< Computer Science Discoveries

Unit 1 - Problem Solving and Computing

 Teacher resources  Printing Options
Problem Solving and Computing is a highly interactive and collaborative introduction to the field of computer
science, as framed within the broader pursuit of solving problems. You’ll practice using a problem solving process
to address a series of puzzles, challenges, and real world scenarios. Next, you’ll learn how computers input, output,
store, and process information to help humans solve problems. The unit concludes with a project in which you
design an application that helps solve a problem of your choosing.

Chapter 1 Overview
Chapter 2 Overview
Implementation Guidance for Problem Solving and Computing
Professional Development

Finished Teaching This Unit?

Answer this short survey to let the [Link] curriculum team know how the unit went.

Lesson 1: Intro Lesson 2: The

Lesson 3: Exploring Problem Lesson 4: What
Week 1 to Problem Problem Solving
Solving is a Computer?
Solving Process

Lesson 5: Input Lesson 6: Lesson 7:

Week 2
and Output Processing Storage

Lesson 1a: Intro Lesson 1b: Intro

to Problem to Problem
Week 3 Lesson 8: Project - Propose an App Solving - Solving -
Newspaper Spaghetti
Table Bridge

Lesson 1c: Intro

to Problem Lesson 3a: Exploring Problem Lesson 3b: Exploring Problem
Week 4
Solving - Paper Solving - Animals Theme Solving - Games Theme
Tower

Key ■ Instructional Lesson  Assessment ✀ Unplugged Lesson

 View calendar  Show All Lessons  Hide All Lessons 

 Chapter 1: The Problem Solving Process

 Lesson 1: Intro to Problem Solving

This lesson is a fun introduction to the open-ended, collaborative, and creative problem-solving
students will be using over the rest of this unit and course. Students work in groups to design
aluminum foil boats that will support as many pennies as possible. Groups have two rounds to work
on their boats, with the goal of trying to hold more pennies than they did in round 1. The structure of
the activity foreshadows different steps of the problem-solving process that students will be
introduced to in more detail in the following lesson. At the end of the lesson, students reflect on their
experiences with the activity and make connections to the types of problem-solving they will be
doing for the rest of the course

Question of the Day: What can help us to work together and solve problems as a team?

Alternate versions of this lesson are also available.

Newspaper Table
Spaghetti Bridge
Paper Tower

 1
●
✓
Check-In Survey

 Lesson 2: The Problem Solving Process

This lesson introduces the formal problem-solving process that students will use over the course of
the year, Define - Prepare - Try - Reflect. The lesson begins by anchoring the formal problem-solving
process in some real-life experiences they already have solving problems by asking students to
brainstorm all the different types of problems that they encounter in everyday life. Students are then
shown the four steps of the problem-solving process and work together to relate these abstract
steps to their actual experiences solving problems. First students relate these steps to the problem
activities from the previous lesson, then a problem they are good at solving, then a problem they
want to improve at solving. At the end of the lesson, the class collects a list of generally useful
strategies for each step of the process to put on posters that will be used throughout the unit and
year.

Question of the Day: What are some common steps we can use to solve many different types of
problems?

This lesson contains no levels.

 Lesson 3: Exploring Problem Solving

In this lesson, students apply the problem-solving process to three different problems in order to
better understand the value of each step. They will solve a word search, arrange seating for a
birthday party, and redesign a classroom. The problems grow increasingly complex and poorly
defined to highlight how the problem-solving process is particularly helpful when tackling these
types of problems. The lesson concludes with students reflecting on their experience with the
problem-solving process. They will justify the inclusion of each step and will brainstorm questions or
strategies that can help them better define open-ended problems, as this is often the most critical
step.

This lesson will likely take two class periods or more to complete. The first two problems may fit into
a single class period but the third will need to be moved to a second day.

Question of the Day: How can we apply the problem-solving process to many different kinds of
problems?

Alternate versions of this lesson are also available.

 Animal Theme
Games Theme

This lesson contains no levels.

