Computers:
What Have They
Done for you
Lately?
RET Educator: Jill Snyder
Mentor: Dr. Cindy Hood
Summer 2006
Table of Contents
Lesson 1:
How do you make a peanut butter
and jelly sandwich?............1
Lesson 2-3:
Computers: What have they done
for you
lately?........................8
Link to Power Point...........35
Lesson 4:
Go Ask Alice!!................36
How do you make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?
1
How do You Make a
Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich?
:A model for teaching an introduction to computer programming or how to write inquiry
based lab reports
Teacher Background Information:
The question, "How do you make a peanut butter and jelly (PB&J)
sandwich?" is a question that teachers and professors alike have been
asking students for years. It takes process back to its basic form, and
is used to teach students how to document step-by-step instructions.
It can illustrate the importance of specificity and completeness when
giving direction. These are two very important concepts in
computer/software programming. The exercise of writing instructions
for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich can be used to show what
happens when you are not specific enough or when instructions is not
complete, or just plain forgotten!
So, what is the basic process for making a PB&J sandwich?





Take two slices of bread out of the bag.
Place peanut butter on one slice of bread.
Place jelly on the other slice of bread.
Place the slice of bread with peanut butter on top of the slice of
bread with jelly - condiment sides together.
Eat the sandwich.
Of course, those are literally just the basics. If you were writing this
at a level where you assume the reader of the instructions has no
familiarity with what you are intending, you would need many more
details. Where do you get the bread and jelly from? How do you get
the bread out of the bag? How do you get the jelly out of the jar?
What utensils do you use? And so on. These are the details that would
need to be included, and more, to have detailed and complete set of
directions. This is what is necessary when writing a set of instructions
for a computer in programming.
How do you make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?
2
In the context of software, a program is a list of instructions to the
computer. Computers were designed to carry out instructions, pretty
much one at a time. An instruction in most computer languages is a
name for a list of procedures associated with a certain instruction.
But for now, your students will be writing instructions, or lists of
procedures to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in a similar
fashion to the way you would write it in a computer language;
meaning, specific and complete.
Since we’ve brought up the term ‘language,’ as it pertains to
computers, let’s take a moment to define what we are talking about.
In programming there are many different ‘languages’ that are used to
‘speak’ to the computer to tell it what to do. Some languages you may
have heard of, such as: BASIC, C++, DOS and many others.
Thousands of different programming languages have been created and
more continue to be developed every year.
Programming language is similar to human language in the respect
that it has a certain rules, like grammar and syntax that determine
how things are understood. However, it differs from human language
in the level of precision that is required to achieve the desired result.
In human communication you can be vague or make small mistakes
and chances are your listener will still understand what you are getting
at. This is not so in computer language. Computers do EXACTLY as
they are told. So if you skip a step or make a mistake, so will the
computer. The computer is not equipped to figure out the intended
meaning of the author.
This is where our exercise comes in. The students need to write their
instructions as if they are writing them for a robot that has no
experience with making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. They
need to be detailed in instruction and as complete as they can be. It
will be up to you to show them later where they left ‘holes’ in their
procedures. So, let the fun begin!
How do you make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?
3
Outline of Instruction
1. Objectives: Students will demonstrate their understanding of
computer programming as it relates to specificity and
completeness by writing a successful procedure for making a
peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Success of the procedure will
be determined by the outcome of the peanut butter and jelly
sandwich after the instructions are performed by the teacher or
another student.
2. Standards: STATE GOAL 13: Understand the relationships
among science, technology and society in historical and
contemporary contexts. A. Know and apply the accepted practices of
science. 13.A.2b Explain why similar investigations may not produce
similar results. 13.A.2c Explain why keeping accurate and detailed
records is important.
3. Anticipatory Set: Pass out the “Directions Test” to students face
down on their desk. Tell them they have 5 minutes and 5
minutes only to complete the test. Once everyone has the test
tell them that you will time them and once you say, ‘start’ they
are to read the directions and then begin.
This is a timed test and is meant to show them the importance
of following directions. In the second sentence of the test it
says, ‘Carefully read all the parts of the test before doing
anything.’ You will find that most students do not actually follow
this direction and begin taking the test right away. If the
students did read all of the parts of the test first they would find
that the only thing they need to do to complete the test is write
their name and date in the top right hand corner of their test
paper.
 Once time has run out go over the test with the students. Show
them how the test should have been done. Read the directions
with them and then follow the instructions by reading all of the
parts of the test first. Once you get to part 13 they will realize
that they did not need to complete the whole test. Use this as
an introduction to discuss the importance of following directions.
Also make the connection to the process of inquiry and how
different scientists/people can come up with different results
even with the same set of instructions, as they did with their
test. Finally, make the connection to computer programming
and the importance of directions that are clear, complete, and
followed exactly as written.

How do you make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?
4
4. Teaching:
A. Input: Here is where you have an opportunity to share with
the students what you’ve learned about programming and
computer language from the ‘Teacher Background’ section. Here
is where you explain computer programming being a detailed
and complete set of instructions given to the computer in its own
language. Then explain that there are different types of
computer languages and that there are rules to programming
language just as there are in English and other languages. It is
important at this point to also make a connection to science and
inquiry in particular. It is another area where specificity is
important in instruction. They will need to remember this later
when they are writing up their labs for their work with the ALICE
program. For now, they will be writing instructions to make a
peanut butter and jelly sandwich. They will need to be detailed
and complete instructions. Though it seems like a simple task,
they will find out that it may not be as simple as it sounds! 
*Additional Resources: To aid in your explanation, depending on
the age group, you can show the video, ‘The Magic School Bus,
Gets Programmed.’
