Computing fundamentals�Lesson 1

Fundamentals of

computational thinking

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Team Giant Airplane Challenge

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In your teams:

• Create a giant paper airplane
• Use only the materials you have been given You have 20 minutes - ( large sheets of strong poster paper and normal paper, clear tape, colored marker pens, stickers (optional), tape measure (optional)
• 4 Winners:
• fly furthest
• fly longest
• look most stylish
• & best problem-solving as a team

AFTER 5 Minutes

Task 2: Paper airplane instructions:

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Quick Review:

• Create instructions for someone else to follow to create your giant paper airplane
• You know they must be accurate and easy to follow
• You can use any format you wish
• 10 minutes

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1. Compare your instructions with another team.
2. Discuss how your approach is different and what you notice from comparing your instructions. (eg. were they more/less detailed, which directions were the easiest to follow etc) and highlighting different ways to write the instructions to meet the same goal.

Computational Thinking

(fancy term for what you just did)

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Computational thinking means considering a problem in a way that a computer can help us to solve it.

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We need to:

1. understanding what the problem is
2. consider possible solutions
3. use a computer to help solve the problem

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Computational thinking

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There are 5 main components to computational thinking:

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1. Decomposition
2. Abstraction
3. Pattern recognition
4. Algorithms
5. Evaluation

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Learning objectives:

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• to understand what ‘computational thinking’ is
• to develop computational thinking skills
• to write an accurate algorithm

Decomposition

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Breaking down a complex problem into smaller parts.

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Each of these parts can then be considered in detail.

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Think about all the different elements of creating a computer game…

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Decomposition

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How did you use decomposition in the giant paper airplane challenge?

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You decided how to fold the paper to make the main shape, then the wings, then how to decorate it.

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Abstraction

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Reducing unnecessary detail and focusing on the important parts of a system.

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Creating a representation or generalisation.

Abstraction

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How did you use abstraction in the giant paper airplane challenge?

You created a representation of an airplane.

Pattern recognition

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Recognising and finding patterns or trends.

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Looking for similarities.

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Raven matrix

Geometric series triangle

Koch snowflake

Pattern recognition

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How did you use pattern recognition in the giant paper airplane challenge?

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You recognized what planes usually look like (the shape).

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You identified common features (e.g. wings, nose, windows etc).

Algorithms

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Developing instructions to solve a problem.

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The steps or rules to complete a task.

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E.g. Multiplication or division ‘rules’ in maths. What are the rules/steps for multiplying decimals by 10?

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You move the decimal point one space to the right - that’s the algorithm!

Algorithms

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How did you use algorithms in the giant paper airplane challenge?

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The instructions you created for someone to follow to create a giant paper airplane is an algorithm.

Evaluation

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Evaluation means considering if a solution is ‘fit for purpose’.

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Is it:

• suitable for the user? No, it is not suitable because it does not really go in the direction that you want it to.
• easily understood? It is
• efficient?
• the best that can be done with the resources available?

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Evaluation

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How did you use evaluation in the giant paper airplane challenge?

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• Checking your plane flies
• Making the best use of the resources you have
• Ensuring your instructions (algorithm) was easy to follow

• Why write a code?
• The best problem solvers do what with the big problem
• Thinking algorithmically is similar to writing what?

10 Minute RECAP, Do you understand?

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Learning objectives revisited:

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• to understand what ‘computational thinking’ is
• to develop computational thinking skills
• to write an accurate algorithm

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Copyright information

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Published by Micro:bit Educational Foundation microbit.org

�Licence: Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)