Lesson Overview
Debugging is an essential element of learning to program. In this lesson, students will encounter puzzles that have been solved incorrectly. They will need to step through the existing code to identify errors, including incorrect loops, missing blocks, extra blocks, and misordered blocks.
Teaching Summary
Getting Started
Activity: Bee: Debugging
Extended Learning
Lesson Objectives
Students will:
- Predict where a program will fail
- Modify an existing program to solve errors
- Identify an algorithm that is unsuccessful when the steps are out of order
- Reflect on the debugging process in an age-appropriate way
Getting Started
Introduction
Ask students to think about problems they have to solve in everyday life.
- How do you fix something that isn't working?
- Do you follow a specific series of steps?
- The puzzles in this unit have already been solved for you (yay!), but they don't seem to be working (boo!)
- We call the problems in these programs "bugs," and it will be your job to "debug" them.
Activity
Bee: Debugging
As your students work through the puzzles, observe how they search for bugs. Identify different strategies used and ask students to share with the whole class. This helps students to recognize that there are many ways to approach these problems. Have students follow the path described by the code with their fingers to find potential bugs.
Extended Learning
Use these activities to enhance student learning. They can be used as outside of class activities or other enrichment.
Planting bugs
Have students go back through previous levels, purposefully adding bugs to their solutions. They can then ask other students to debug their work. This can also be done with paper puzzles.
Connections and Background Information
PARCC / Smarter Balanced Assessment Skills
- Click / tap
- Drag and drop
- Select object
- Use video player
ISTE Standards (formerly NETS)
- 1.a - Apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes.
- 1.c - Use models and simulation to explore complex systems and issues.
- 4.b - Plan and manage activities to develop a solution or complete a project.
- 4.d - Use multiple processes and diverse perspectives to explore alternative solutions.
- 6.a - Understand and use technology systems.
- 6.c - Troubleshoot systems and applications.
- 6.d - Transfer current knowledge to learning of new technologies.
CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards
- CL.L1:3-02. Work cooperatively and collaboratively with peers teachers, and others using technology.
- CT. L1:3-01. Use technology resources (e.g., puzzles, logical thinking programs) to solve age appropriate problems.
- CT.L1:6-01. Understand and use the basic steps in algorithmic problem-solving.
- CT.L2-01. Use the basic steps in algorithmic problem solving to design solutions.
- CT.L2-06. Describe and analyze a sequence of instructions being followed.
- CT.L2-08. Use visual representations of problem states, structures, and data.
- CT.L2-12. Use abstraction to decompose a problem into sub-problems.
- CPP.L1:6-05. Construct a program as a set of step-by-step instructions to be acted out.
- CPP.L1:6-06. Implement problem solutions using a block-based visual programming language.
- CT.L3A-03. Explain how sequence, selection, iteration, and recursion are building blocks of algorithms.
Next-Gen Science Standards
- K-2-PS3-2. Use tools and materials provided to design and build a device that solves a specific problem or a solution to a specific problem.
- K-2-ETS1-1 - Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool.
- 3-5-ETS1-2 - Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
Common Core Mathematical Practices
- 1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
- 2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
- 4. Model with mathematics.
- 5. Use appropriate tools strategically.
- 6. Attend to precision.
- 7. Look for and make use of structure.
- 8. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.
Common Core Math Standards
- 1.OA.A.1 - Use addition and subtraction within 20 to solve word problems involving situations of adding to, taking from, putting together, taking apart, and comparing, with unknowns in all positions, e.g., by using objects, drawings, and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem.
- 2.OA.A.1 - Use addition and subtraction within 100 to solve one- and two-step word problems involving situations of adding to, taking from, putting together, taking apart, and comparing, with unknowns in all positions.
- 3.OA.3. Use multiplication and division within 100 to solve word problems in situations involving equal groups, arrays, and measurement quantities.
Common Core Language Arts Standards
- SL.1.1 - Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 1 topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.
- L.1.6 - Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts, including using frequently occurring conjunctions to signal simple relationships (e.g., because).
- SL.2.1 - Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 2 topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.
- L.2.6 - Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts, including using adjectives and adverbs to describe (e.g., When other kids are happy that makes me happy).
- SL.3.1 - Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 3 topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.
- L.3.6 - Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate conversational, general academic, and domain-specific words and phrases, including those that signal spatial and temporal relationships.
