Lesson Overview
This course is a review of maze concepts from Course 2. Students will help the zombie get to the sunflower using a combination of sequences and loops.
Teaching Summary
Getting Started
Activity: Maze
Extended Learning
Lesson Objectives
Students will:
- Create a program for a given task using sequential steps
- Count the number of times an action should be repeated and represent it as a loop
- Analyze a problem and complete it as efficiently as possible
- Employ a combination of sequential and looped commands to reach the end of a maze
Getting Started
Introduction
Review with students the basic maze navigation, particularly:
- Moving forward
- Turning left/right
- Looping
Activity
Maze
As your students work through the puzzles, observe how they plan the path for the zombie. 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. You may want to go through a few puzzles on the projector. While doing this you can ask a one student to trace the path on the screen while another writes the directions on a whiteboard.
Extended Learning
Use these activities to enhance student learning. They can be used as outside of class activities or other enrichment.
Create Your Own
In small groups, let students design their own mazes and challenge each other to write programs to solve them. For added fun, make life size mazes with students as the zombie and flower.
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.
- 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
- CT.L1:3-01. Use technology resources (e.g., puzzles, logical thinking programs) to solve age appropriate problems.
- CL.L1:3-02. Work cooperatively and collaboratively with peers teachers, and others using technology.
- 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.L2-08. Use visual representations of problem states, structures, and data.
- CT.L2-12. Use abstraction to decompose a problem into sub problems.
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.
- 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
