Lesson Summary

Summary

To conclude the unit, students will complete a small project as well as a written assessment.  The project requires students to parse text and search through lists or words to find a specific characteristic.  The assessment covers integers, strings, booleans, loops, if statements, and lists.

Outcomes

  • Students will synthesize concepts from the previous lessons to create their first project in PyCharm.  
  • Students will design a function and determine the relationship between algorithms and functions.

Overview

  1. Getting Started (5 min)
  2. Independent Activity (40 min)
  3. Wrap Up (5 min)

Learning Objectives

CSP Objectives

Math Common Core Practice:

  • MP1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
  • MP5: Use appropriate tools strategically.
  • MP6: Attend to precision.
  • MP7: Look for and make use of structure.
  • MP8: Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

Common Core Math:

  • S-ID.1-4: Summarize, represent, and interpret data on a single count or measurement variable

NGSS Practices:

  • 3. Planning and carrying out investigations
  • 5. Using mathematics and computational thinking
  • 8. Obtaining, evaluation, and communicating information

Key Concepts

Students should synthesize concepts from the previous lessons to create their first project in PyCharm.  This lesson also pushes a student to think about how to design a function, and the relationship between algorithms and functions.


Essential Questions

  • How are algorithms implemented and executed on computers and computational devices?
  • What kinds of problems are easy, what kinds are difficult, and what kinds are impossible to solve algorithmically?
  • How are algorithms evaluated?
  • How are programs developed to help people, organizations or society solve problems?
  • How are programs used for creative expression, to satisfy personal curiosity or to create new knowledge?
  • How do computer programs implement algorithms?
  • How do people develop and test computer programs?
  • Which mathematical and logical concepts are fundamental to computer programming?

What are the key elements we need to think about when designing a function?

Teacher Resources

Student computer usage for this lesson is: required

In the Lesson Resources folder:

  • Word Play
  • Word Play Rubric
  • Assessment

Lesson Plan

Getting Started (5 min)

  • Ask the students to work in small groups to create pseudocode for the following function:
  • Create a function titled 'is_palindrome' that inputs a word and determines whether that word is a palindrome.  If it is, return True, otherwise return False.
  • As a class, use the groups' pseudocode to create the function 'is_palindrome'.
  • Introduce the projects to students.  They will have a total of 2 sessions to complete their project. 

Independent Activity (40 min)

Students work individually on the Word Play and Assessment which are found in the lesson resource folder.

Wrap up (5 min)

Allow students to continue working to the end of class on their projects; have individual check-ins with students to make sure that they are on track and have a clear idea of what they need to complete the following day.

 


Options for Differentiated Instruction

Option to allow students to complete Word Play with partners to promote collaboration, then complete the written assessment individually.


Evidence of Learning

Formative Assessment

Teacher will monitor the progress of the students on each of the programs in Word Play.


Summative Assessment

Written assessment (see google drive)

Project Assessment (see google drive for project and rubric)