Computer programs often need to process a sequence of symbols such as letters or words in a document, or even the text of another computer program. Computer scientists often use a finite-state automaton to do this. A finite-state automaton (FSA) follows a set of instructions to see if the computer will recognize the word or string of symbols. We will be working with something equivalent to a FSA—treasure maps!
The goal of the students is to find Treasure Island. Friendly pirate ships sail along a fixed set of routes between the islands in this part of the world, offering rides to travelers. Each island has two departing ships, A and B, which you can choose to travel on. You need to find the best route to Treasure Island. At each island you arrive at you may ask for either ship A or B (not both). The person at the island will tell you where your ship will take you to next, but the pirates don’t have a map of all the islands available. Use your map to keep track of where you are going and which ship you have traveled on.
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.
Using a predefined symbol key, your students will guide one another to accomplish specific tasks without using any verbal commands. This segment teaches students the connection between symbols and actions, the difference between an algorithm and a program, and the valuable skill of debugging.
This unplugged lesson brings the class together as a team with a simple task to complete: get a "robot" to stack cups in a specific design. Students will work to recognize real-world actions as potential instructions in code. The designing of precise instructions will also be practiced, as students work to translate worded instructions into the symbols provided. If problems arise in the code, students should work together to recognize bugs and build solutions.
Students will be able to:- gain an understanding of the need for precision in coding.- learn how to recognize a bug and how to debug the malfunctioning code.
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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.
Building on the initial "My Robotic Friends" activity, students learn to use loops when programming their robots in order to build bigger structures more efficiently.
This lesson serves as a reintroduction to loops, using the now-familiar set of "robot" programming instructions. Students will develop critical thinking skills by looking for patterns of repetition in the movements of classmates and determining how to simplify those repeated patterns using loops.
Students will be able to:- identify repeated patterns in code that could be replaced with a loop.- write instructions that use loops to repeat patterns.
Over the course of five lessons, students will be building a project of their own design using either Sprite Lab or Artist as their programming environment. Now that the projects are built, students are given the opportunity to get feedback from peers and revise their projects. The lesson guide provides an overview of all five stages of the process can be found in the beginning of the project process, here.
At this point, students have worked very hard on their projects, so this lesson is meant to offer a space for the students to share their projects. This lesson will build a supportive community where students will build their own confidence and feel connected to their hardworking peers.
Students will be able to:- indicate where each criterion point from the rubric is satisfied in the code for the finished culminating project.- articulate the design process and how it helped shape the finished culminating project.