 Chapter 2: Computers and Problem Solving

 Lesson 4: What is a Computer?

This lesson builds on the problem-solving theme of the earlier lessons and focuses on the specifics of
how computing is used in problem-solving, starting with developing a preliminary definition of a
computer. To begin the lesson, the class will brainstorm possible definitions for a computer and place
the results of this brainstorm on the board. Next, students will work in groups to sort pictures into “is
a computer” or “is not a computer” on poster paper. Groups will place their posters around the room
and briefly explain their motivations for choosing some of their most difficult categorizations. The
teacher will then introduce a definition of the computer and allow students to revise their posters
according to the new definition.

Question of the Day: What is a computer?

This lesson contains no levels.

 Lesson 5: Input and Output

This lesson introduces focuses on two of the features identified in the previous lesson, input and
output, that can help classify devices as a computer and has students identify different methods of
input or output in common apps. In this lesson, students consider how computers get and give
information to the user through inputs and outputs. Students first consider what information they
would need to solve a "thinking problem", then use that information to produce a recommendation.
They then identify the inputs and outputs of that process. Afterward, students consider an app that
engages in the same process and determine how that app inputs and outputs information. Last, they
consider other types of inputs and outputs that computers can use to help solve problems.

Question of the Day: How do computers use input and output to get and give the information that
they need to solve problems?

 1 App: Pet Chooser

 2 App: Story Creator

 3 App: Improved Pet App

 Lesson 6: Processing
This lesson introduces the concept of processing within computational problem-solving. While this
lesson focuses on four common types of processing - if/then (conditionals), finding a match
(searching), counting, and comparing - students should understand that processing is whatever a
computer does to turn inputs into outputs. Students are first introduced to the types of processing
through several sample apps. They then investigate more apps to determine what sorts of processing
each uses. They then think of their own app and decide what types of processing it would need to
work. Finally, they brainstorm other types of processing that may be useful but were not included in
the main lesson.

Question of the Day: What are the different ways computers can process information?

 1 App: Is It Your Birthday?

 2 App: National Parks

 3 App: How Many Countries

 4 App: My Famous Birthday

 5 App: Stamp Notebook

 6 App: The Fastest Finger

 7 App: Guess the Number

 8 App: Where Should I Live?

 Lesson 7: Storage

This lesson introduces the final component of the unit's model of computing: storage. After trying
out an "outfit picker" app, students discuss what information should be stored in the app versus input
every time the app is run. They then look at a series of apps and use their decisions about what
should be stored to create guidelines for deciding what information to store. They then review the
four components of this chapter's model of computing: input, output, storage, and processing.
Afterward, they have one last opportunity to revise their decisions about which items should be
classified as a "computer" from earlier in the chapter. The lesson ends with a reflection on their own
app ideas and how storage could be used.

Question of the Day: Why is storage an important part of the computing process?

 1 App: Outfit Picker

 2 App: Friend Finder

  3 App: Choose a Kid's Movie

 Lesson 8: Project - Propose an App

To conclude this unit, this project combines the two major themes of Unit 1, the problem-solving
process and the input/output/store/process model of a computer, to have students identify real-
world problems and find ways to use technology to help solve them. This project will be completed
across multiple days and will result in students creating a poster of a proposed app they design to
solve a real-world problem, highlighting the features of their app that they will present to their
classmates. A project guide provides step-by-step instructions for students and helps them organize
their thoughts. The project is designed to be completed in pairs though it can be completed
individually.

Question of the Day: How can the IOSP model help us to design an app that solves a problem?

