Through literature, students will identify and take notes on the design process Jack uses as he designs a car for specific purposes. With a partner, students will work through the design process to digitally develop, test, and refine the prototype of a car for a specific user’s needs. Students will use a digital resource such as Sketchup, Paint 3D, Tinkercad, or another free online resource to practice creating the design using points, lines, line segments, and angles.
This activity was created as a result of the DLCS COS Resource Development Summit.
Networks are everywhere in modern society: roads, wires, water and gas pipes all connect one place to another. Computers are built of networks at many levels, from the microscopic connections between transistors in a chip to the cables and satellites that link the internet around the world. People who build networks often need to work out the most efficient way to make connections, which can be a difficult problem.
This puzzle shows students the decisions involved in linking a network between houses in a muddy city. It can lead to a discussion of minimal spanning tree algorithms for optimizing networks.
In Game Design, students learn basic video game coding concepts by making different types of games, including racing, platform, launching, and more!
Game Design is a complete theme designed to be completed over eight, 45-75 minute, sessions. For each activity, students will watch a series of videos and create one coding project with opportunities to personalize their work using “Add-Ons”, which are mini-coding challenges that build on top of the core project.
Be sure to review the Materials tab for the lesson plan, starter guide, and more.
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Students have practiced creating impressive designs in Artist and navigating mazes in Bee, but today they will use functions to harvest crops in Harvester. This lesson will push students to use functions in new ways by combining them with while loops and if / else statements.
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if / else
This lesson is meant to further push students to use functions in more creative ways. By also using conditionals and loops, students will learn there are many ways to approach a problem, but some are more efficient than others. These puzzles are intended to increase problem-solving and critical thinking skills.
Students will be able to:- recognize when a function could help to simplify a program.- use pre-determined functions to complete commonly repeated tasks.
Note: You will need to create a free account on code.org before you can view this resource.
Students will be introduced to using functions on Code.org. Magnificent images will be created and modified with functions in Artist. For more complicated patterns, students will learn about nesting functions by calling one function from inside another.
One of the most important components of this lesson is providing students with a space to create something they are proud of. These puzzles progress to more and more complex images, but each new puzzle only builds off the previous puzzle. At the end of this lesson, students will feel confident with themselves and proud of their hard work.
Students will be able to:- categorize and generalize code into useful functions.- recognize when a function could help to simplify a program.
This series brings together concepts from previous lessons and gives students a chance to think critically about how they would solve each problem, but without telling them which concept to apply. Students will review basic algorithms, debugging, repeat loops, conditionals, while loops, and functions.
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It's important for students to remember that computer science provides plenty of opportunities to be creative. Every topic can be combined with another to make something bigger and better. In this lesson, students will use previously learned concepts together, allowing for a "big picture" view of programming projects. This lesson will also bridge any gaps in understanding of when to use certain programming tools over others.
Students will be able to:- recognize which programming concept to use to solve a given problem.- describe the different ways one could solve a given problem.
In this lesson, students will learn about the two concepts at the heart of Sprite Lab: sprites and behaviors. Sprites are characters or objects on the screen that students can move, change, and manipulate. Behaviors are actions that sprites will take continuously until they are stopped.
This lesson is designed to introduce students to the core vocabulary of Sprite Lab, and allow them to apply concepts they learned in other environments to this tool. By creating a fish tank, students will begin to form an understanding of the programming model of this tool and explore ways they can use it to express themselves.
Students will be able to:- define “sprite” as a character or object on the screen that can be moved and changed.- create a new sprite and choose its appearance.
This lesson features Sprite Lab, a platform where students can create their own alien dance party with interactions between characters and user input. Students will work with events to create game controls.
Students will use events to make characters move around the screen, make noises, and change backgrounds based on user input. This lesson offers a great introduction to events in programming and even gives a chance to show creativity! At the end of the puzzle sequence, students will be presented with the opportunity to share their projects.
Students will be able to:- identify actions that correlate to input events.- create an animated, interactive game using sequence and events.
Students will use Sprite Lab to play with sprites and their properties. Students will use events, behaviors, and custom code to create their very own pet giraffe that gets hungry, playful, and even filthy!
Students will use events to make characters move around the screen, change size, and change colors based on user input. This lesson offers a great introduction to events in programming and even gives a chance to show creativity!
Over the course of four lessons, students will be building up to programming a project of their own design using either Sprite Lab or Artist as their programming environment. In this portion of the project, students will learn about the design process and how to implement it in their own projects. The lesson guide for all four stages of the process can be found in the first stage of this project process here.
