with the frame count for every shot, the photograph count for shooting on twos, and a shoot plan in minutes. Pen and paper only.

Resources required

Tools required

  • Pen and paper

Software / weblinks

See a completed example

Tracking Heart Rate Data

Year 8 · PE · Beginner

DCF: Data and computational thinking → Data and information literacy

Pupils take one resting pulse reading, then work through one pupil's week of resting, post-exercise and one-minute recovery heart rates: a recovery figure for each day, four averages, a three-line graph, and a percentage of estimated maximum heart rate. Pupils stay seated throughout.

Resources required

Tools required

  • Computer/Laptop

Software / weblinks

See a completed example

Digital Poster Design: Online Safety

Year 8 · PSE / Well-being · Beginner

DCF: Producing → Creating digital content

Pupils design a one-page online safety poster for Key Stage 2 readers, choosing a headline of six words or fewer and planning the layout as a thumbnail before building anything. A partner then checks it from two metres away and the design is corrected.

Resources required

Tools required

  • Computer/Laptop

Software / weblinks

See a completed example

Healthy Habits Tracker

Year 8 · PSE / Well-being · Intermediate

DCF: Data and computational thinking → Data and information literacy

Pupils build a spreadsheet from one week of well-being readings and write real SUM, AVERAGE, COUNTIF and IF formulae, then add a conditional formatting rule at the sixty-minute activity guideline. They finish with one conclusion the data supports and one it does not.

Resources required

Tools required

  • Computer/Laptop

Software / weblinks

See a completed example

Is the Best Value Gem Pack Really Best Value?

Year 8 · PSE / Well-being · Beginner

DCF: Citizenship → Health and well-being

Pupils practise logical reasoning in a PSE / Well-being context about spending in games. Using the invented gem shop of a free-to-play game, they work out the cost per 100 gems of five packs and check it another way, disprove the "best value" badge and the claim that bigger packs always give cheaper gems with counter-examples, and justify the cheapest way to buy an 800-gem item by comparing every option. They test claims about mystery boxes, such as "20 boxes guarantee a legendary item", against the 1 in 20 chance and a simulation, and write a short argument with numbers for a younger cousin. Helps pupils see how in-game currencies and random rewards can hide real costs.

Resources required

Tools required

  • Pen and paper
  • Calculator

Software / weblinks

See a completed example