In this activity, pupils are challenged to detect and correct the error in a number of water cycle programs (debugging). They use logical reasoning to do this, comparing what the program should do with what it does do, and systematically homing in on the error (bug) by ‘thinking through’ the code in the program.
PUPIL OBJECTIVES:I can use logical reasoning to debug a program.I can explain how I debugged a program.
TEACHING ASSESSMENT OPPORTUNITIES:Informal teacher assessment of pupils as they tackle the debugging challenge: focus on pupils’ logical approach and ability to explain the bugs they found, why they are bugs and how they corrected them.Summative assessment of pupils’ debugging challenge sheets.
In this set of puzzles, students will begin with an introduction (or review depending on the experience of your class) of Code.org's online workspace. There will be videos pointing out the basic functionality of the workspace including the Run, Reset, and Step buttons. Also discussed in these videos: dragging Blockly blocks, deleting Blockly blocks, and connecting Blockly blocks. Next, students will practice their sequencing and >debugging skills in Maze. From there, students will see new types of puzzles like Collector, Artist, and Harvester when they learn the very basics of loops.
Run
Reset
Step
We recognize that every classroom has a spectrum of understanding for every subject. Some students in your class may be computer wizards, while others haven't had much experience at all. In order to create an equal playing (and learning) field, we have developed this "Ramp Up Stage" for Course D. This can be used as either an introduction or a review of how to use Code.org and basic computer science concepts. This stage covers all prerequisites needed to start Course D.
Students will be able to:- order movement commands as sequential steps in a program.- modify an existing program to solve errors.- break down a long sequence of instructions into the largest repeatable sequence.
Note: You will need to create a free account on code.org before you can view this resource.
In this online activity, students will practice debugging in the "collector" environment. Students will get to practice reading and editing code to fix puzzles with simple algorithms, loops, and nested loops.
The purpose of this lesson is to teach students that failure is normal when learning a new skill. Students will be given pre-written programs that do NOT work. They will be asked to fix these programs. This process, called "debugging", teaches students essential problem solving and critical thinking skills. These skills transfer over as students proceed to harder and harder programming projects.
Students will be able to:- read and comprehend the given code.- identify a bug and the problems it causes in a program.- describe and implement a plan to debug a program.
As a quick update (or introduction) to using loops, this stage will have students using the repeat block to get Scrat to the acorn more efficiently.
repeat
In this lesson, students will be learning 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 these Code.org puzzles, students will learn to add instructions to existing loops, gather repeated code into loops, and recognize patterns that need to be repeated.
Students will be able to:- construct a program using structures that repeat areas of code.- improve existing code by finding areas of repetition and moving them into looping structures.
This lesson demonstrates how conditionals can be used to tailor a program to specific information. We don’t always have all of the information we need when writing a program. Sometimes you will want to do something different in one situation than in another, even if you don't know what situation will be true when your code runs. That is where conditionals come in. Conditionals allow a computer to make a decision, based on the information that is true any time your code is run.
One of the best parts of teaching conditionals is that students already understand the concept from their everyday lives.
This lesson merges computer science into the real world by building off of students ability to tell if a condition is true or false. Students will learn to use if statements to declare when a certain command should be run, as well as if/else statements to declare when a command should be run and what do run otherwise. Students may not recognize the word conditionals, but most students will understand the idea of using "if" to make sure that some action only occurs when it is supposed to.
if
if/else
Students will be able to:- define circumstances when certain parts of a program should run and when they shouldn't.- determine whether a conditional is met based on criteria.- traverse a program and predict the outcome, given a set of input.
Up until this point, students have been writing code that executes exactly the same way each time it is run - reliable, but not very flexible. In this lesson, your class will begin to code with conditionals, allowing them to write code that functions differently depending on the specific conditions the program encounters.
After being introduced to conditionals in "Conditionals with Cards", students will now practice using them in their programs. The if / else blocks will allow for a more flexible program. The bee will only collect nectar if there is a flower or make honey if there is a honeycomb. Students will also practice and recognize a connection between if / else blocks and while loops in this set of puzzles.
if / else
while
Students will be able to:- translate spoken language conditional statements into a program.- solve puzzles using a combination of looped sequences and conditionals.
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.
