Computational World

Preparation

This unit uses the Kahn Academy course “Computer Science” and Google’s Applied Digital Skills lesson, “Create a Digital Editing Tool with Programming” . Set up a class at each site and have students join if you would like to keep track of their progress.

Objectives of this unit:

Explain the 4 tasks computers perform
Explain various devices used to perform the 4 tasks
Convert decimal values into binary.
Explain how binary is used to represent data in computers
Explain how circuits can modify and process information that is represented in one's and zero's.
Identify and define common programming concepts and connect them to the functions of a non-computer device
Create a program that implements an algorithm to achieve a given goal.

Product- Students create an Editing Application to help with a writing assignment. (Complete lesson plans can be found at https://applieddigitalskills.withgoogle.com/c/en/curriculum.html)

Length: 6-7 days

Days 1 & 2

The programming concepts of sequencing, conditional, loop, variable, array, functions, and parameter will be defined and applied to an everyday item.

Warm Up (Day 1):

Prompt students to think about automated tools like spell-check and word count, and how they help us perform writing tasks more efficiently.

What are some things you struggle with when writing papers?
What tools do you currently use to help you with your writing?
What are the benefits of using an online editing tool?
What are some drawbacks or limitations?

Activity (Day 1)

Applied Digital Skills "Create an Editing Tool with Programming" Activity 1 - Identify Programming Concepts in Everyday Life (~ 120 min)

Warm Up (Day 2)

Khan Academy “How Computers Work” course. This prepares them for the writing assignment to be used with the Editing Tool they will program.

Assign the first two lesson videos, “Introduction to Computer Science” and “What Makes a Computer a Computer?” (~ 6 min )

Think of both a computer and a person as information-processing machines. Identify the four components of an information-processing device for both and complete the following table: (from An Information Processing Machine handout August 16)

Action Computer Human

Input is done with...

Storage is done with...

Information processing is done with...

Output is done with....

2. How is the process the brain uses to send messages to the various parts of your body similar to that which a computer uses?

Activity (Day 2)

Students complete the presentation then present it to another pair of students. They then discuss the presentations.

Optional: Chips and More Chips - (possible homework or reinforcement activities) a handout with activities that helps students understand the devices used everyday that contain microprocessors.

Exit Slip (Day 2)

Of the two lists you created which was the easiest to create? Why?
Which “creative” item did you select? Why?
Choose one of the items you didn’t select and relate the 6 concepts to it.

Item: __________________________

Sequencing
Conditional
Loop
Variable
Array
Functions
Parameter

Day 3

Warm Up

View the Khan Academy “How Computers Work” course module 3, Binary and Data then answer the following questions. (~ 6 min)

Computers operate on 2 states of power, on and off. What would be the pros and cons of using a system that would allow for various levels of power (off, half power, full power and all the levels in between)?
Power blackouts are when the electricity goes off, but in times of high usage we can experience power “brown outs” when the amount of electricity available is not at full capacity. How might this affect a system such as the one you discussed in question 1?

Activity

View Applied Digital Skills "Create an Editing Tool with Programming" Activity 2 - Use a Loop to Find a Word (~ 60 min)

Optional: Binary numbers handout (contains information and activities that could be used as homework or reinforcement )

Exit Slip

What are the advantages of automating repetitive tasks?
What other repetitive tasks can you think of that a computer program could make easier, less time consuming, or less tedious?
What are some challenges you’ve encountered with coding so far?
How did you solve problems with your code?
What discoveries have you made about your code or the coding process?

Day 4

Warm Up

View the Khan Academy "How Computers Work" course module 4, "Circuits and Logic" (~ 5 min)

Remember: Add the following sets of Binary numbers

0 + 0 = 0 0 1) 10 2) 11 3) 11 4) 101

0 + 1 = 0 1 +10 + 10 +11 + 011

1 + 0 = 0 1 --------- --------- --------- ----------

1 + 1 = 1 0 Ans ________ ________ ________ ________

Activities

Applied Digital Skills "Create an Editing Tool with Programming" Activity 3 - Search for Multiple Words (~40 min)

Applied Digital Skills "Create an Editing Tool with Programming" Activity 4 - Find and Reuse Code for Your Program (~25 min)

Optional: Decision Making handout with activities - teaches about AND and OR logic and how it can be used to make decisions.