B. Modeling: In this part of the instruction you
want to show students some examples of what you
have been talking about. You may want to show
them a page of actual instructions from a computer
program, and maybe a sample of the way you want
science labs to be written in class.
C. Checking for Understanding: Have students write a
first draft of a set of instructions on how to make a peanut butter
and jelly sandwich. Make sure they keep in mind that they
should not leave room for interpretation of the instructions and
that if it is not written, it will not be done! Finally, they need to
know that their instructions may be chosen to be modeled in
front of the class by you or another student! Once the students
complete their instructions randomly pick one student’s
instructions to model in front of the class. Perform the
instructions exactly as they are written. Make sure to be overly
dramatic in the performance to illustrate gaps in the instructions.
If it does not say to use a knife, use your hands. If it does not
say to spread the condiment on one side of the bread, then
spread it ALL over the bread!! This should be fun! Once you
have demonstrated how to follow the instructions put the
How do you make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?
5
students in pairs, each with materials to perform each other’s
instructions. The students should observe how someone else
would perform their instructions looking for where they can
improve on them for their final assessment.
5. Guided Practice: Here is where you give them the opportunity to
show you what they’ve learned! They are to re-write their
instructions for making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to
incorporate what they learned from the demonstration of their
first draft of instructions. Their assessment will be based on the
final outcome of their instructions! A rubric will be passed out to
the class to grade each sandwich that is made. The student will
then receive the completed rubrics from his/her classmates with
a composite grade(calculated by you) from the class.
6. Closure: Review the objective of the lesson with the students,
then let students go over their rubrics and host a quick discussion
about what they learned from the activity as it relates to computer
programming. Ask them how they would do things differently in
the future if they were to do this again. Ask them to make any
connections to the real world where writing directions this
specifically and completely might be useful.
How do you make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?
6
Directions: You have a 5 minute time limit to complete the parts of this test. Carefully read all of the parts of
the test before doing anything. In order to ensure the accuracy of this exam, you should not use more than the
allotted time of 5 minutes. Good Luck!!
1.
Write the name of the month that begins with the letter ‘D’ in the top
left hand corner of your test paper.
2.
Write the answer to the following multiplication problem directly
underneath the date on your test paper--6 X 5 = ?
3.
Write your name and today’s date—month-day-year in the top right
hand corner of your test paper.
4.
Add 15 to the answer you got in part #2, and write this new total
directly underneath your answer for part #3.
5.
In the lower left hand corner of your test paper, write the names of
your favorite singer and your favorite group
6.
.Just above your answer to part #5, write "This test is very easy."
7.
In the lower right hand corner of your test paper, draw a rectangle and
inside the rectangle draw a five pointed star. The size of these drawings
is not important.
8.
Directly above your answer to part #7, draw a row of three small
circles. Once again, size is not important.
9.
Write the name of the first president of the United States on the back of
your test paper anywhere you choose. If you don't know who this is,
write your own name instead.
10.
Write the name of any country that begins with the letter "I" directly
underneath you answer to part #2.
11.
Take the number of dwarfs in the Snow White story and add it to the
number of bears in the Goldilocks story. Divide by 2. Write this total in
the approximate center of your test paper.
12.
Think of a number between 1 and 50. Double that number. Add 20.
Add 6. Subtract 17. Subtract 9. Divide by 2. Write this number on
your test paper directly underneath your answer to part #11.
13.
Now that you have carefully read all of the parts so far, and you have
not carried out any of the actual work, skip the next 2 parts and go
back and only complete part #3.
14.
The name of the first president of the United States is George
Washington. He was president from 1789 until 1797. Add the 2 dates
together to see if the total is less than 5000.
15.
You should not be reading the end of the exam before the beginning of
the exam, but now that you are here, you have just wasted some of the
time you may need to complete the test.
How do you make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?
7
Building A Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich
Teacher Name: ___________________
Student Name:
__________________
CATEGORY
Materials
4
All materials
needed were listed
and appropriate to
the needs of the
lab.
3
All materials
needed were listed
and most were
appropriate to the
needs of the lab.
2
Most materials
need for the lab
were listed and
all/most were
appropriate to the
needs of the lab.
1
Many materials
were not listed or
inappropriate,
which contributed
to a poor product .
Procedure
Procedure is neat
with clear and
complete
instructions,
including
measurements and
labeling for all
components.
Sandwich is neat,
includes all
required ingredients
and can be held
without getting
condiments on your
hands.
Procedure is neat
with clear and
complete
instructions,
including
measurements and
labeling for most
components.
Sandwich is
somewhat neat,
includes all
required
ingredients and
can be held without
getting condiments
on your hands.
Clear evidence of
troubleshooting,
testing and
refinements but still
shows some flaws
from trial run.
Procedure is not
clear and has
incomplete
instructions but
includes
measurements and
labeling for all
components.
Sandwich is
somewhat neat,
includes most
required
ingredients and
can be held without
getting condiments
on your hands.
Some evidence of
troubleshooting,
testing and
refinements.
Procedure is not
clear and has
incomplete
instructions and
only includes
measurements and
labeling for most
components.
Sandwich is
messy, inludes
most required
ingredients and
cannot be held
without getting
condiments on
your hands.
Little evidence of
troubleshooting,
testing or
refinement.
Sandwich
Construction
Modification/Testing
Clear evidence of
troubleshooting,
testing, and
refinements based
on data trial run.
Total score on this rubric:
___/16
A= 15-16 B= 13-14 C= 12
D= 10-11 F= 9 and below
Composite score from class:
___/___
Comments:
Computers: What Have They Done for You Lately?
Computers:
What Have They Done for You
Lately?