Students may be ready to jump straight into building their projects, but this lesson will help shape their ideas into plans. This structure will keep the dreamers grounded and illuminate a path for those feeling left in the dark.
Students will be able to:- shape ideas into reasonable goals and plans.- recognize any potential obstacles such as time constraints or bugs.
Over the course of four lessons, students will be building up to programming a project of their own design using either Sprite Lab or Artist as their programming environment. Now the students will be given their own space to create their project with either Artist or Sprite Lab. This is likely to be the longest stage of the project. The lesson guide for all four stages of the process can be found in the first stage of this project process here.
This lesson provides students with ample time to build and revise their projects. The trial and error inevitably involved in this lesson will teach problem solving and persistence.
Students will be able to:- use the planned design as a blueprint for creation.- overcome obstacles such as time constraints or bugs.
In computer science, we face some big, daunting problems. Challenges such as finding large prime numbers or sequencing DNA are almost impossible to do as an individual. Adding the power of others makes these tasks manageable. This lesson will show your students how helpful teamwork can be in the industry of computer science.
It's very rare that one computer scientist works completely alone on a project. Even when that does happen, there is always a benefit in numbers. Today, students will learn what it means to crowdsource a project. This activity builds teamwork and creates an efficient environment for students to solve problems.
Students will be able to:- identify a large task that needs to be done.- rearrange a large task into several smaller tasks.- build a complete solution from several smaller solutions.
New and unsolved problems are often pretty hard. If we want to have any chance of making something creative, useful, and clever, then we need to be willing to attack hard problems even if it means failing a few times before we succeed. In this lesson, students will be building a structure with common materials. The structure will be tested on its ability to hold a textbook for more than ten seconds. Most students will not get this right the first time, but it's important they push through and keep trying.
This lesson teaches that failure is not the end of a journey, but a hint for how to succeed. The majority of students will feel frustrated at some point in this lesson, but it's important to emphasize that failure and frustration are common steps to creativity and success.
Students will be able to:- outline steps to complete a structural engineering challenge.- predict and discuss potential issues in structure creation.- build a structure based on a team plan.- revise both the plan and the structure until they satisfy the challenge.
Watch student faces light up as they make their own gorgeous designs using a small number of blocks and digital stickers! This lesson builds on the understanding of loops from previous lessons and gives students a chance to be truly creative. This activity is fantastic for producing artifacts for portfolios or parent/teacher conferences.
This series highlights the power of loops with creative and personal designs. Offered as a project-backed sequence, this progression will allow students to build on top of their own work and create amazing artifacts.
Students will be able to:- identify the benefits of using a loop structure instead of manual repetition.- differentiate between commands that need to be repeated in loops and commands that should be used on their own.
Now that students know how to layer their loops, they can create so many beautiful things. This lesson will take students through a series of exercises to help them create their own portfolio-ready images using Anna and Elsa's excellent ice-skating skills!
In this series, students will get practice nesting loops while creating images that they will be excited to share. Beginning with a handful of instructions, students will make their own decisions when it comes to creating designs for repetition. They will then spin those around a variety of ways to end up with a work of art that is truly unique.
Students will be able to:- describe when a loop, nested loop, or no loop is needed.- recognize the difference between using a loop and a nested loop.- break apart code into the largest repeatable sequences using both loops and nested loops.
In this lesson, students will practice using events to build a game that they can share online. Featuring R2-D2 and other Star Wars characters, students will be guided through events, then given space to create their own game.
CS Fundamentals is not simply about teaching computer science, it is about making computer science fun and exciting. In this series, students will learn about events using popular characters from Star Wars. These puzzles blur the lines between "learning" and "fun". Also, students will learn to recognize regular programming practices in games so that when they play games at home, they can see common computer science principles being used.
Students will be able to:- create an animated, interactive game using sequence and events.- identify actions that correlate to input events.
One of the most magnificent structures in the computer science world is the function. Functions (sometimes called procedures) are mini-programs that you can use over and over inside of your bigger program. This lesson will help students intuitively understand why combining chunks of code into functions can be such a helpful practice.
The use of functions helps simplify code and develop the students' ability to organize their program. Students will quickly recognize that writing functions can make their long programs easier to read and easier to debug if something goes wrong.
Students will be able to:- locate repeating phrases inside song lyrics.- identify sections of a song to pull into a function.- describe how functions can make programs easier to write.
