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Lesson Materials

Piper Computer Kit

Learning Objectives

1. Practice coding loops.
2. Review key electronics understandings: binary state of a button as an input and sounds as auditory outputs.
3. Practice computational concepts of loops and events.
4. Create programs that use variables to store and modify data.
5. Create programs that include events, loops, and conditionals.
6. Decompose problems into smaller, manageable tasks which may themselves be decomposed.
7. Create programs by incorporating smaller portions of existing programs to develop something new or add more advanced features.
8. 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 Frog Frenzy.
• 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.
• Prepare for lots of noise in the class with this one as students try out different sounds in the Play code.
• Plan how much time is left for students to work on additional projects and still have time for completing Phase 4 and 5 lessons.
• Stress the completion, based on your students’ knowledge and skills, of all quick guide lesson components as they cover variables, loops, conditionals, and lists.
• There are seven additional projects: Talley, Siren, Circuit Design, Debug, Randomizer, Beat the Buzzer, Simon. Each project is 45 to 60 minutes, with Beat the Buzzer and Simon potentially requiring an additional class session.

PIPER 5E INSTRUCTIONAL MODEL

Engage

• Teacher-led discussion:
  • Ask students how they think computer games are created.
  • Ask how the computer knows when the player has taken an action such as pushed a button or clicked something on the screen?
• Revisit the PiperCode Ideas Map.
• Ask students to add discoveries from the prior project and address misconceptions.
• Tease out the main concepts and design practices or ask students to explain more to the whole group if they are giving just fragments of answers.
• Engage with enthusiasm: “Are you ready to create your own game and explore what it is like to be a game developer or an engineer? Let’s do that with our Pipers! We will start with a simple game first, and as we have time you can continue to create more complex games.”
• Remind students of the rules around troubleshooting on their own or asking a partner before asking for help from an adult (SAY: ask three before me!).

Explore

Encourage students to complete the Frog Frenzy project.

• How is the code for Frog Frenzy different than the other projects?
• How do you win or beat the game? How is this commanded by the steps laid out in the blocks?
• How is the gameplay defined by the code and timing of the button?
• What is the significance of the “while” part of the block?
• What sequences do you see in this code? How do they command actions or what happens as a result of those sequences?
• What if we moved the lights or button to other spots on the breadboard? What would you have to change in the code?
• Have you tried the Electronics tab? Notice that when PiperCode is running, each line also causes the pins to light up!

Explain

1. Review vocabulary words and definitions that were encountered during the lesson.
2. Go around the room to each team and have students demonstrate their solution. Use the pictures in the Frog Frenzy Project Guide’s breadboard and code solution to verify the project and provide feedback and praise to each student.​

Elaborate

1. Students take a picture of their control panel, circuits, and code. After completing projects, students take apart any circuits on separate breadboards and return parts to their proper bag in the storage bin.
2. Students put away kits to focus on discussion.
3. Teacher-led discussion:
   • Slides - How do loops and events work?
   • Review major concepts and link to when they learned them while building PiperCode, such as: How do Loops compare to Events? When would we use one or the other?
   • Remind students of alternative explanations.
   • Refer students to alternative explanations about how the events work. (Celebrate multiple ideas and solutions).
   • Ask students what new ideas should be added to the PiperCode Ideas Map.

Evaluate

1. Have students brainstorm ideas to remix either: the code to have the game play differently, the narrative interface of a different story involving two different colored lights. These brainstorm ideas can also be written in their journals.
2. Have students document Frog Frenzy as a project in their Piper Journal, including: the code, the circuit created. Evaluate their Piper Journals and teamwork with a rubric (see sample Grading Rubric in Appendix).
3. [OPTIONAL]: Have students add more to the PiperCode Ideas Map.
4. [OPTIONAL]: Have students complete the Quick reflection.
5. EXTENSION: Provide samples of circuit diagram components and circuit diagrams, and have students create circuit diagrams of the projects built in this lesson in their Piper Journal.

PHASE RESOURCES

Career Connections

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Graphic Organizer

Lesson 3.4 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.