Abstract:
This is a basic introduction to how a computer ‘thinks.’
Students will act out a program being run on a computer by
you giving them a set of directions that they will act out
with students working as the parts of the computer. This
is taught in two lessons. The first lesson will consists
of basic terminology and understanding of parts of the
computer. Lesson 2 focuses on how the parts work together
to run a program.
Lesson 1
Teacher Background information:
A computer program basically is a set of instructions that
tell a computer what to do. Computer programs can be used
for a variety of purposes, including, play video games,
organize data, write letters and browse the internet.
Programs can be installed on your computers hard drive or
run from a CD, floppy disk, internet website and flash
drive, among other places. The computer reads the
instructions from the program on the hard drive or other
site and then the processor begins to carry out the
instructions.
Computer programs are written by programmers who create
programs from computer languages. These languages are made
up of a series of 1’s and 0’s which the computer
understands. Some programs will taken commands written in
plain English and then ‘decode’ them for the computer by
translating those words into 1’s and 0’s so the computer
can carry out the command. The data that is put into the
8
Computers: What Have They Done for You Lately?
program is called ‘input’ and the result of the function
the computer carries out is the ‘output.’ For instance,
with a calculator you might type in ‘3+3=.’ This would be
the input. The calculator would then give you the result,
‘6,’ that is the output. Since calculators are very simple
computers this may be a good way to illustrate the concept
of input and output to your students. For a higher level
example graphing calculators work well, with these
calculators students are essentially writing programs that
calculator carries out when they graph the input
The programs that are written for computers are called
software. This term was originally used in the 60’s to
denote the difference between programs written for the
computer, which were usually stored on some sort of soft
media like magnetic tape(a good example would be the tape
in a tape cassette), or a magnetic disc(you may want to
show the inside of a ‘floppy’ disk where the magnetic disc
is housed), and the hardware, or fixed components of the
computer. This of course was prior to the CD’s we know now,
but the term software is still applied. Hardware, on the
other hand, is the term used to acknowledge the ‘hard’
components of the computer, such as; CPU, keyboard,
monitor, modem and all the parts inside of the CPU (memory,
motherboard unit). If you had an old computer to take
apart and let students explore it would be a great way for
them to become familiar with the parts of the computer. If
that is not available to you, you can always print pictures
from the internet or buy poster sets from you local teacher
store.
9
Computers: What Have They Done for You Lately?
10
Hardware—Outside of the computer:
Tower case: This is the heart of your
computer. This is
where all the components of your computer
are housed
or hooked up to. It may include a floppy
disc drive, a
CD/DVD drive or CD/DVD burner. Your
computer may not have a tower case and instead have
a desktop case which lies flat on the top of your
desk.
Output devices:
Monitor: This is the screen where you
see output from the computer programs
you are running.
Printer: This is another output device
for the computer where you can get
hard copy results from your programs.
**Other output devices you are probably familiar
with are speakers. They allow data from the
computer to be transmitted out to you through
sound.
Computers: What Have They Done for You Lately?
11
Input Devices:
Scanner: This is an input device
that allows you to
copy images to your computers memory.
Digital Camera: This can be another
input device for your computer. You can
plug your digital camera into the
computer to transfer picture from your
camera to your computer’s hard drive.
**Other input devices that you are familiar with
are your keyboard and mouse. They allow you to put
information or data into the computer.
Hardware – Inside of the computer:
Circuits:
Motherboard- The motherboard is the largest of all
the circuits and is the ‘mother’ to all the others!
It holds all of the most important parts to the
computer including other circuits.
The sound card and video card -are circuits housed
on the motherboard. These circuits help your
computer process sounds and images to help run your
programs.
The motherboard also has the circuitry for the
modem.- This is something that helps one computer
‘talk’ to another usually through your phone or
cable line. This allows you to share programs and
information with others directly.
Also on the motherboard is the central processing
unit. or CPU-You can compare the CPU to a brain.
Computers: What Have They Done for You Lately?
12
It knows what to do and tells the other parts of
the computers how to do it. This is the part of
the computer that helps determine how fast your
computer will run. Just like when you ‘run’ you
can get overheated, so can a CPU, therefore, you
will usually find a fan very near the CPU to help
keep it cool and running comfortably.
Chips:
A BIOS chip- or Basic Input Output System alerts
your system upon booting up the in put devices and
output devices connected to it and what they do.
RAM and ROM- are two types of chips that you have
in your computer.
RAM is Random Access Memory, it is a short term
memory available to you while you are working on
the computer. You randomly access as you are
working to remember things that you are working on
at the moment. However, once you turn off the
computer it is all forgotten. An example of this
might be when you change the settings on a
document, like the margins or font and as long as
you are working in the program it will remember
those settings. Once the computer is rebooted
though, everything goes back to the default
settings. This is why it is important to save your
work onto the hard drive!
ROM is Read-Only Memory, is the memory where all of
your programs settings and functions are stored.
This is memory you can ‘read only’ but cannot
change. Using the example above, it would be where
your defaults are stored for your programs. You
cannot change the things saved in this memory
because you did not write it, it is inherent in the
hardware or software.
Computers: What Have They Done for You Lately?
13
Disk Drives:
Disk drives- are another important piece of
hardware inside your computer. You may
have a compact disk(CD) drive, a floppy
disk drive, a digital video disk(DVD)
drive and all computers have a hard disk
drive, usually referred to as the hard
drive.
Disk drives are forms of storage on your computer.
Kind of like a filing cabinet it stores things away
in folders and is organized to find things easily
once you need them. The floppy, CD and DVD drives
allow you insert saved data from a removable disk,
into your computer for your computer to read. They
also allow you save information onto your media or
disks. The hard drive, though, is hidden inside
your computer and data is saved on a disk that is
not removable.
