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- Jul 20
- 3 min read
Three major new releases, fresh teacher PD, and new ideas for the classroom.
Over the past few months we’ve been busy expanding MyComputerBrain with three major releases. Today, we're excited to bring you CurveLab, a groundbreaking interactive mathematics function analysis tool, Cyber Command, our first cybersecurity in-classroom battle arena tournament, and a completely refurbished AI and robotics course.
These additions continue our goal of providing engaging, curriculum-aligned, deep learning experiences that help students understand how technology works and how it can enrich their lives.
🔔 In This Issue
📈 CurveLab
⚔️ Cyber Command
🤖 Capture the Flag with AI and Robotics
🧐 Teacher Professional Development
⚡ Less screen time: Digital Systems hands-on
📈 CurveLab
We’re excited to introduce CurveLab, a free mathematics tool designed to help students explore functions and develop confidence with curve sketching and analytics.
Students can graph functions, analyse derivatives, identify turning points and intercepts, and compare their own derivative calculations against the correct solution—all within a single interactive learning environment. CurveLab is ideal for classroom demonstrations, revision, and independent practice.
⚔️ Cyber Command
Our fist Battle Arena activity, Cyber Command, transforms Python programming into an exciting head-to-head cybersecurity tournament.
Working in Red and Blue Teams, students apply their Python skills to solve coding challenges before competing in strategic cyber defence scenarios involving password security, phishing attacks and incident response. The result is a highly engaging classroom activity that encourages teamwork, critical thinking and problem solving under time-pressure.
🤖 Capture the Flag with AI and Robotics
Our Capture the Flag with AI and Robotics course has undergone a major refurbishment. At the heart of the new experience is Scout, a robot explorer whose adventures introduce students to sensors, decision-making and robotic control systems in an intuitive, visual way.
The course now features a stronger mission storyline, improved teacher guidance, clearer visual explanations of AI, rank promotions, and support for English, German, French, Spanish and Chinese, making it even more engaging and accessible for classrooms.
🧐 Teacher Professional Development
Our July-August PD schedule is now live! Join us for engaging, curriculum-linked sessions on AI, Python and MyComputerBrain
Duration:
Between 60 and 90 minutes.
Teachers receive:
A PD certificate (requires participation in the webinar)
Access to the recording + slides within 24 hours
Free perpetual access to the Classroom AI course (valued at $30) for AI webinar attendees.
Date | Topic |
July 30 | MyComputerBrain: What's New (free) |
August 12 | Python Primer Express |
August 13 | Getting started with MyComputerBrain (free) |
August 18 | Artificial Intelligence Primer Express |
August 19 | Coding with Artificial Intelligence |
📅 Register early to secure your spot!
If you prefer to do AI-related PD at times that suit you best:
The DTI Classroom offers an interactive, self-paced AI workshop. It includes everything teachers need to get started with AI teaching. 👉 Check it out
You can subscribe to our AI video channel to watch AI webinars at your convenience. 👉 Check it out and scroll to the bottom of the page.
⚡ Digital Systems hands-on
If you are looking for an interactive hardware solution that teaches students the inner workings of Digital System and do not require screen time: We have replenished our B4 Spark stock! These hands-on kits are ideal for late primary and early secondary students to explore logic, memory, programming, and the inner workings of a Computer.
Explore at 👉 Spark Home.
We remain committed to supporting you with practical tools, inspiring PD, and curriculum-aligned resources. Whether you’re exploring AI, upskilling in Python, or searching for the perfect content, we’re here for you.
Warm Regards,
Dr. Karsten Schulz
Capture the Flag with AI and Robotics has been refurbished on MyComputerBrain.
This update does not just refresh the look of the course. It reshapes the learning experience so that artificial intelligence is introduced through a clearer story, a more coherent mission sequence, and a much stronger visual model of how an AI system controls a robot.
The refurbished course is also now available in five languages: English, German, French, Spanish, and Chinese.
At the centre of the course is Scout, a small virtual robot explorer with a colour sensor, an AI driving system, and motors. Students first watch Scout drive, then guide Scout through early challenges, and finally step in when Scout’s driving AI breaks down. From that point on, the class becomes Scout’s repair team.
The result is an engaging introduction to AI for younger learners. Instead of meeting artificial intelligence as an abstract term, students see a concrete system: input from a sensor, processing inside an AI, and output through motor behaviour.
Why this refurbishment matters
AI can be difficult to teach well in the middle years.
If it is introduced too abstractly, students can repeat vocabulary without understanding the system underneath. If it is reduced to a black-box demo, they may see behaviour without seeing the mechanism.
The Capture the Flag with AI and Robotics course addresses that directly.
It keeps the model visible at all times:
the robot sees colour through its sensor
the AI maps that input to a decision
the motors produce movement
the track and mission outcome provide immediate feedback
That makes AI discussable. Students can predict what the robot will do, test their prediction, and revise their reasoning while the system is still in front of them.
