Lesson Overview
Using while loops, students control a farmer shovel dirt into holes until they’re full and remove dirt from piles until it’s all gone.
Teaching Summary
Getting Started
Activity: Farmer: While Loops
Extended Learning
Lesson Objectives
Students will:
- Distinguish between loops that repeat a fixed number of times and loops that repeat until a condition is met
- Use a while loop to create programs that can solve problems with unknown values
Activity
Farmer: While Loops
Extended Learning
Use these activities to enhance student learning. They can be used as outside of class activities or other enrichment.
So Moving
- Give the students pictures of actions or dance moves that they can do.
- Have students arrange moves and add loops to choreograph their own dance.
- Share the dances with the rest of the class.
Connect It Back
- Find some YouTube videos of popular dances that repeat themselves.
- Can your class find the loops?
- Try the same thing with songs!
Connections and Background Information
PARCC / Smarter Balanced Assessment Skills
- Click / tap
- Drag and drop
- Select and drag / slide
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.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.L2-07. Represent data in a variety of ways: text, sounds, pictures, numbers.
- CT.L2-08. Use visual representations of problem states, structures, and data.
- CT.L2-12. Use abstraction to decompose a problem into sub problems.
- CT.L2-14. Examine connections between elements of mathematics and computer science including binary numbers, logic, sets, and functions.
- CT.L3A-03. Explain how sequence, selection, iteration, and recursion are building blocks of algorithms.
Next-Gen Science Standards
- 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
- 3.OA.3 - Use multiplication and division within 100 to solve word problems in situations involving equal groups, arrays, and measurement quantities.
- 4.NBT.B.4 - Fluently add and subtract multi-digit whole numbers using the standard algorithm.
- 5.NBT.B.5 - Fluently multiply multi-digit whole numbers using the standard algorithm.
Common Core Language Arts Standards
- 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.
- L.4.6 - Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, including those that signal precise actions, emotions, or states of being and that are basic to a particular topic.
- L.5.6 - Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, including those that signal contrast, addition, and other logical relationships.
