Day 3 - Computational Thinking: Conditionals

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1 MODULAR ROBOTICS EDUCATION Day 3 - Computational Thinking: Conditionals Educator Pack of Cubelets, minute lesson This lesson s learning target is conditionals. Conditional statements are the basic structure to logic and computational thinking, cause and effect, and building facility with reading and understanding code structure as a way to check true/false for statements. For each class/group, this lesson plan includes 3 parts, Minutes each: 1. A chance to consider conditionals in the real world, and with robots they can easily understand. 2. An opportunity for students to add complex functions to their robots, and reconsider conditionals, predictions, and how values travel in a system 3. An opportunity for educators to use a worksheet with students to assess their learning and progress while also having students practice applying new vocabulary These lesson plans have suggested age levels, but it is possible to use the younger grade activities as a ramp up to older grades; e.g. use the 6 years old 9 years old activities to ramp up and extend a lesson plan for a group of year olds. Similarly, the activities suggested for older students can become a way to expand on challenges presented to younger learners if there is time and interest. Introduce the class to Learning Target: Conditionals Today we re going to think about If/Then statements. These are called conditionals. Let s practice conditionals. They are ordered statements where something happening depends on or is predicted by something else. If we want the plants to grow we should. If we push this pencil off the edge of the table then it will. What about the other way around? If it (rains) then the ground will get wet. If we (don t eat lunch) then we will be hungry Now let s practice making up some new conditionals using IF/THEN and this table: IF... you want your allowance THEN... you must do your chores A useful aspect of conditional statements is you can check if a condition is met or TRUE. If you ask for your allowance, what will your parents check? (That homework/chores/etc. are completed!) 1

2 Part 1: Conditional statements, Conditional Robots Materials: Educator Pack of Cubelets, with students in groups of 2 5 working with a battery, brightness sense, distance sense, and flashlight action A hands on opportunity for students to explore conditionals as they make simple robots. value). So, we discussed how conditionals can help us make logical connections between how things may happen. they can help us structure predictions, and put words around cause and effect in our everyday life. Now, let s work with Cubelets robots. I m going to build this simple flashlight robot, and we re going to talk about conditionals that describe it and predict it s reaction. (Build a simple flashlight using Battery, Knob, and Flashlight) Help me finish this sentence: If I want my Flashlight Action to shine at its brightest, then I need to (turn the knob to its highest Let s draw the data flow of this robot on the board/overhead Suggested age variations/progression: 6 years old to 9 years old : Now, in your groups, I d like for you to each work on robots that fit specific conditionals for different senses. Can you make a robot that is TRUE for this conditional: If the brightness sense gets a lot of light, the light comes on. Draw this robot in your design notebook. Now experiment with your robot flashlight and finish this sentence. If the brightness sense does not have light coming into it then 9 years old to 12 years old : Now, in your groups, I d like for you to each work on robots that fit specific conditionals for different senses. 1. First, with the distance sense, If I want my light to be bright then I need to show my distance sense something (close). 2. Then, make a robot that will work with this conditional: If the brightness sense gets lots of (light into it) then the light will come on brighter 12 years old and up : As above with the addition of, Write a conditional that is true for both senses: If we want the flashlight to be at its brightest this sense needs (high/maximum) input. Please draw the robots in your design notebook and map the data flow of two flashlight robots, with the flashlight shining brightly, first using one sense, then using another. Now consider a scenario where something would cause that input to the robot sense, and predict that reaction or effect of the light being at it s brightest. Finally, what will cause the effect of the light going all the way out when we use the brightness sense. Group review: As a group, let s think about this together: If the robot needs to have the light OUT and has the Brightness sense as input, then the value to the input VALUE needs to be ( high/medium/low.) Which one? What does this mean about our flashlight robot? It s a light that likes to come on when it s (bright) and turn off when it s (dark). Hmmmm. That seems a bit silly. Concepts Presented: Conditionals, prediction, logic of if/then Vocabulary: Robot, scenarios, input, output, conditional, if, then, cause, effect, values 2

3 Standards Addressed: Conditionals, making predictions, sentence frames, if/then, claims/evidence Part 2: Building smarter flashlights Materials: Educator Pack of Cubelets, with students in groups of 2 5 working with a battery, brightness sense,, and flashlight action, and now with an Inverse Cubelet as well Students now practice adding functions to their robots that change the conditionals they ve been working with. If we make this flashlight, using the brightness sense, we can make this If/Then statement work pretty easily: With just Battery, Brightness, Flashlight: If the sense gets lots of then the output light will be brighter This statement makes sense for our Flashlight, because of how the input value (or number) comes into the Brightness sense, and travels to the action big value, big action. But this flashlight doesn t make sense for when we would need to use it in real life. What would we really like? (For flashlights that work when it s dark, and go off when it s light!) For that we ll need to change the numbers how can we use this think Cubelet to change information between a sense and an action? Suggested age variations/progression: 6 years old to 9 years old : Let s try using these two flashlights. One is the flashlight we made before. another is this new one with the red Cubelet in between. Can you draw this new robot flashlight in your design notebook and write a new conditional that matches it. If it is dark and no light is coming into the brightness sense, then the new flashlight will. 9 years old to 12 years old : We want flashlights that come on the dark. How can we use this Inverse THINK Cubelet to change the information between a sense and an action? Where should we put this Think Cube to change how the data is moving in the flashlight? Build flashlights that make the VALUES from the Brightness sense go through this Think Cubelet and become the inverse or opposite, before they go to the Flashlight action and test what they do. Draw this new robot design. Now, let s write a new conditional: We made a smart flashlight that knows to come on in the dark and go off when it s light. If this robot gets high input values then the output is (high/medium/low) If this robot gets low input values then the output is (high/medium/low) 12 years old and up : As above, asking students to draw the data flow in their robot design and using these sentence frames: If this robot gets high input to the sense (for example, lots of light) the inverse Cube turns that to output. If this robot gets low input values to the sense (for example, no/little of light) the inverse Cube turns that to output. We ve changed the number or value as it travels from the sense to the action! What would happen with other senses, the inverse Cubelet, and this flashlight output? Concepts Presented: If/then, values, ways of changing values in a system Vocabulary: If/then, values, conditionals, logic, inverse, opposite Standards Addressed: Making predictions, if/then, claims/evidence, Logic/inverse, Algorithmic thinking 3

4 Part 3: Worksheet! Name and Classroom Conditionals with Cubelets - Student reflection Learning Objective: I can explain what a conditional is and how it is used in writing and reading computer code. What s an input? Do you know how it might work in a robot? What do you think a conditional is? Practice with Conditionals: Write your own if/then conditional statement. if then Can you Draw a Cubelets Flashlight? What is the data flow where do input values come in? If the flashlight output is bright, what is the value of the input? Mark your drawing showing how the values come in as input and turn the light on as output! What is a conditional that is true about this flashlight? If we want the flashlight to be at its brightest this sense needs input. 4

5 How does this change with the Inverse Cubelet? Draw the new Flashlight Robot What is the data flow where do input values come in? If the flashlight output is bright, what is the value of the input? Mark your drawing showing how the values come in as input and turn the light on as output! Can you use the word Value in a sentence describing how this flashlight comes on the dark and turns of when it s bright? Write a Postcard and summarize. Mr. Hoel doesn t understand what conditionals, input, inverse, or values mean. Write a postcard to Mr. Hoel explaining what you have learned today. Be sure to mention the vocabulary above and draw a cool picture to go on the postcard. Dear Mr. Hoel, 5

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