A stronger story for the whole course
The updated course now follows a clearer mission arc.
Students begin in the lab, meet Scout, and watch a working AI system in action. In the next mission, they guide Scout through a flag-collection challenge by changing the colour clues under the robot’s sensor.
Then the disruption hits: Scout’s AI forgets how to drive.
This creates a natural reason for the next sequence of missions. Students rebuild Scout’s driving intelligence step by step. They teach the robot what to do on red, blue, and green, combine these rules into a working driving system, and then apply that repaired AI in more advanced adventures including mirrored worlds and random mazes.
The storyline stays simple, but it gives the technical sequence a clear purpose. Students are not just clicking through isolated tasks. They are helping a robot recover, learn, and take on harder missions.
What has changed
The course combines pedagogical, visual, and structural improvements.
A clearer mission narrative
The course now has a stronger through-line built around Scout, early success, AI memory loss, repair, and later adventure missions.
More age-appropriate instructional text
Mission text has been rewritten to better suit students in the 10-12 age range while keeping the technical model intact.
Full five-language availability
The course is now available in English, German, French, Spanish, and Chinese, making it more practical for multilingual classrooms and wider international use.
A redesigned robot control centre
Students can now see more clearly how the AI, sensor input, and motor output relate to the robot’s movement.
Stronger visual feedback
The interface makes it easier to see whether Scout is turning left, turning right, or driving straight, and how those outcomes follow from the AI’s current rules.
A capture the flag activity Visual wheel-spin feedback
The robot now shows wheel movement directly, making it easier for students to see the effect the AI is having on Scout’s motors and motion.
A visible wireless broadcast system
The course now shows a wireless transmission from the AI system to the robot, giving students a more concrete picture of digital communication inside a working system.
A more coherent shared course design
The course overview, mission visuals, background styling, and mission images now feel like one connected robotics environment rather than a loose collection of screens.
A dedicated teacher overview page
Educators now have a clearer entry point into the course structure, mission sequence, teaching rationale, and classroom use of the platform.
Rank promotions across the course
Students can now unlock rank promotions as they progress, giving the mission sequence a stronger sense of achievement and forward momentum.
Congrats, you have been promoted !!!
What students actually do
Capture the Flag with AI and Robotics is designed to move from observation to explanation to intervention.
Students:
observe a functioning AI-controlled robot
guide Scout using colour clues
predict what a given sensor input should make the robot do
rebuild AI driving rules one rule at a time
combine rules into a working control system
apply that system to increasingly difficult route challenges
This sequence matters. Students do not start by being told a formal definition of AI. They start by seeing a system behave, then gradually take control of that system themselves.
Designed for Years 5-6
One of the strengths of Capture the Flag with AI and Robotics is that it simplifies the interface without hiding the underlying logic.
Students are not asked to believe that Scout is “thinking like a person”. Instead, they learn a more useful and more accurate idea: Scout is a system that responds to data.
That opens the door to several important computing ideas:
sensors and input data
rules and decision systems
output and actuator behaviour
testing and debugging
local decisions creating global path behaviour
For teachers, that makes the course useful well beyond a novelty robotics activity. It becomes a practical introduction to AI, systems thinking, and computational reasoning.
Suited to classroom use
The refurbished version is also more usable in lessons.
The mission sequence is clearer. The controls are easier to read. The visuals do more explanatory work. The story creates a natural reason for students to care about what comes next.
The five-language rollout also matters here. A course that explains AI through a visible robot system is especially useful when schools need accessible material across different language contexts without changing the underlying lesson structure.
The new wheel-spin feedback and wireless broadcast visualisation also strengthen the explanatory value of the course. Students can now see both the movement effect at the robot and the transmission effect from the AI, which makes the invisible parts of the system easier to discuss.
This helps in several ways:
students can follow the mission arc more easily
teachers can ask sharper prediction questions
discussions about input, output, and AI behaviour become more concrete
the later missions feel like a continuation of a journey rather than a reset into unrelated puzzles
The teacher overview page matters here as well. It gives educators a structured explanation of the course arc, the key computing ideas, likely misconceptions, and the role each mission plays in the broader sequence. That reduces setup time and makes it easier to teach the course deliberately rather than treating it as a standalone robot activity.
A stronger AI pathway on MyComputerBrain
Capture the Flag with AI and Robotics now occupies a clearer place on the platform.
It is a visual, accessible AI course for younger students that introduces core ideas through robotics. It gives teachers a compelling entry point into AI and gives students a robot they can observe, repair, and guide through progressively harder missions.
Scout’s world is now more polished, more coherent, and more teachable.
Capture the Flag with AI and Robotics is part of the growing AI pathway on MyComputerBrain.