Computers: What Have They Done for You Lately?
14
Outline of Instruction:
1. Objectives: Students will learn the basic components of a
computer and how they work together to run a program.
Students should be able to name and recognize components
of a computer and understand what each part does.
Students will be able to recognize different uses that
computers have in society.
2. Standards:
STATE GOAL 13: Understand the relationships among
science, technology and society in historical and
contemporary contexts.
B. Know and apply concepts that describe the
interaction between science, technology and society.
3. Anticipatory Set:
Start by using a computer set up in your classroom or at
your computer lab. Point to the monitor and ask them what
it is, then the printer, a scanner or whatever external
components you have available. Do the same with a CD-ROM,
a floppy disk and a jump drive or flash memory if
available. Then……
If you have
your school
them to the
are and ask
computer chips available to you, either from
or from taking a computer apart yourself, show
students without explaining to them what they
them what they think they are.
OR
Find pictures of parts of the inside of the computer from
the internet. Find pictures of the motherboard, the CPU,
RAM, ROM, and other chips and circuits inside the computer
and do the same as above.
OR
If none of these options are available to you, simply ask
them what they think is in a computer and brainstorm ideas.
Write them all down somewhere so you can come back to them
later to compare what they thought prior to the lesson vs.
what they learned from the lesson.
Computers: What Have They Done for You Lately?
15
4. Teaching:
A. Input: Here is where you share what you learned in the
background knowledge section with your students.
You can have the students learn the parts of the computer
by making flashcards, using overheads, showing them the
actual parts in a broken computer, a Power Point
presentation or any number of ways that you think suits
your class best. Included in this lesson plan is
--a Power Point presentation that follows the information
given in the teacher background information section is
included with this lesson.
B. Modeling: Pass a handout (pages 3-5 of this lesson) to
the students that will have the information they will be
expected to know. They will use the information in this
hand out to help them play a game of memory included in
this lesson. The memory game is there to help the students
learn the parts of the computer and what they do. You
should make enough copies of the game for students to play
in pairs. First, do a demonstration game in front of the
class if they are unfamiliar with how to play memory. If
you are unfamiliar here is a quick run through of the
rules:
Memory
1. Cut out all the cards.
2. Place all the cards face down spread out in front of
you.
3. Each player takes a turn to flip over two cards. If the
cards match (ie. if the bold
word on one card matches the definition on the other
card you have a match.)
the player keeps the cards and it is the next players
turn. If the cards do not
match, they are flipped back over and are left in play.
All players should try to
remember where cards that have already been chosen but
do not match are, so
they have a better chance of getting a match on their
next turn.
4. The game ends when all matches have been made.
5. The winner is determined by who found the most matches.
Computers: What Have They Done for You Lately?
16
**Modifications: If you would like to make this game a bit
simpler have the students make two separate spreads of
cards. One spread of all the vocabulary and one spread of
all the definitions. On each turn the students would then
flip one card from each spread. This way they have a
better chance of making a match because they are flipping a
vocabulary word and a definition on each turn; whereas
before they could have flipped over two vocabulary or two
definitions on a turn.
Also, it is easier to remember where a card is if the
students set up the spreads in an array as shown below:
as opposed to a mess:
5. Guided Practice: Let the students practice playing the
game on their own with you walking around the room to
monitor and help if necessary.
6. Closure:
Discuss what things might be considered
‘computers’ based on the components they learned about in
this lesson (ie. calculators, microwaves, vending machines,
VCR’s…….).
Discuss how computers are used at home and at
work.
--Assessment: Use the multiple choice quiz at the end of
the lesson to assess if students understood the concepts
taught.
Wrap up the lesson with a short discussion of what they’ve
learned and review their quiz.
Computers: What Have They Done for You Lately?
17
Lesson 2
Teacher Background Information:
So, now that we have a basic understanding of the parts of
a computer, let’s discuss how a computer uses these parts
to run a program. Most programs are distributed in the form
of CD, though, once it was floppy disks, and sometimes they
are downloadable from the internet. Once the computer
knows where to find your program, whether it is a CD, disk,
or the hard drive, it can get started. As discussed in the
last lesson, programs are complicated series of
instructions that a computer follows. Many programs, due to
their large size, are only partially installed on your
computer’s hard drive, and the rest of the program is read
from the disk. This may slow the running of the program a
bit, but it keeps more storage available on your computer
for other things.
When a computer is running a program it reads and performs
one instruction at a time. When a computer is running
several programs at a time it may let each program perform
one instruction at a time taking turns. This is why your
computer may run a little slower if you are performing
several different operations with different programs on
your computer at the same time.
When a computer begins to run a program it is the CPU that
is doing all the ‘running.’ It opens the contents of the
programs folder and puts it into RAM, your short term
memory. The reason for dumping the contents of the
programs folder into RAM is so that it will be close at
hand so that the program can run more quickly. Now the CPU
only has to go to RAM to get what it needs instead of to
the hard drive each time or to a CD-ROM. However, some
programs are too large to put everything into RAM or there
are too many programs open and there is not enough RAM to
have all of the contents of all of the folders put into
RAM. In this case, some of the program’s folder contents
are opened into RAM and some are left on the disk or on the
hard drive. This way most things needed to run the program
are easy to access and only some things are located further
away so that the program can run as quickly and efficiently
as possible.
Computers: What Have They Done for You Lately?
18
Now that the program is open and the materials necessary
are at hand, the program can begin to carry out the
instructions you input or the instructions embedded in the
program to run. The computer begins to carry out the
instructions from the program one at time, as discussed
earlier. Each instruction requires the CPU to get
something from RAM so that the program can utilize it.
