Unplugged Activities
There a many activities that can help students with their computational thinking skills that don't involve screens. Here are some examples:
Students work in pairs or threes. One is the robot, one is the programmer and one is the tester (for pairs combine the last two roles). Programmer writes the code, tester instructs the robot and debugs if needed. Robot follows the instructions. It is essential the code is written down in some form before the tester gives the instructions. This enables debugging to take place if things don't go as thought. Rotate the roles.
Programs/Code can be be written on paper but I find whiteboards best for this as it is easier to debug and most classes have sets of these already. Laminated white paper works too. Can be done with pencil and paper or with objects on a small grid or physically outside. If done with pen and paper or with objects on a grid then the robot is the one who draws the path or moves the object. For physical activity carpet squares, square paving stones or lines drawn with chalk can be used. Grids can also be drawn with marker pen on the back of thermal curtain fabric. Clear plastic with a grid drawn on can be overlaid over existing maps etc. If you have robots in the school then grids could be drawn in the scale the robot uses eg a Beebot/Bluebot moves on 15cm squares. You or the students can create mazes using blocks, Lego etc. |
Some ideas for introductory tasks:
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