Cyber Command is a paired Battle Arena experience designed for classroom play.
Students put their Python skills to the test in a live, head-to-head cybersecurity tournament—coding attacks, mounting defences and making tactical decisions as the incident unfolds.
As MyComputerBrain’s first turn-based classroom activity, Cyber Command takes students beyond learning Python and challenges them to apply it under pressure.
Why Cyber Command matters
Python concepts such as print(), input(), loops, slicing and conditionals are often taught as separate skills. Cyber Command brings them together in a high-stakes cybersecurity scenario.
Students use familiar Python building blocks to decode intercepted passwords, analyse phishing attempts, harden accounts and contain emerging threats. As the incident escalates, they must also make operational decisions under pressure.
This creates a more social and dynamic learning experience. Students compete, react and adapt, while seeing the same cyber incident from both the attacker’s and defender’s perspective.
Always played by two people
Cyber Command always involves two players:
two students
one student and one teacher
two teachers
This pairing model makes Cyber Command especially flexible for teachers:
it works in full-class pairings
it works when student numbers are odd
it works for teacher demonstration rounds
it lets teachers challenge colleagues across departments, schools and professional networks
The engine allows for pairings of players from the same class, different classes and even different schools. The engine automatically ensures privacy of the participants.
At the centre of the experience is the Gate. This is the hub students return to between rounds and missions. From the Gate, they choose their Red Team or Blue Team role, launch the next mission, view what has already been completed, and continue through the tournament pathway as new missions unlock.
One player takes the Red Team role and the other takes the Blue Team role.
Red Team always starts the mission and generates a joining code. Blue Team enters that code to join the same live battle session. The timer starts once both players have joined, which makes classroom setup much easier to manage.
What students actually do
Cyber Command is structured as a tournament with three mission stages:
Mission 1: Passwords
Red decodes and exploits weak credentials. Blue strengthens passwords and blocks escalation.
Mission 2: Phishing
Red identifies targets and builds role-based lures. Blue triages suspicious messages and applies adaptive access controls.
Mission 3: Infiltration
Both teams move from coding into strategic choices across multiple rounds of attack, containment, disruption, and recovery.
Certificate
Students finish their pathway and receive their tournament certificate.
The first two missions are code-driven. Students complete Python tasks and, when their solution passes the required checks, the battle engine submits their strong action for that round.
The third mission is different. It is a non-coding battle focused on judgement. Students must choose between stronger and weaker responses while trying to outplay the opposing team.
Main features
Live Red Team vs Blue Team gameplay
Students play inside the same server-backed battle session.
Timed rounds with alternating turns
Red acts first, then Blue responds. Each side has its own countdown. If time expires, the engine automatically advances with the weaker action to keep the battle moving.
Story-driven cyber missions
The tournament is built around password attacks, phishing, privilege escalation, containment, and incident response.
A central Gate for mission launch and progression
Students return to the Gate as the central launch point for each mission, making the tournament structure clear and the next step easy to manage.
A direct bridge from Python to cybersecurity
Cyber Command builds on the logic foundations from Python Intro and shows why those concepts matter in a realistic digital scenario.
A final strategic battle
Mission 3 broadens the experience beyond syntax and into tactical thinking, prioritisation, and attack-versus-defence trade-offs.
A teacher-manageable battle system
Teachers can track sessions, pairings, scores, elapsed time, and battle history through the Battle Dashboard in the Teacher Account section.
Classroom use
Cyber Command works best after students have already completed a Python entry course and are comfortable with:
print()
input()
if and else
for loops
simple string checks
slicing
Because the tournament is paired, it naturally creates discussion. Students compare offensive and defensive thinking, explain why they chose certain actions, and see how coding decisions connect to system behaviour.
The format also helps teachers vary how they run the session:
one run with fixed roles
a second run with roles swapped
a teacher-led demonstration round before class play
small-team play with one side coordinating against another
Designed for playful teaching
Cyber Command is competitive, but it is still tightly structured for classroom use.
The battle engine controls turn order.
Students only see the actions relevant to their current turn.
Button order is randomised, so they cannot rely on position instead of judgement.
Coding checks are tied to the instructional sequence.
The central Gate makes mission progression visible and easy to manage.
This keeps the tournament engaging without losing the clarity teachers need.
A new way to continue after Python Intro
Cyber Command expands what a Python follow-up can look like. Instead of experiencing course fatigue, students can enter a live tournament where code, strategy, and cybersecurity are tightly linked.
For teachers, it offers a practical way to revisit Python concepts, introduce cyber defence thinking, and create a memorable shared classroom event. Session oversight and resets are managed through the Battle Dashboard in the Teacher Account section.
Cyber Command is now part of the MyComputerBrain Battle Arena. Student accounts are required for this activity and can be created by teachers under Account -> Shop.
To let the Games begin, head to MyComputerBrain.