Now, there may come a time when you are running multiple
programs and they all have instructions that they need the
CPU to carry out. How does the CPU determine which programs
needs are more important? It doesn’t. Each program is
treated equally. Each program will get a turn to give the
CPU an instruction. When the CPU is done with that it goes
to the next program and that program gets to carry out one
instruction and so on for each program open. That is why
you may find your programs run a little more slowly when
you have many different applications open and running,
because each program has to wait its turn for the CPU to
perform an instruction. This may take even longer if the
CPU has to all the way to a disk or the hard drive for
something to complete the instruction. Another reason why
the program my run a little more slowly is because one of
your programs may need something that another program is
already using. In this instance the latter program would
have to skip its turn for the CPU to run an instruction and
wait until the former computer is done using whatever the
latter computer needs. The program CANNOT skip an
instruction it has to go IN ORDER, that is why it must skip
its turn and wait.
Once you are done with a program and you close it the CPU
puts all the ‘materials’ from that programs folder back ,
which clears room in RAM for other programs to run. This
helps other programs run more efficiently because RAM is
cluttered up with so many things. An alternative way to
make your computer run more smoothly, but still have all of
the programs you’d like to use open is to either increase
the speed of your processor(CPU), or increase the size of
your RAM. If you increase the speed of your processor the
CPU will run faster and get to each of the instructions
from each program more quickly and execute them more
quickly. On the other hand if you increase the amount of
RAM you have there is more room to store the contents of
each program, then the CPU will run quicker by virtue of
the fact that all the contents of the program are closer at
hand.
Computers: What Have They Done for You Lately?
19
Now to make this all a little more clear…..
Outline of Instruction:
1. Objective: Students will understand and act out the
concepts behind how computer runs a program. Students will
demonstrate an understanding of how the speed of the CPU
and the size of RAM affects the speed at which a computer
program can run. Students will explain how technology as
it pertains to computers has influenced society.
2. Standards:.
STATE GOAL 13: Understand the relationships among
science, technology and society in historical and
contemporary contexts.
B. Know and apply concepts that describe the
interaction between science, technology and society.
3. Anticipatory Set:
The anticipatory set is meant to get the students thinking
about procedure and process. You will give them a series
of instructions to complete a task; however, the
instructions will be all jumbled up. Each direction should
be on a separate piece of paper and without a number to
indicate the order for the direction to be performed in.
The easiest way to do this is to print the directions on a
sheet of paper with enough room in between each step to
allow for cutting them apart later. In the activity
provided with this lesson entitled, ‘Mind Reader’, there
are clues in the steps that allude to the order they should
be put in. This is so the students are thinking about
order and can make progress without getting so frustrated
that they give up.
Put students into small groups and pass out the directions,
they should already be cut and you may want to put them in
envelopes so they cannot start looking at the procedure
Computers: What Have They Done for You Lately?
20
until you tell them to. Tell them they have a certain
amount of time (determined by you) to perform the
instructions. Be sure to give them enough time to think
about what they are doing or to get frustrated, before
moving on. Once the students have had sufficient time to
work on the instructions have them all stop and put their
materials down. Now go through the series of instructions
one by one in order and complete the task as it was meant
to be done so they can see what the desired result is.
This should then lead into a discussion about how computers
work, one step at a time, methodically and in order!!
Below is a series of instructions for the students. They
should be cut so that each instruction is on it’s on its
own strip. These instructions will only work if they are
done in the correct order. Make sure the connection is
made that computers can only run a program’s instructions
in order, just as this activity must be in order to work
properly.
*Modifications: If you have a lower group that you think
would struggle with the provided activity you may want to
substitute a quick craft. Again, cut up the directions and
put them into an envelope and hand them out with a bag full
of the needed materials. Let them see if they can figure
out how the craft is constructed. When time is up, show
them a model (made by you) of how the completed item should
look. This activity is good for lower students because it
is visual and they can easily see the difference between
what they have made and what you have made.
At the end of this lesson is a series of instructions for
the students. They should be cut so that each instruction
is on it’s on its own strip of paper. These instructions
will only work if they are done in the correct order, just
as a computer program can only run if the instructions are
performed in order.
4. Teaching
A. Input: Here is where you share all that you’ve
learned in the Teacher Background Information with
your students. Only a short discussion is necessary
as things will make more sense to them as you go
through the lesson and perform the activity in
guided practice.
B. Modeling; You are going to have students act out
roles of a computer to simulate how a computer runs
Computers: What Have They Done for You Lately?
21
a program using some of the parts that they learned
about in the previous lesson. You will need 2
students, a table, and some materials required to
complete a small craft, and instructions to complete
the craft.
Tell students that they are going to act out how
a computer runs a
program. Ask for volunteers to play the roles of
the CPU and a computer
program. Once you have your volunteers Tell the
CPU where the
materials are stored for the program in the hard
drive (explain that the
hard drive would be your storage closet or
somewhere else
predetermined by you to store the materials for
the craft to be performed).
Have the CPU bring the crafts to the table
(explain that the table is RAM).
Have the student who is your computer program sit
at a desk near the
RAM table and have the CPU bring them the
instructions for making the
craft. Now explain to the students that the CPU
runs all the errands for the
program so it can complete its instructions. So
have the CPU ask the
program what it needs to complete its first
instruction, then have the CPU
go to the RAM table and get the necessary
materials and bring it to the
program. Then the program should complete its
task and the CPU returns
the leftover materials to RAM and asks the
program what it needs for its
next instruction. They should go back and forth
like this until the program
is complete, at which point the CPU will gather
up all the materials and put
them back into storage where they were found.
