Lesson Overview
This course is a review of maze concepts from Courses 2 and 3. Students will first help the zombie get to the sunflower using a combination of sequences and loops, then review conditionals with the flower-hunting bee.
Teaching Summary
Getting Started
Activity: Maze and Bee
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 conditional statements to assess which actions are correct for a given step
Getting Started
Introduction
Review with students the basic maze navigation, particularly:
- Moving forward
- Turning left/right
- Looping
- Conditionals
Activity
Maze and Bee
As your students work through the puzzles, observe how they plan the path for the zombie or bee. 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 using checkerboards and strips of paper. Can they recreate a bee conditionals puzzle using red and black checkers?
Connections and Background Information
PARCC / Smarter Balanced Assessment Skills
Click / tap
- Drag and drop
- Select object
- Select and drag / slide
- Use video player
ISTE Standards (formerly NETS)
- 1a. Apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes
- 1c. Use models and simulation to explore complex systems and issues
- 4b. Plan and manage activities to develop a solution or complete a project
- 6a. Understand and use technology systems
- 6c. Troubleshoot systems and applications
- 6d. 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.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.
- CPP.L2-05 Implement problem solutions using a programming language including: Implement problem solutions using a programming language, including: looping behavior, conditional statements, logic, expressions, variables, and functions
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
- 3.MD.C.6 Measure areas by counting unit squares (square cm, square m, square in, square ft, and improvised units)
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
