The Guidance Office

Gypsy Spellweaver

18:35

@BenI. Does the Topic look good?

Ben I.

Sure - but I might make it more specific to his question - isn't this a one-off room?

Gypsy Spellweaver

I'm thinking not a one off. Something we'll probably need regulaly

richard

So yes I have an interview. Where I do one of these sample lessons.

And they asked for computational thinking (are you aware of this concept?)

Gypsy Spellweaver

I'm thinking that lesson-ideas may frequently end up with discussion questions more than normal Q&A style can handle, even with comments.

Ben I.

AFAIK, computational thinking can be virtually anything that leads towards understanding how computers "think"

Gypsy Spellweaver

18:38

In some places Computational Thinking is a term-long course.

richard

They asked for the first part to be paper based (i.e. off line / unplugged / no computer ). This is easy, as I usually do my dedicated computational thinking lessons unplugged.

“Computational thinking is about looking at a problem in a way that a computer can help us to solve it.” — barefootcas.org.uk/barefoot-primary-computing-resources/…

Gypsy Spellweaver

Since you weren't given any WALT or WILF, is it to be assumed that it's just one lesson in a series for the hypothetical class, or is it to be a single lesson near the beginning of a class leading somewhere else?

Ben I.

Oh, I love that site! I am US-based, but I've gotten awesome lesson ideas from that site

richard

Just a one off lesson (I guess), no mention of schemes of work).

Ben I.

Will the computers already be out?

I'm wondering if you will really have the full 30 minutes, or if you will need 5 minutes for them to start their computers

richard

18:42

Yes it is a computer room.

Ben I.

Will you get access to the room prior to the lesson? (That way you can put all of the web browsers up on a particular site)

Gypsy Spellweaver

What's the basic outline for the 1st ½?

Ben I.

And will you have access to a projector screen?

richard

I like cs-unplugged — csunplugged.org So am happy to do it unplugged. The bit I struggle with is linking it to use of a computer. Some times I have linked to programming (but this class has little experience, and we have half hour in total).

There is a projector.

outline = “

The teaching session will be approximately 30 minutes long and should demonstrate your understanding of lesson planning and delivery.

Please plan two sections, one a paper based task to develop students' understanding of computational thinking. The second section to utilise those skills on the computer.

Please note that this is a mixed ability year 8 class and so appropriate extension and differentiation should be provided, although there are no specific learning difficulties within the class.

”

Ideas so far:

there are lots of unplugged ideas, such as

sorting: sort a class, then pupils use playing cards in groups

binary using large cards at front, then individual/pair exercise.

Ben I.

binary as in binary numbers? binary search?

richard

18:51

A lovely exercise on reverse engineering a board game (uses abstraction, generalisation, pattern matching).

@ben as it happens both/either.

However I am strugling to link these to a computer activity (“Computer science is to computers as poetry is to pens”). So for I have one idea:

How computers store images. I was going to give them some worksheets with instructions on, telling them how to colour in a grid (that is on the worksheet).

One sheet has colour in e4, h3, t9 etc.

Ben I.

how long do you have to prepare for your lesson?

richard

Another has colour in a3:h4, c5:d3

Another uses run length encoding 3w, 2b, 5w, 1b etc There is more explanation on the sheets.

Ben I.

I didn't follow that, tbh

richard

Not long. I have to do it tomorrow.

Ben I.

Oh, wow!

richard

19:00

a3:h4 is a rectangular range. And 3w, 2b, 5w is 3 white squares, followed by 2 black, followed by 5 white. I will resynchronise each line (this is what they do at gcse (level 2/ ordinary level exam).

Ben I.

3w is... not in your grid... ?

a4 is in the range, though

richard

I think for now I will go with what I have.

3w is a different notation. On this sheet you count 3 white cells (3w), then colour 2 black (2b). It is better explained on the sheets, and no one pupil will get all 3 sheets at the same time. They are pulled back to share what they have learnt, after they are successful.

Ben I.

My other thought was to do finite state machines, since they lend themselves so nicely to physical activity

I was hunting for a FSM game, though. Tricky to search for, because FMSs are used so heavily in game design, so the links are all about that

richard

How would one (oh you just answered how to link it to use computers)

Ben I.

One way I ran a sample lesson, which you are welcome to borrow, was to create a sort of "scavenger hunt" of puzzles, all from slightly different areas of CS. The kids worked in small groups, and each puzzle resulted in a unique "code" that I could easily check on a piece of paper. (Group 4, question 3, answer: 47)

The rules were that the groups were on their own to answer the questions (they could not ask me for help), but they could call me over as soon as they have an answer.

The groups that got the furthest got either jolly ranchers or hershey's kisses (their preference)

Since you're in the UK, you could use real chocolate, and whatever other sort of candy

And you could make some of the activities require the computer

What was nice about the lesson was:

(1) everyone was engaged at every moment

(2) it hit on many different computer science concepts

and (3) because kids could choose which question to tackle next, it was already differentiated to their abilities

I also got a large oven timer and put it at the front of the room.

The conceit was that they had 25 minutes to hack into a server, so the questions were (very nominally) security focused. (That was really a theme - there was almost no actual security content)

The final question involved doing some small amount of math to all of their answers

(The oven timer was there to keep up the pressure, because it was counting down seconds)

richard

19:16

That sounds like some good ideas. But for now I will focus to “Did all pupils make sufficient progress” and worry less about the vague brief.

Ben I.

I also introduced it by showing this video

The Social Network Hacking Scene

►

May not be appropriate for 13 year olds

OK - good luck!

If you get more specific questions as you continue your prep, feel free to ask on the site - we are often a fairly active bunch (as you saw when you got, like, 5 comments and 8 edits within 5 minutes of posting your question)

richard

He uses emacs. I use sed. Bye for now.

Ben I.

l8r

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