When this is all done guide a discussion with the
class about how the
computer ran the program and what questions they
have. Answer them
Computers: What Have They Done for You Lately?
22
as best you can using the knowledge you gained in
the Teacher
Background Information and if you don’t know the
answer write the question down for either you or them
to research on their own or during their next visit to
the computer lab.
5. Guided Practice: Now the class is going to practice
running multiple programs on the computer. You will need
volunteers to act as: The User, CPU, Hard Drive, CD-ROM,
and the programs. You will also need a RAM table set up
near the desks of the students who will be acting as the
programs and a spot somewhere outside the classroom to be
where the CD-ROM is. The rest of the class will observe
and act as ‘tech support.’ Finally, you will need some
instructions and materials for several small crafts for
the programs to perform. These can be anything that you
deem as appropriate or utilize materials you already have
available to you at school. Some ideas are included for
you at the end of this lesson. You may also decide to
use recipes and have the students make things for the
class to eat and enjoy when the exercise is over. 
This exercise will run similarly to the first one. Only
this time there will be 3-5 programs running, depending
on how you decide to set up this activity. The CPU will
start with program 1 and gather the materials from either
the CD-ROM or hard drive (whichever you’ve designated for
this program) and bring them to the RAM table. Then the
CPU will do the same for the second program and so on.
Once this process is complete, as you learned, each
program will get to execute one instruction by the CPU at
a time. The CPU will start at program 1, then go on to
program 2 and so on. Have the CPU continue through the
process until each program is complete. As each program
finishes its crafts have the CPU gather and return the
materials from that program and put them away. If the
students encounter a problem with running the programs
use the ‘tech support’ to help brainstorm ideas on how to
solve it. Try to guide them without answering the
questions right away.
**Modifications: You may want to incorporate some
scenarios into your activity to facilitate some more
discussion in your class. You can do this by making sure
that some of your programs need to share some of the same
materials. This way they will need to figure out what
Computers: What Have They Done for You Lately?
23
happens when one program has a material when the next
program needs it (the second program has to skip its
turn!). You can also make sure that you use a small
table for RAM so that not all of the materials for every
program fit. This should then create a discussion about
how to handle that problem (materials that don’t fit have
to be left on the hard drive or CD-ROM for the latter
programs, or each program only gets to have a certain
amount of materials on the table and the rest of the
materials stay on the hard drive or CD-ROM to be fair to
each program—this is what actually happens). You can
also discuss at this point to solve that problem within
the computer, ie. get more RAM (a bigger table). Discuss
why the programs are running so slowly and also talk
about how to make them run faster, ie. get a faster CPU
or get more RAM.
6. Closure: Discuss what they learned from this activity
compared to the first one. You should guide the
discussion to include that this time the programs ran
slower, the CPU worked harder, why did it take longer?
(more programs, some things had to come from farther
away), and any other topics that they bring up. End with
a discussion on how they use computers or how their
parents use computers and what they would do to improve
them based on what they’ve learned.
Assessment: Give a short quiz on the concepts of how a
computer runs a program.
Computers: What Have They Done for You Lately?
This is the heart of your computer,
where all of the components of your
computer are housed or hooked up to.
It may be tall and stand up next to your
computer or lay flat on top of your
computer
24
This is the screen where you see output
from the computer programs you are
running.
This is an output device hooked up to
your computer where you get hard
copy results, or prints from your
programs.
These are output devices from your
computer that allow you to hear sounds
that your computer generates.
This is an input device that allows you
to copy images to your computers
memory. You can copy things like
photographs, pages from a book or
anything else that can lie flat.
This is an input device for your
computer that allows you to put digital
pictures into your computer’s memory.
This is an input device for your
computer that allows you to type
messages into the computer.
This is an input device for your
computer that allows you to move a
cursor to choose items on a menu
without having to use a keyboard.
Computers: What Have They Done for You Lately?
25
This is the largest of all circuits in your
computer and tells all the other circuits
what to do. It also holds the most
important parts of the computer.
These are cards that are on the
motherboard that allow your computer
to process sounds and images.
This is something helps one computer
‘talk’ to another usually using a phone
line or cable connection. You can
share programs and information
directly with another computer using
this.
This is the brain of your computer. It
knows what to do and tells other parts
of the computer how to do it. This is
the part of the computer that
determines how fast your computer will
run.
This is the chip in your computer that
lets it know when it boots up what
devices are connected to it and what
they do.
This is a chip in your computer that
gives your computer short-term
memory of what it is working on while
the computer is still on.
This is a chip in your computer that
gives your computer long-term
memory of what it has to work with
even after your computer has been
turned off.
These are parts of your computer that
can hold disks. These allow your
computers to run programs that are
saved on disk.
Computers: What Have They Done for You Lately?
26
Motherboard
Sound/Video Card
Modem
CPU
Central Processing Unit
BIOS Chip
RAM
Random Access Memory
ROM
Read Only Memory
Disk Drive
Computers: What Have They Done for You Lately?
27
Computer Case
Monitor
Printer
Speakers
Scanner
Digital Camera
Keyboard
Mouse
Computers: What Have They Done for You Lately?
28
Parts of a Computer Quiz
Name______________________________
Date________________
Directions: Match the names of the parts with what they do.
1. _____ motherboard
a)These are parts of your computer that
can hold disks. These allow your
computers to run programs that are
saved on disk.
2. _____ RAM
b)This is the screen where you see
output from the computer programs
you are running.
3. _____ CPU
c)These are cards that are on the
motherboard that allow your
computer to process sounds and
images.
4. _____ disk drive
d)This is the brain of your computer.
