STEM engagement materials developed for the Royal Air Force:
Digital
Digital
WHAT IS A QR CODE?
QR Codes or Quick Response Codes are a type of barcode. They were developed in Japan in the 1990s by car
manufacturers Toyota to help identify car parts, as regular barcodes were difficult to scan/read once damaged.
A QR Code is square in shape, composed of smaller squares (usually black and white). It can be read both ways, so
can store much more information. It contains targets for optical recognition, making it easier to scan, and it also
has error connection capability, meaning that it can usually still be read if damaged.
QR codes are now commonly used to hold URLs which, when scanned using smartphones or tablets, direct you to
websites.
Where have you seen QR codes before and what are they used for?
•Products
•Campaigns/advertisements in magazines, on posters
•Designers can even get branding into the QR codes – see Disney and Adidas examples.
How could we use a QR code in our campaign?
On poster to direct people to the RAF website for further information.
Activity: Designing a QR Code for our campaign
•Use a search engine to find a ‘QR Code generator’ (http://www.qr-code-generator.com/ is recommended)
•Follow the instructions to create a QR Code for that links to the RAF website – save a copy to the desktop.
•Add this to your poster.
•QR codes can be tested with a tablet/smartphone – you will usually need to install an app to read QR codes.
Recommended Coding Resources
•Codecademy https://www.codecademy.com/ A free resource where you can sign up to short courses and
complete activities to become familiar with code. There are also a number of classroom friendly resources if
any students/teachers would like to learn more.
•w3 schools.com http://www.w3schools.com/ A free resource with tutorials, examples and quizzes for
learning code and web development
•Code.org https://studio.code.org/ A collection of coding resources for students – learn to programme
games, design and draw in code.