EDUCATOR PORTAL

GETTING STARTED

Lesson Materials

Piper Computer Kit

Learning Objectives

1. Perform different roles when collaborating with peers during the design, implementation, and review stages of program development.
2. Review and understand computational concepts, including loops (running the same sequence multiple times) and sequence (identifying a series of steps for a task).
3. Demonstrate computational thinking core concepts, including algorithm design and simulation.
4. Create programs that include events, loops, and conditionals.
5. Decompose problems into smaller, manageable tasks which may themselves be decomposed.
6. Test and debug a program or algorithm to ensure it accomplishes the intended task.

Lesson Preperation

• Complete the coding and electronic builds yourself. Review the project guide for Stoplight.
• Suggested student-to-kit ratio is 2:1 up to 3:1. Students are in the same teams as before, or make adjustments as necessary to facilitate good teamwork.
• Make sure Piper kits are built, connected, functioning, and batteries are charged for the Raspberry Pi.
• Retrieve student team storage boxes with Piper build components.
• Provide storage devices to teams to hold electronics - such as paper plate or paper cup or plastic box.

PIPER 5E INSTRUCTIONAL MODEL

Engage

1. Teacher-led discussion:
   • Ask “What do you think is going to happen in the Stop Light project?” (This helps with engaging student curiosity).
2. Teacher-led discussion:
   • Start a PiperCode Concept map (or Mind Map) to capture student thinking. You can use a white/chalk board, a poster board, a shared document, or map software tool. A mind map is a visual, branching diagram used to capture ideas and information. Usually it will begin with a central idea and branches into sub-topics.
3. Add sections for students to document and share their ideas, key discoveries, activate prior knowledge from Blink, questions, hints, etc. with their classmates as you begin Stop Light:
   • Suggestions for sections: Class Rules, Bugs, Hints, Electronics, Blocks, Blink, StopLight, (later add Light Show and Frog Frenzy)
   • Seed each section with some reflections from the last session’s closing or your own notes, but be deliberate to use the language and terms of your local students.

Explore

PiperCode Project Stop Light

Encourage students to complete the Blink project before starting Stop Light.

Review Piper Project Guide for Stop Light.

• How is the sequence more complicated in this project than Blink?
  Example Answer: Turning more LEDs on and off, each with wait time, we are doing 3 instead of just one
• How is this simulating a real-life stoplight?
  Example Answer: Start with green, go to yellow, rest on red and we changed the wait time between each
• How might we adjust the time a light stays on to make your stoplight safer for pedestrians or cyclists?
  Example Answer: Increase wait time. Perhaps add a buzzer which beeps during the wait time for red?
• EXTENSION: How might we create a two-way stoplight?
  Example Answer:add a breadboard with more LEDs and run parallel block code sequences to turn on the pins at the same time - but vary which pins come on so one set has Green on when the other has RED.

* These checks for understanding help reinforce learning of computer science skills such as creating programs that use include loops, sequences; decompose problems into smaller tasks; or incorporate smaller portions of existing programs, to develop something new or add more advanced features. (CA CS 3-5.AP.12 through 14)

Explain

1. Review vocabulary words and definitions that were encountered during the lesson, including Pseudocode, sequence, program, event, algorithm. Have students use their own language to explain these concepts.
2. Facilitate:
   • Walk the room to each team and observe breadboards and code.
   • Use the pictures in the Stoplight Project Breadboard and Code Solution for review.
   • Quickly verify that the lights are blinking properly.
   • Ask students to explain what their code is doing and how it relates to the circuit.
   • Provide feedback and praise to each student.
   • If one student in a team is not answering, encourage him/her to provide the answers.
   ​

Elaborate

1. Students take a picture of their control panel, circuits, and code.
2. After completing projects, students take apart any circuits on separate breadboards and return parts to their proper bag in the storage bin.
3. Students put kits away to avoid distractions during teacher or peer-led discussion.
4. Teacher-led discussion:
   • 3.2 SLIDES - Loops and Sequences
   • Review major concepts and link to when they learned them while building PiperCode, such as: How do loops and sequences build further on the foundations of computation?
   • Remind students of alternative explanations.
   • Refer students to alternative explanations about how the blinking was activated and sequenced. (Celebrate multiple ideas and solutions).

