Learning to code Unplugged

Storåskolan

Open in-person activity

nicola.hedlund@lindesberg.se

English

Solviksvägen 1, 711 76, Storå, Lindesberg, SWE

This activity is for students with little to no experience with coding.

Teacher Introduction:  What is code?  Code is a series of instructions that are given to a computer/robot.  The code 'tells' the computer what to do and in what order.  If the code is wrong the computer will be unable to follow it.

(My students were already familiar with binary code - if your aren't, now would be a good time to mention how binary code works).

Resources: Simple maze (with a grid) coding cards - forward, backward, turn left, turn right.  Small image of a robot/monster/person, small image of a house/castle.

Demonstrating for the students, the teacher shows them how their robot can be programmed using 4 simple commands to reach its home in the maze.

Give each student a copy of the maze and an image of a robot to control.  Ask the students to follow your instructions whilst guiding their robot  home.  

Some students will struggle with this and particularly with turn left and turn right.  It is also important to remind them that when they turn, they DO NOT move squares. 

Once the students are fairly confident with following instructions split them into pairs.  Ask one student to give the instructions and the other must follow them.

Depending on the length of your lesson you can also ask the students to try 'writing down' their code.  These can also be tested by a friend. 

Tips

*  Keep the mazes simple.

* Add more obstacles to challenge more confident students.

* Base your mazes and images on different themes. 

Having the students write down their code is also a good way of introducing the idea of a bug in the code.