It knows what to do and tells other
parts of the computer how to do it.
This is the part of the computer that
determines how fast your computer
will run.
5. _____ monitor
e)This is a chip in your computer that
gives your computer short-term
memory of what it is working on
while the computer is still on.
6. _____ keyboard
f)This is a chip in your computer that
gives your computer long-term
memory of what it has to work with
even after your computer has been
turned off.
7. _____ ROM
g)This is an input device for your
computer that allows you to type
messages into the computer.
Computers: What Have They Done for You Lately?
29
Mind Reader
Wish you could read someone’s mind? The directions here
won’t be able to teach you to do that, but they can make
someone else believe that you can!! All you have to do is
follow the simple steps provided here and you can have
people believing that you can read minds!!
Ask someone to think of a number between 1 and 10. Make sure they don’t
tell you what it is!! They need to complete each step from here on out in
their head or on a sheet of paper where you can’t see!!
Ask the person to multiply their number by 9.
Ask the person to add the two digits of their answer together to get one
number. If their answer was only one digit already they can skip this step.
Ask the person to subtract 5 from the number in their head.
Now it starts to get tricky!! They need to think of the letter in the alphabet
that correlates with their number. For example: A=1 B=2 C=3.
We’re almost there!! Ask the person to think of a state or country that
begins with their letter. They can look at a map if one is available!!
Ask the person to take the second letter in that state and think of an animal
that begins with that letter.
Finally, ask the person to think a color that you most associate with that
animal.
Here is your chance to blow them away!! Tell them that the color they are
thinking of is:
GRAY!!!
Can you explain why this works?
Computers: What Have They Done for You Lately?
30
Stand-Alone Star Craft
This 3-dimensional star decoration is made from 2 paper stars
that are interlaced. These stars stand by themselves on a table, More Christmas
and make a great decoration.
Crafts
Supplies:



Stiff paper (like card stock, oaktag or thin cardboard) or
styrofoam meat trays
Scissors
Crayons or markers
Two paper stars are needed to make one 3dimensional star. Draw two identical stars on a
piece of stiff paper.
Decorate the two stars on both
sides, then cut them out.
Make one slit in each star. On one
star, the slit goes from an inner
corner to the center point of the star;
on the other star, the slit goes from
an outer corner to the center point.
Computers: What Have They Done for You Lately?
31
Slip the two stars together through the slits you
just cut. For stability, you may have to tape the
stars a bit where they meet at the slits.
You now have a great three-dimensional star
decoration that stands by itself on a table
Computers: What Have They Done for You Lately?
Good Luck Hand (Khamsa) Craft
The khamsa is a symbol of good luck from Morocco, Africa.This
good luck hand has been used as an amulet in northern Africa
forcenturies - it is often made from precious metal, like silver.
You can make this simple version out of paper or aluminum foil.
Khamsa means "five" in Arabic.
Supplies needed:




Construction paper
Scissors
Glue
Crayons, markers, or paint
Trace around your hand on a piece of
construction paper.
Cut the tracing out and glue it to a piece of
construction paper.
Decorate the hand with crayons,
markers.
32
Computers: What Have They Done for You Lately?
33
Chinese Lantern
Make a lantern for Chinese New Year.
Supplies:



Construction paper
Scissors
Glue, tape, or a stapler
Fold a rectangular piece of paper in half,
making a long, thin rectangle.
Make a series of cuts (about a dozen or
more) along the fold line. Don't cut all the
way to the edge of the paper.
Unfold the paper. Glue or staple the short
edges of the paper together.
Cut a strip of paper 6 inches long and 1/2
inch wide. Glue or staple this strip of paper
across one end of the lantern - this will be
the handle of the lantern.
Computers: What Have They Done for You Lately?
34
How a Computer Works Quiz
Name: _______________
Date:
_______________
1. Can a computer run a program’s instructions out
of order or skip steps?
2.
What is a program?
3. How does the size of RAM effect how a computer
runs?
4. How does the speed of the CPU effect how the
computer runs?
5. Name 3 ways that computers affect our lives.
Computers: What Have They Done for You Lately?
35
Link to “Computers: What’s in there and how does it
work?” presentation.
Go Ask Alice!!
36
Go Ask Alice!!
www.alice.org
Teacher Background Information:
What is Alice and What is it Good For?
What is Alice? (wordy)
What is Alice? (Abbreviated)
Although computer programming has
existed in its modern form for half a
century, it still eludes all but a small
fraction of society. While programming is
an inherently difficult activity, there are
Learning to program a computer is hard.
currently many barriers, both mechanical
and sociological, that prevent large portions
of the population from learning to program
a computer.
Alice address both the mechanical and
sociological barriers that currently prevent
many students from successfully learning to
program a computer. Alice addresses the
mechanical barriers to programming by
making it much easier for students to create
programs. Rather than having to correctly
Alice makes learning to program easier.
type commands according to obscure rules And it's fun.
of syntax, students drag-and-drop words in
a direct manipulation interface. This user
interface ensures that programs are always
well-formed. In addition, Alice reifies
object-based programming by providing
animated, on-screen 3D virtual objects.
Sociological barriers are far more complex.
Alice addresses the specific needs of the
subpopulation of middle school girls. By
Alice makes programming more accessible
supporting storytelling, an intrinsically
to girls as well as boys.
motivating activity for middle school girls,
Alice will make programming a means to
an exciting end.
Alice is made freely available as a public service.
Alice v2.0 © 1999-2003, Carnegie Mellon University. All rights reserved.
We gratefully acknowledge the University of Virginia, where the Alice project originated.
