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Control

3-5 Computer Science Modules Series

A subconcept of

Algorithms and Programming

Standard 4.AP.C.1: Develop programs the include sequences, events, loops, and conditionals.

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Overview of the Lesson

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What Real-World Problem Does the Standard Address?

Below is a video showing a young man eating 18 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in one minute. He has a lot of decisions to make as he works through his problem of how to eat as many sandwiches as possible in the time allotted. As you watch the video, think about what things he is doing in regard to the following bulleted items. Relations to parts of the standard that will be clarified later are listed in parentheses after each item.

Starting his eating challenge (events)
The process he goes through to eat one sandwich (sequences)
Eating sandwiches over and over again 18 times (loops)
Deciding when to stop eating and take a drink of water (conditionals)

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Your Turn

What is one other example of a loop (something that repeats over and over) that you can think of from your everyday life?
How is this video connected to this computer science standard?

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What Does the Standard Say?

In this section you will examine the standard and think about the learning targets and potential ways of measuring student understanding of the concept by addressing the session question, "What does the standard say?"

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Deconstructing the Standard

Examine how a colleague would interpret the parts of the standard for a student or parent. As you read, think about how you would help a parent interpret the standard language, if you would use the same common understandings, and why it would be important to interpret the standard.

Standard: 4.AP.C.1 Develop programs the include sequences, events, loops, and conditionals.
Standard Language	Common Understanding
program	This is a set of instructions through which a computer works. When it is run, a program performs the specific task that the programmer has set for it. As humans, we essentially program everything we do by running a set of instructions through our internal computers--our brains. These sets of instructions can take the form of sequences, events, loops, and conditionals.
sequence	A sequence is a series of actions or events. The order of those actions is fixed, and the completion of one action leads to the next action. Until one action is complete, the next one cannot begin, and none of the actions in the sequence can be skipped. Think about effectively hitting a golf ball. You have to pick up your club, stand next to the ball, pull the club back, and swing the club forward. Those actions have to be done in that order, and you can't skip any of them if you are to have any chance at moving the ball forward according to the goals of your golfing game.

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Deconstructing the Standard

Standard: 4.AP.C.1 Develop programs the include sequences, events, loops, and conditionals.
Standard Language	Common Understanding
events	Sometimes a program can be impacted by one or more events. Those events at a simple level might be actions that the end user takes, like pressing a button on the keyboard or clicking the left button on the mouse. At a more complex level, those events might be output from sensors or messages fed in from other programs. One event many people experience each morning is their alarm going off. The body is running through the sleep sequences up until that point, and the alarm is an event that triggers a whole new set of actions to begin.
loops	Loops refer to things you do over and over again. An excellent synonym is the word "repeat." It could involve the repetition of one or more actions. For instance, a boy might tap his foot 20 times. That would be just one action, tapping his foot, repeated 20 times. A more complex loop might be a gym routine that involves performing circuits of exercises. In this case, the person lifting weights might do 12 bicep curls, 12 chest presses, and 15 ab crunches. If that same circuit of three exercises is repeated four times, that would constitute a loop of multiple actions.

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Deconstructing the Standard

Standard: 4.AP.C.1 Develop programs the include sequences, events, loops, and conditionals.
Standard Language	Common Understanding
conditionals	Conditionals are points in a computer program where it can branch out and perform different actions based upon tests of whether certain conditions set by the programmer are either true or false. These are sometimes referred as "if-then" or "if-then-else" statements in a program. For example, "if" a person is hungry, "then" he will eat some food. In this case, if he isn't hungry, he won't eat food. As a more complex example, "if" a person sees a dress she wants to buy and it is in her price range, "then" she will go ahead and buy it at that price or "else" she will ask for a discount.

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The Embedded Content of the Standard

Begin by watching the following three videos that discuss the three more complex parts of this standard--events, loops, and conditionals. As you watch, think about the real-life examples discussed so far and how they relate to the computer science concepts

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The Embedded Content of the Standard

To put this all together in the context of an example encountered by many people in daily life, think about driving along the road as you encounter a stoplight like this one.

Consider your journey in terms of a sequence, event, loop, and conditional.

Sequence: This involves the general act of driving, like putting your hands on the steering wheel, putting the car in drive, taking your foot off the break, and pressing down on the gas pedal with your foot. To make your car go, it's best that you follow this series of events in order and don't skip one before going to the next, much like programmers think when coding a sequence into a computer program.
Event: When you come to a stoplight, one of three events occurs. You see either red, yellow, or green. This is an external event, much like the press of a key or click of a mouse, that impacts what you do next when you are driving.
Conditional: Based upon the color of the light, you as the driver would quickly process several if-then statements. If the light is green, then you keep driving. If the light is red, then you come to a stop following a new sequence of actions like taking your foot off the gas and pressing down on the brake pedal. If the light is yellow, then you might branch off to think of an if-then-else statement. Here, if you are close to the intersection, then you may keep driving or else if you are far enough away, then you may come to a stop. Computer programmers think through many of these instances, as Bill Gates described, when they are building a program.
Loop: Throughout the course of a drive, you essentially repeat some of the above pieces over and over again. You drive toward (sequence) multiple lights and decide what to do (conditional) based upon the color of the light (event). In effect, you are looping through the same set of processes in your brain repeatedly.

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Achieving the Standard

Learning Targets (Student Friendly Language)	Assessment Targets (Student Evidence)
Standard: Standard: 4.AP.C.1 Develop programs the include sequences, events, loops, and conditionals.
I can make a program that includes a series of actions that are performed in a specific order. I can make a program that has actions that only happen if the user takes an action. I can make a program that has actions that happen over and over again. I can make a program that does one action if something is true and another action if something is false.	Students create a program with a sequence. Students create a program with one or more events. Students create a program with one or more loops. Students create a program with one or more conditionals.

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Your Turn

With respect to the standard, tell about three things you learned?
What are a couple other real-world connections you can make to this standard?

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What Could This Look Like for My Students?

Think about what activities you would want your students to do in your classroom to develop their understanding.

1. Generate 3 lesson activities or ideas that would help students reach mastery of the standard.

2. Use the learning targets from the previous section as a guide of what students need to know.

3. Focus on the standard as an end goal.

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Your Turn

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3

Describe in at 3-5 sentences each of the 3 lesson activities or ideas you came up with according to the instructions on the previous slide.

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What Resources Could Support Further Implementation?

In this final section, you will use your knowledge of the standard to examine some potential resources. When you look through the resources, it is important to recognize that students need to actively participate in developing their understanding.