Evaluate

• OPTIONAL: Have students add more to the PiperCode Ideas Map.
• OPTIONAL: Have students use Google Draw or the whiteboard to write in pseudocode the basic logic of the project’s codes.
• OPTIONAL: Have students complete a quick reflection.
• Have students document the Stoplight project as a project in their Piper Journal to include:
  • Pseudocode
  • Their block code
  • A sketch of the circuit created
  • Notes on any roadblocks and how they troubleshot solutions, or how they might build it differently in the next iteration
• Evaluate their Piper Journals and teamwork with a rubric.
• EXTENSION: Provide samples of circuit diagram components and circuit diagrams, and have students create circuit diagrams of the projects built in this lesson.

PHASE RESOURCES

Career Connections

Data Scientist: Salary $103,500/yr

Graphic Designer: Salary $58,910/yr

Web Developer: Salary $84,960/yr

Video Game Designer: Salary $83,240/yr

Graphic Organizer

Lesson 3.2 DOWNLOAD

Phase 3 DOWNLOAD

Term Glossary

Standards Alignment

We are excited to be aligned with the following standards.

K12 Computer Science Standards

Concepts	Standards
Computing Systems: Devices	CA 3-5.CS.1 Describe how computing devices connect to other components to form a system. (P7.2)
Computing Systems: Hardware & Software	CA 3-5.CS.2 Demonstrate how computer hardware and software work together as a system to accomplish tasks. (P4.4) 6-8.CS.2 Design a project that combines hardware and software components to collect and exchange data. (P5.1)
Computing Systems: Troubleshooting	3-5.CS.3 Determine potential solutions to solve simple hardware and software problems using common troubleshooting strategies. (P6.2) 6-8.CS.3 Systematically apply troubleshooting strategies to identify and resolve hardware and software problems in computing systems. (P6.2
Algorithms & Programming: Algorithms Variables Control Modularity Program Development	3-5.AP.11 Create programs that use variables to store and modify data. (P5.2) 3-5.AP.12 Create programs that include events, loops, and conditionals. 3-5.AP.13 Decompose problems into smaller, manageable tasks which may themselves be decomposed. (P3.2) 3-5.AP.14 Create programs by incorporating smaller portions of existing programs, to develop something new or add more advanced features. (P4.2, P5.3) 3-5.AP.17 Test and debug a program or algorithm to ensure it accomplishes the intended task. (P6.2) 3-5.AP.18 Perform different roles when collaborating with peers during the design, implementation, and review stages of program development. 6-8.AP.10 Use flowcharts and/or pseudocode to design and illustrate algorithms that solve complex problems. (P4.1, P4.4) 6-8.AP.11 Create clearly named variables that store data, and perform operations on their contents. (P5.1, P5.2) 6-8.AP.13 Decompose problems and subproblems into parts to facilitate the design, implementation, and review of programs. (P3.2) 6-8.AP.14 Create procedures with parameters to organize code and make it easier to reuse. (P4.1, P4.3) 6-8.AP.15 Seek and incorporate feedback from team members and users to refine a solution that meets user needs. (P1.1, P2.3) 6-8.AP.17 Systematically test and refine programs using a range of test cases. (P6.1) 6-8.AP.19 Document programs in order to make them easier to use, read, test, and debug. (P7.2)
Impacts of Computing and Social Interactions	3-5.IC.22 Seek and explain the impact of diverse perspectives for the purpose of improving computational artifacts. (P1.1) 6-8.IC.22 Collaborate with many contributors when creating a computational artifact. (P2.4, P5.2)
Practices	P1. Fostering an Inclusive Computing Culture P2. Collaborating Around Computing P4. Developing and Using Abstractions P5. Creating Computational Artifacts P6. Testing and Refining Computational Artifacts

Next Generation Science Standards Connections

Concept	Standard
Make observations to provide evidence that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents.	(4-PS3-2) &(4-PS4-2)
Apply scientific ideas to design, test, and refine a device that converts energy from one form to another.	(4-PS3-4)
Generate and compare multiple solutions that use patterns to transfer information.	(4-PS4-3)
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 (Performance Expectation).	3–5-ETS1-2
Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify aspects of a model or prototype that can be improved. (P.E.3.4.7)	3–5-ETS1-3
Integrate qualitative scientific and technical information to support the claim that digitized signals are a more reliable way to encode and transmit information than analog signals.	(MS-PS4-3)
Digitized signals (sent as wave pulses) are a more reliable way to encode and transmit information (inputs and outputs).	(MS-PS4-3)
Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.	MS-ETS1-2
Optimizing the Design Solution Different solutions need to be tested in order to determine which of them best solves the problem, given the criteria and the constraints.	MS-ETS1.C.