We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of DARPA, Intel, Microsoft, NSF, and ONR.
Go Ask Alice!!
37
What is and what can I do with Alice?
Alice is a modern programming environment designed to be a student's first exposure to object-oriented programming. It allows
students to learn basic computer science while creating animated movies, simple video games, where students control the
behavior of 3D objects and characters in a virtual world.
What have people built with Alice?
Lots of things! There are several examples of student worlds on our forums and we will be posting several projects that students
created in classrooms teaching with Alice.
Do I need to be a programmer to use Alice?
Absolutely not! The interface is designed to provide an easy, intuitive interface for novice, experienced, and non-programmers
alike.
Is Alice supported?
We have a small but hard-working staff working on providing Alice support, improving Alice, and managing our web pages. The
best way to reach us is to post your inquiry or comment on the forums. The team and the Alice community will be glad to help!
You can also Contact Us directly.
How do I save an object that I am working on?
In Alice, right-click on the object tile in the object tree. Select "save object..." from
the drop-down list and click ok.
How fast a machine do I need?
Operating system requirements:


Windows ME, Windows 2000, or Windows XP
Macintosh OS 10.3 or 10.4
Minimum PC hardware requirements:





A Pentium running at 500 MHz or better
a VGA graphics card capable of high (16 bit) color
128 MB of RAM
video resolution of 1024x768
A sound card
Recommended PC hardware requirements:



A Pentium running at 1.0 GHz or better
16 MB 3D video card (TNT, i810, Rage 128, GeForce, Radeon equivalent
or better)
256 MB of RAM
Will Alice run on a Mac?
Yes, Alice now runs on a Mac using OS 10.3 or higher. Download it here.
Go Ask Alice!!
If you have any other further questions or additional comments, visit our Feedback Page.
Alice is made freely available as a public service.
Alice v2.0 © 1999-2006, Carnegie Mellon University. All rights reserved.
We gratefully acknowledge the University of Virginia, where the Alice project originated.
We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of Electronic Arts, DARPA, Intel, Microsoft, NSF, and ONR.
Below, you will find a list of published Alice textbooks and where to find more information about them.
Learning to Program with Alice
by Wanda Dann, Steve Cooper and Randy Pausch
Prentice Hall, 2006
Visit www.aliceprogramming.net for more information.
An Introduction to Programming Using Alice
by Charles W. Herbert
ISBN: 1-4188-3625-7
Thompson Course Technology, 2007
Publish Date: March 30. 2006
Publisher's Website
Alice 2.0: Introudctory Concepts and Techniques
by Gary B. Shelly, Thomas J. Cashman, Charles W. Herbert
ISBN: 1-4188-5934-6
Thompson Course Technology, 2006
Publish Date: September 27, 2006
Publisher's Website
38
Go Ask Alice!!
39
Outline of Instruction:
Materials:
This lesson requires several hours of computer lab
time with the students. The ALICE program, freely
available at www.alice.org, will need to be
installed on each of the computers that the
students will be working on.
Step One:
Introduce students to the ALICE program. Explain
to students what the program is and that now that
they have learned the parts of a computer, what a
program is and how the computer runs programs that
now they are going to do some programming
themselves.
Walk the students through each of the
4 tutorials allowing to time to play and explore
after each one.
Step Two:
Go back to the first tutorial with the ice skater.
Explain to students that they are going to be
designing a routine for the skater that will be
judged by you or the class(if the capability is
there to show the whole class each students routine
via LCD projector or some other method). Each
routine will have to follow certain requirements.
Each routine will have to be at least 30 seconds in
duration and should include at least 3 jumps, 2
spins, and one new method created by the student,
and at no time should the skater leave the
screen(move out of sight).
Go Ask Alice!!
40
Step Three:
Have students first write a plan as to what they
would like their routine to include. They should
write this in steps or as a series of instructions
that the computer would follow, ie. 1. Skate 3
steps, 2. Jump, 3. Skate backwards 2 steps, etc.
Then, give students time to create and modify their
routine. They should print out a final draft of
the set of instructions that they created for their
routine.
Step Four:
Have students play their routine for you or the
class for judging. Judge the routines using a
rubric designed with the requirements set for the
routine.
Step Five:
Wrap-up: Students will report to each other in the
format of a class discussion how they think the
design of their routine went. What was difficult,
what was easy, how close did they come to what they
actually planned to do. Discuss ethics as it
pertains to truth in reporting, ie. puffing up
results to look good, and also discuss ethics as it
pertains to how the routines were judged. Was it
fair? Should it have been done in a different way?
Where is this pertinent in real life?
Finally . . . .
This program is capable of a lot of things and can
be taken to as far of a level as you or your
students are comfortable with. Have fun with it!!
Go Ask Alice!!
41
Digital Storytelling : Ice Skating Routine
Teacher Name:
Student Name:
________________________________________
CATEGORY
Duration of
Routine
4
Length of
presentation
was 30
seconds.
Jumps
3
Length of
presentation
was 25-29
seconds.
2
Length of
presentation
was 20-24
seconds.
1
Presentation
was less than
20 seconds.
0
Routine
included 3 or
more jumps.
Routine
included 2
jumps.
Routine
included 1
jump.
Routine
included 0
jumps.
Routine
included 2 or
more spins.
Routine
included 1
spin.
Routine
included 0
spins.
The skater left
the screen
twice.
The skater
left the
screen three
times.
The skater left
the screen
more than
three times.
The routine
included one
or more
movements
that were
created by
the
programmer.
The routine
included no
new
movements
created by the
programmer.
Spins
View
Creativity
The skater
remained on
the screen
during the
whole routine.
The skater left
the screen
once.