Class 1
Objective:
 Computational Thinking(Introduction to Computational Thinking, Why
computer science? Real world examples, Algorithmic thinking through
games(functions), Exercises for the above).
Materials Needed:
 10 Laptops
Time Allotment:
 2 hours
At the start of the class, an overview of the six day session is given to the
students. Ask them about why they are attending this workshop, what they
expect from the class .This will help the teachers to know about things the
students are interested in and teach them accordingly.
Activity 1: Find Your Herd Icebreaker
Goal:
 Warm up the class to work well with each other and improve
communication from the students to the teacher
Description:
 Beforehand, a list of animal noises is compiled. The number of students
divided by 3, 4, or 5 (depending on group size) number of animal noises is
needed. Each noise is written on the chosen divisor number of notecards and
the notecards are shuffled.
 The students are told that they cannot show their notecard to anyone, and the
notecards are handed out to the students.
 The students are informed that they belong to a herd, and just like the animal
on the card they will act out, they cannot speak. Students are then told to act
out by making noises and gestures to find the herd they belong to.
 (Optional) The students are also informed of the number of animals that
belong to their herd.
 Some suggested animal noises:
o Cow
o Horse
o Goat
o Chicken
o Elephant
o Cat
o Dog
Teaching/Learning Strategies:
 Allows students to use creative approaches to solve problems
 Encourage them to think in groups
Before going to the next activity, all the students are made to sit down with their
herd. The teacher will discuss them about the need of computers in the present
world. Ask them about the situation where one day if you switch off all the
computers in the world how will they be affected? Encourage them to come up
with problems they think they may face in that situation. This will help the teacher
to know how broadly they think they need computers in their life. After the
discussion, we go to Activity 2.
Activity 2:Santa’s Socks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVPCT1VjySA&feature=related
 http://csunplugged.org/sites/default/files/activity_pdfs_full/unplugged-16information_hiding_0.pdf
Goal:
 Introduce Computational thinking in problem solving
 Introduce computational thinking in information hiding
 Highlighting the importance of computational thinking
 Sneakily teaches divide and conquer method
Description:
 This original story narrates the picture-book verse about the problem of
finding a pair of dirty socks that have been accidentally wrapped with a
child's present. This story encourages the students to engage in algorithmic
thinking where a complex search is turned to a simpler one and its practical
applications.
 Our adaptation of this activity includes the information hiding – sharing
secrets activity. The teacher will begin by explaining to the students the
story and the problem. Play the video and ask them the possible solutions. If
they come up with solutions, ask them the other alternatives that can
improve the method .Why is one method better than the other? If they don’t
come up with feasible solutions, teacher can do the following activity which
allows them to solve problems in a faster and organized manner. The teacher
will tell the students that in order to represent the boxes of toy, each student
will be a box. The teacher will say that each student is about to receive a
notecard with a number on it and that they cannot show the notecard to
anyone.
 Each student is handed out a notecard with a number on it representing the
weight of the box. All notecards will have the same number on them except
for one, which will have a number greater than the rest (the box with Santa’s
socks).
 The teacher will split up the class equally in two parts (the teacher can join a
group to make it equal) and have the groups stand up at the front of the
classroom in two circles. Each group will be given a sheet of paper for each
member in the group and pens.
 The teacher will explain that in order to add up one group’s total weight in
order to compare it with the other group’s total weight the technique of
sharing secrets will be used. This technique is described in the information
hiding pdf listed above. Each time of “weighing” a group, a different will get
to go first writing the sum of their weight and a number of their choice on
the page. They will give this page to the person next to them, who will add
their number on their notecard to this number and write this sum on their
blank page and hand that page to the person next to them. This continues
until the first person receives a page from the person next to them. The first
person will subtract their number of choice from this number and the group
will now know the sum of the group without knowing anyone’s number.
 The two groups will compare sums and the group with the smaller sum will
sit down. This will continue until only two people remain.
Teaching/Learning Strategies:
 After the video is presented to the students, pause it and discuss the problem.
Encouragethem to solve it individually or in groups.
Here are some ideas for follow-up discussion after students have heard the story.
 Consider doing the activity with a balance scale and, say, 32 weights that are
identical except one. Now engage in a thought experiment - how many more
weighing would be needed if there were 64 weights?
 How many weighing if there are 4 times as many gifts?
 How many weighing are needed in this case to find the one with the socks?
Activity3: Light Bot game
(http://armorgames.com/play/2205/light-bot)
The activity begins with stating the problem/scenario:
I am blind. I don’t know how to get to the doorfrom where I am.
You can ask children:”Give me directions
on how to….” This activity can be embedded within the classroom as a warm-up
or as part of oral language development with a focus on right/left,
forward/backward, etc. The level of complexity depends on the developmental
level of the students and their level of writing skills. Give them a set of instructions
that they could use to help you get to the door. Let someone volunteer to give the
instructions and the teacher can enact the instructions given by him/her. As the
teacher, follow the directions as stated. If a student just says, “walk,” then walk
randomly. Encourage him/her to provide as much language as he/her is capable to
direct you. Do not turn. Do not stop. If the student has counting skills, ask him/her
to estimate how many steps in each direction. Ask him/her to give you directions
on which way to turn, right/left. At the conclusion of getting to the goal (door), ask
the student to restate the directions. If he/she is not able to restate the directions, let
the class help you fill in the missing steps. After this, choose one of the students
and give them directions that take him/her to take a longer path to reach the door.
Encourage them to discuss why this solution is not better than the previous one.
This could be an introduction to the Light Bot activity.
Goal:
 Identifying and analyzing the problem
 Implementing the possible solutions with the goal of achievingthe most
efficient and effective combination ofsteps and resources.
Description: Light-bot is a online puzzle where students can get into programmerstyle logic to tell the robot how to light up all the blue tiles in a factory. Functions,
conditionals, recursion, expert levels and different features like these helps the
students to get into an introduction to the programming world without using any
complex programming methodologies or codes. This also allows them to arrange
their ideas in an orderly manner.
Students in each group are numbered and each one of the student in the group is
given a particular job. For example, one of them will act as the designer. He / She
will be responsible of drawing the ways to get to the lighted tile. The second
student will be responsible for writing down the instructions that is to be entered in
Lightbot.Other one in the group will act as a programmer and will be responsible
for putting down the commands on the screen. This way of approach will introduce
students to effectively work in a group and build team skills which are one of the
important goals of this workshop. They also learn how to arrange the data and
solve problems in an organized manner.
Teaching/Learning Strategies:

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Give robot sequence of instructions to make it to the end point
Teaches basic algorithmic thinking
Allows students to use creative approaches to solve problems
Teaches functions – (No conditionals/loops)
Fun game, which also teaches the basics of programming thinking
At the end of class 1,the students are given a review of the class 1 along with
the concepts that will be introduced in class 2.Also,students are given a form
where they can write the interesting thing that liked about Class 1 and also the
activities that they didn’t like or found difficult.