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.
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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.
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When students run into a barrier while answering a question or working on a project, it’s so easy for them to get frustrated and give up. This lesson will introduce students to the idea that frustration can be an important part of learning. Here, frustration is presented as a step in the creative process, rather than a sign of failure.
This lesson can be done over one or two class sessions. If you have more time, feel free to draw out the building and revising phase of the Marble Run activity. The goal of this lesson is to help students realize that failure and frustration are common when working on projects, but that doesn't mean that they should give up. In this lesson, students will develop an understanding of what it means to be frustrated while working on a large project. It's possible that not every student will experience frustration with this activity, but there are many opportunities to open a discussion about moments in the past where students have felt frustrated but nevertheless persisted.
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.
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.
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
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.