Exit Slip

What is one challenge you had and how did you solve it?
How do you give other people credit when you use part or all of their work? What are the possible consequences if you don’t?
How did you experiment with your array?
What was one of the examples your neighbor shared with you?

Days 5 - 7

Warm Up (Day 5)

View the Khan Academy “How Computers Work” course module 5, "CPU, Memory, Input and Output". (~5 min)

Of the following devices, which are used for both INPUT and OUTPUT? microphone, mouse, touch-screen monitor, joystick, hard drive, speaker
Research two types of memory, Random Access Memory(RAM) and Read Only Memory(ROM) and differentiate between the two in simple terms.

WarmUp (Day 6)

View the Khan Academy “How Computers Work” course module 6, "Hardware and Software" (~6 min)

Explain how an operating system (OS) is able to multitask - run several programs "at the same time". Relate this to how you multitask when texting your friend and doing your school work.
Why do you think computers are much better at multitasking than humans are?

Activity

Applied Digital Skills "Create an Editing Tool with Programming" Activity 5 - Wrap Up (~ 10 min)

Complete Activity 5, then do the following.

Your editing tool looks for and finds overused words in a writing. Customize the array list of words to include words or phrases you personally use too often. You might talk with your English teacher or have someone look over a writing assignment to help you identify these terms.
Are there words you often misspell or typos you make a lot? Add these misspellings/typos to your array to help you find additional corrections to make.
- Challenge: Change the program so that you have a separate list of misspellings/typos and have the program highlight the words in this list in a specific color, or create another program and menu for this purpose ( your own personalized spellchecker).
Begin writing an essay that summarizes the information you learned during this unit.
- Remember to discuss only one topic per paragraph. A suggestion would be to write a separate summary paragraph for each of the 5 video topics from the Khan Academy Computer Science Course, then write one that summarizes the process you followed and the concepts you learned while writing your editing tool. Finish with a paragraph that explains the importance of learning computer science and programming and how you imagine it may be used in the future. (Be creative - what new ideas for new computerized products can you imagine?)
When you finish writing your first draft, use your editing tool (and personalized spell checker if you created one) to identify overused and misspelled words or typos. Either show your teacher before you correct them or make a screen shot of it and paste it at the end of your document before submitting it for grading.

Optional resources

Beyond School - a handout (with activities) that discusses how fast the job market in technological careers is growing and the importance of learning how to use technology in various careers.
Ubiquitous Computing - a handout (with activities) that introduces the idea of computer pads and tabs that enable you to use and access digital information wherever you are and has students imagine uses for them and impacts it may have on society.

Alternate summary product

After writing your essay in Google Docs and correcting it, create a web site using Google Sites that includes a page for each paragraph in your essay. Copy and paste the paragraphs to their pages and include some pictures to illustrate the topic. You could even include a screenshot picture (after you save it) of what your document looks like when you've used the editing tool.

Teacher resources:

Build an App STEAM Challenge (full activity - no prep) - (Available from Teachers Pay Teachers for $3.00)

Description (from the website) Did you know that companies like Verizon Wireless are giving students and schools thousands of dollars in prizes for student Phone App ideas? Getting students to understand how to come up with ideas for intellectual property like phone apps is the best way to get students to learn creative thinking, collaboration, and leadership skills because the 21st Century Learner has to be prepared for jobs that don't even exist yet.

The purpose of this project is to get the students to connect the engineering design process with mobile app development. This is a minilesson, work period activity, and closing activity all rolled into one that will be the ultimate integrative lesson that will include Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math and Entrepreneurship. Students do not need to know how to code to do this project.

To do this project effectively, the students will need to start in class, and work on the remaining components at home over a 4 week time frame, so this would be a great end of the year activity or activity that will prepare students to participate in the annual Verizon Innovate App Challenge.

Let's Start Coding

Hands on training for teachers using electronic kits. Free for teachers using a loaner kit. Kits for sale for use with students.

HarvardX CS50

This is an excellent course for teachers who have no computer science experience and could be used for more advanced/motivated students.

Alternative Resources/Extension Websites:

Hello Processing

Hour of Code for Teachers and Parents - Khan Academy Course for teachers and parents without programming experience .

ExplainThatStuff Computers

Alice

Please read here for important information on using Alice.

Drag-and-drop programming in a 3D environment. Provides Lessons and exercises/projects for students to program and assessments for teachers to use.

