The purpose of this lesson is to introduce students to the concept of coding through unplugged activities that require students to (1) give directions, (2) listen and follow directions, and (3) understand and apply knowledge of directional vocabulary such as right, left, up, down, in, out, above, and below. Through the unplugged coding activity, students will create an algorithm, or sequence steps, to complete a maze to gain the skills of completing a task by breaking down a task into smaller steps.The connection with computer coding with the activity is to introduce students to the concept that computers follow directions just as we do. We can use code to communicate with a computer in order to give it directions to complete a task. Through a discussion on how a computer understands the code, students can relate the way a computer understands code to how they understood the directions given to them during the activity to complete the maze.
This activity was created as a result of the DLCS Resource Development Summit.
While students are in pairs and without being able to see each other, student 1 designs and provides oral instructions to student 2 in order for student 2 to recreate a shape and/or structure only student 1 can see. Student 2 can ask clarifying questions, but that is all. This activity builds skills in sequencing, classifying, sorting, orientation, and relative position of objects. It also builds listening skills for oral comprehension and asking and answering concise questions.
This activity was created as a result of the DLCS COS Resource Development Summit.
Students learn to draw images by looping simple sequences of instructions. Loops are used to create patterns. At the end of this stage, students will be given the opportunity to create their own images using loops. This lesson gives a different perspective on how loops can create things in programming. Students can also reflect on the inefficiency of programming without loops in this lesson because of how many blocks the program would require without the help of repeat loops.
Note: You must create a free account to access this and use this resource.
Events are a great way to add variety to a pre-written algorithm. Sometimes you want your program to be able to respond to the user exactly when the user wants it to. That is what events are for in coding.
Students will learn to distinguish events from actions. The students will see activities interrupted by having a "button" pressed on a paper remote. When seeing this event, the class will react with a unique action. Events are widely used in programming and should be easily recognizable after this lesson.
In this online activity, students will have the opportunity to learn how to use events in Play Lab and to apply all of the coding skills they've learned to create an animated game. It's time to get creative and make a story in the Code.org Play Lab!
Students will further develop their understanding of events using Play Lab today. Events are very common in most computer programs. In this activity, students will use events to make a character move around the screen, make noises, and change backgrounds based on user-initiated events.
In this activity students work in small groups to write the steps to an everyday task or the steps in a "how to" scenario. The steps the groups write serve as an algorithm. The groups will then swap their writing for the teams to now "debug" each other's work to make the steps more precise.
This activity was demonstrated during the Exploring Today's Classroom (ETC) Summit.
This lesson will guide students through the steps of debugging. Students will learn the mantra: "What happened? What was supposed to happen? What does that tell you?"
Research shows that some students have less trouble debugging a program than writing one when they first learn to code. In this lesson, we introduce the idea of debugging in a real-world sense. The goal in this lesson is to teach students steps to spot a bug and to increase persistence by showing them that it's normal to find mistakes. In later lessons, students will debug actual programs on Code.org.
Note: You will need to create a free account on code.org before you can view this resource.
In this lesson, students will relate the concept of algorithms back to everyday, real-life activities by planting an actual seed. The goal in this lesson is to start building the skills to translate real-world situations to online scenarios and vice versa. In this lesson, students will learn that algorithms are everywhere in our daily lives. For example, it is possible to write an algorithm to plant a seed. Instead of giving vague or over-generalized instructions, students will break down a large activity into smaller and more specific commands. From these commands, students must determine a special sequence of instructions that will allow their classmate to plant a seed.
This lesson will give students an idea of what to expect when they head to the computer lab. It begins with a brief discussion introducing them to computer lab manners, then they will progress into using a computer to complete online puzzles. The main goal of this lesson is to build students' experience with computers. By covering the most basic computer functions such as clicking, dragging, and dropping, we are creating a more equal playing field in the class for future puzzles. This lesson also provides a great opportunity to introduce proper computer lab behavior.
This unplugged lesson brings together teams with a simple task: get the "flurb" to the fruit. Students will practice writing precise instructions as they work to translate written instructions into the symbols provided. If problems arise in the code, students should also work together to recognize bugs and build solutions. The bridge from algorithms to programming can be a short one if students understand the difference between planning out a sequence and encoding that sequence into the appropriate language. This activity will help students gain experience reading and writing in shorthand code.
Using characters from the game Angry Birds, students will develop sequential algorithms to move a bird from one side of a maze to the pig at the other side. To do this, they will stack code blocks together in a linear sequence, making them move straight, turn left, or turn right. In this lesson, students will develop programming skills on a computer platform. The block-based format of these puzzles helps students learn about sequence and concepts, without having to worry about perfecting syntax.
Students will apply the programming concepts that they have learned to the Harvester environment. Now, instead of just getting the character to a goal, students have to collect corn using a new block. Students will continue to develop sequential algorithm skills and start using the debugging process. In this lesson, students will develop debugging skills and will continue developing their programming skills.
In this lesson, students continue learning the concept of loops. In the previous lesson, students were introduced to loops by moving through a maze and picking corn. Here, loops are used to collect treasure in open cave spaces.
This lesson gives students more practice with loops and introduces a new block, get treasure. The block works just like pick corn did in Harvester. These puzzles are more open, giving students more flexibility for their final solutions.
get treasure
pick corn
This activity revisits concepts from Happy Maps (CSF Unit 2 Lesson 5). This time, students will be solving bigger, longer puzzles with their code, leading them to see the utility in structures that let them write longer code in an easier way.
This lesson serves as an introduction to loops. Loops allow for students to simplify their code by grouping commands that need to be repeated. Students will develop critical thinking skills by noticing repetition in movements of their classmates and determining how many times to repeat commands. By seeing "Happy Maps" again, students will get the chance to relate old concepts such as sequencing to the new concept of repeat loops.
Building on the concept of repeating instructions from "Happy Loops", (Lesson 9 - precedes this lesson in Code.org Course A 2018 curriculum) this lesson will have students using loops to pick corn more efficiently on Code.org. In this lesson, students learn more about loops and how to implement them in Blockly code. Using loops is an important skill in programming because manually repeating commands is tedious and inefficient. With the Code.org puzzles, students will learn to add instructions to existing loops, gather repeated code into loops, and recognize patterns that need to be looped.
