Good Learning Co.
SavannahYear 8
← Computing
ComputingCreative digital projects28 min★★★ difficulty

Creative projects combining apps and data

Big creative projects rarely use just one app — they combine tools for collecting data, analysing it and presenting the result.

Part of your national curriculum
  • Creativity and digital literacy: Undertake creative projects that involve selecting, using and combining multiple applications to achieve challenging goals, including collecting and analysing data

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Undertake creative projects that involve selecting, using and combining multiple applications to achieve challenging goals, including collecting and analysing data

Key learning points

  • • Choosing the right tool for each job
  • • Collecting and analysing data
  • • Planning across applications

This lesson at a glance

  • 28 minutes
  • 14 parts to scroll through
  • 3 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

undertakecreativeprojectsinvolveselecting

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 14 · Discover7%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 14

Watch first

Creative projects combining apps and data

An English teaching video on this topic from ZonxScratch. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.

In a nutshell

Undertake creative projects that involve selecting, using and combining multiple applications to achieve challenging goals, including collecting and analysing data

2

Learning cycle

Part 2 of 14

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Part 1 · Choosing the right tool for each job

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

3

Explore the idea

Part 3 of 14

Learn

Choosing the right tool for each job

A survey app can collect responses, a spreadsheet can calculate averages and draw charts, and a presentation app can showcase the findings. Picking the right combination avoids forcing one app to do a job it is bad at.

4

Explore the idea

Part 4 of 14

Learn

Collecting and analysing data

When surveying classmates about screen time, plan your questions first, collect responses in a form, then use spreadsheet functions such as AVERAGE and COUNTIF to summarise the data before drawing conclusions.

5

Quick check

Part 5 of 14

Quick check

Why combine several applications in one project?

6

Reset break

Part 6 of 14

Pause

That's sitting 1 of 2 done

Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.

Stop here for now
7

Quick check

Part 7 of 14

Quick check

Which spreadsheet function would find an average screen-time value?

8

Learning cycle

Part 8 of 14

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Part 2 · Planning across applications

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

9

Explore the idea

Part 9 of 14

Learn

Planning across applications

Good projects start with a plan: what data is needed, which app collects it, which app analyses it, and which app presents it. Exporting data (for example as a CSV file) lets one app's output become another's input.

10

Quick check

Part 10 of 14

Quick check

What file format commonly moves data from one app into another?

11

Challenge round

Part 11 of 14

Game · Sort it

Which of these are true?

Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.

True

Not true

12

Challenge round

Part 12 of 14

Game · Fill the gaps

Finish the sentences

Choose the word that belongs in each gap.

Good ____ start with a plan: what data is needed, which app collects it, which app analyses it, and which app presents it.

13

Mastery quiz

Part 13 of 14

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: Creative projects combining apps and data

3 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.

  1. 1. Why combine several applications in one project?

  2. 2. Which spreadsheet function would find an average screen-time value?

  3. 3. What file format commonly moves data from one app into another?

14

Lesson round-up

Part 14 of 14

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

Not sat

Games

Not played

Points this lesson

0

Best run

0 in a row

Luna: 0 out of 3 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

Ask Luna

Do the work

Your written work for this lesson

This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.

Article

How a supermarket checkout knows the price

When a barcode is scanned, the checkout does not store the price itself. It sends the barcode number to a database and reads back a record: product name, price, whether it needs an age check. The record is the single place the price lives, so changing one row changes every till in the shop at once.

Problems come from bad data, not bad scanners. If two products share a barcode, or a price update reaches the shop overnight but the till holds an old copy in its cache, customers are charged the wrong amount. Shops check this with test transactions: scan a known item, expect a known price, record what actually happened.

Good systems also log every scan. If a customer complains, the log shows exactly which record was used and when.

Written for Good Learning Co.

Reading questions

  1. Write in your own words what the checkout sends and what it receives back.
  2. Explain one way bad data could cause a wrong price, and how logging helps find it.
  3. Design a test table with four tests for a new checkout, with expected and actual results.

  • Reading and notes

    Reading

    Read the lesson text again and note the key terms and how each one is used, in your own words — as you would for revision.

    Half a page of notes

  • Extended writing

    Writing

    Explain a real system that uses this idea — how it works, where it can go wrong, and how you would make it safer or better.

    250–350 words

  • Algorithm on paper

    Diagram

    Write your steps out as pseudocode or a flowchart before you type anything, then photograph it.

    1 flowchart or 10 lines

  • Code write-up

    Writing

    Copy your code in, then explain underneath what each part does and what you had to fix.

    Code + 5 sentences

  • Test table

    Working out

    Make a test table: what you tried, what you expected, what actually happened.

    4–6 tests

Saved as you type.

Part 1 of 14 · Watch & discover

How this is going

  • Not looked at yet

    Undertake creative projects that involve selecting, using and combining multiple applications to achieve challenging goals, including collecting and analysing data

Good Learning Co. — personalised UK curriculum learning, built around what each learner loves.