Lessons
- Building a Scene - This Lesson is intended to be an introduction of the Alice virtual world concepts and skills, provide exercise options for participants to apply the scene editing skills.
- Programming in Alice - This facilitator guide is intended to guide the instructor through introducing the use of the Alice Code Editor for creating the program, or script for a story or game.
- Design Process introduction - This lesson is intended to introduce the design processes going from the idea stage, through a script or storyboard, to an algorithm design or flow chart, and finally to a programmed animation.
Exercises/Projects (most reach only levels 1 and 2 of the Depth of Knowledge scale)
- Scene Building - This tutorial exercise provides step-by-step directions for guiding you through building a scene. (Handout)
- Building a Program - This tutorial exercise provides step-by-step directions for guiding you through building a simple animation. (Handout)(Starter World file)
- Designing an Animation - This tutorial exercise provides step-by-step directions for guiding you through designing and implementing a simple animation. (Handout)(Storyboard Template) This provides for students to design and code their own animated stories which qualifies for levels 3 and 4 of the Depth of Knowledge scale.
- Making Procedural Methods - This tutorial exercise provides step-by-step directions for guiding you through creating your own custom procedures. (Handout) (Starter World file)
- Control Structures - This tutorial exercise provides step-by-step directions for guiding you through using the basic Alice control structures, do in order and do together. (Handout) (Starter World file)
- Introduction to Events - This tutorial exercise provides step-by-step directions for guiding you through setting up some basic event listeners and event handlers. (Handout) NOTE: To reach level 4 of the Depth of Knowledge scale students will need to complete a self-designed project that incorporates methods, control structures and events.
Other resources
- Audio Library

Code.org

A 20-hour course that includes 11 unplugged activities and 9 online coding activities. Students are asked to solve and code solutions to puzzles. Instructors will want to create some kind of accountability into the lessons such as after certain coding lessons, will the students click the "show code" buttons and copying the JavaScript code behind the drag and drop commands they used. This will create more connection between the drag-and-drop and actual coding. An assessment could then be used that the student must use the actual code to complete a project.

NOTE: Some of these lessons may have been done in Middle School (or elementary) but not the entire course. Students should be permitted to move to other lessons in the course should they find they have "done this before".

Finch Robots

Scratch

Online coding lessons for programming using the Scratch drag-and-drop coding. Can be downloaded or used online only. Used in middle schools, so some students may be familiar with it already and would then provide resources for you to use helping those that are less familiar with the platform.

Khan Academy

Computer Programming - Learn how to program drawings, animations, and games using JavaScript & ProcessingJS, or learn how to create web pages with HTML & CSS. You can share whatever you create, explore what others have created and learn from each other!
Computer Science - Learn select topics from computer science - algorithms (how we solve common problems in computer science and measure the efficiency of our solutions), cryptography (how we protect secret information), and information theory (how we encode and compress information).
Hour of Code - Learn the basics of programming, making web pages, or creating databases.
Pixar in a Box - A collaboration between Pixar Animation Studios and Khan Academy and sponsored by Disney provides a behind-the-scenes look at how Pixar artists do their jobs. Students will animate bouncing balls, build a swarm of robots, and make virtual fireworks explode. It illustrates how subjects students learn in school are used every day to create amazing movies at Pixar.

Jan's Computer Lessons and Tutorials

Jan's Illustrated Computer Literacy 101 - Basic explanations of computers, programming, software, hardware, etc. Includes Quizzes at the end of each lesson group.
Jan's Resources and Examples for Web Authors - examples of how to use CSS to format text on a web page and how to get the page to respond to a user's actions.

Other Video Resources

How Computers Work (in 3 minutes) -
Journey into the Walk-Through Computer - a blast from the past, but the basic concepts and processes are the same today. (produced by The Computer Museum in Boston, MA)
HowStuffWorks Computer Tour - discusses the 7 major components of a computer.
Inside Your Computer - a Ted.Ed video
The Journey Inside℠ curriculum (by Intel) videos and activities
- Introduction to Computers - short history and 4 functions of computers.
- Digital Information - discusses binary and how it is used to represent data in computers.
- Microprocessors - discusses how they work and the concepts of Fetch, Decode and Execute.
- Technology and Society - discusses the impacts technology has had and will have on society.

Competition/game sites:

CSAW - https://csaw.engineering.nyu.edu
CyberPatriot - https://www.uscyberpatriot.org/home
Capture the Flag events - https://ctftime.org

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