 1 End of Unit Survey

 Post-Project Test
This lesson is locked - you need to become a verified teacher to unlock it. Learn more.
●
✓


 End of Unit Survey

 End of Unit Survey

 1-3 End of Unit Survey

●
✓ ●
✓ ●
✓
1 2 3

 Alternate Lessons

 Lesson 1a: Intro to Problem Solving - Newspaper Table

This lesson is a fun introduction to the open-ended, collaborative, and creative problem-solving
students will be using over the rest of this unit and course. In this lesson, students work in groups to
design newspaper tables that will hold as many books as possible. Groups have two rounds to work
on their tables, with the goal of trying to hold more books than they did in the first round. The
structure of the activity foreshadows different steps of the problem-solving process that students
will be introduced to in more detail in the following lesson. At the end of the lesson, students reflect
on their experiences with the activity and make connections to the types of problem-solving they
will be doing for the rest of the course.

Question of the Day: What can help us to work together and solve problems as a team?

This is an alternate activity to Intro to Problem Solving - Aluminum Boats

This lesson contains no levels.

 Lesson 1b: Intro to Problem Solving - Spaghetti Bridge

This lesson is a fun introduction to the open-ended, collaborative, and creative problem-solving
students will be using over the rest of this unit and course. In this lesson, students work in groups to
design spaghetti bridges that will support as many books as possible. Groups have two rounds to
work on their bridges, with the goal of trying to hold more books than they did in Round 1. The
structure of the activity foreshadows different steps of the problem-solving process that students
will be introduced to in more detail in the following lesson. At the end of the lesson, students reflect
on their experiences with the activity and make connections to the types of problem solving they will
be doing for the rest of the course.

Question of the Day: What can help us to work together and solve problems as a team?

This is an alternate activity to Intro to Problem Solving - Aluminum Boats

This lesson contains no levels.

 Lesson 1c: Intro to Problem Solving - Paper Tower

This lesson is a fun introduction to the open-ended, collaborative, and creative problem-solving
students will be using over the rest of this unit and course. In this lesson, students work in groups to
design paper towers that can stand as high as possible. Groups have two rounds to work on their
towers, with the goal of trying to go higher than they did in Round 1. The structure of the activity
foreshadows different steps of the problem-solving process that students will be introduced to in
more detail in the following lesson. At the end of the lesson, students reflect on their experiences
with the activity and make connections to the types of problem-solving they will be doing for the
rest of the course.

Question of the Day: What can help us to work together and solve problems as a team?

This is an alternate activity to Intro to Problem Solving - Aluminum Boats

This lesson contains no levels.

 Lesson 3a: Exploring Problem Solving - Animals Theme

In this lesson, students apply the problem-solving process to three different problems in order to
better understand the value of each step. They will solve tangrams, choose a pet for several people,
and plan a pet adoption event. The problems grow increasingly complex and poorly defined to
highlight how the problem-solving process is particularly helpful when tackling these types of
problems. The lesson concludes with students reflecting on their experience with the problem-
solving process. They will justify the inclusion of each step and will brainstorm questions or strategies
that can help them better define open-ended problems, as this is often the most critical step.

This lesson will likely take two class periods or more to complete. The first two problems may fit into
a single class period but the third will need to be moved to a second day.

Question of the Day: How can we apply the problem-solving process to many different kinds of
problems?

This is an alternate activity to Exploring Problem Solving

This lesson contains no levels.

 Lesson 3b: Exploring Problem Solving - Games Theme

In this lesson, students apply the problem-solving process to three different problems in order to
better understand the value of each step. They will solve a maze, organize a team to race as fast as
possible, and design a game. The problems grow increasingly complex and poorly defined to highlight
how the problem-solving process is particularly helpful when tackling these types of problems. The
lesson concludes with students reflecting on their experience with the problem-solving process.
They will justify the inclusion of each step and will brainstorm questions or strategies that can help
them better define open-ended problems, as this is often the most critical step.

This lesson will likely take two class periods or more to complete. The first two problems may fit into
a single class period but the third will need to be moved to a second day.

Question of the Day: How can we apply the problem-solving process to many different kinds of
problems?

This is an alternate activity to Exploring Problem Solving

This lesson contains no levels.

Lesson 1: Intro to Problem Solving
45 minutes

Overview Objectives
This lesson is a fun introduction to the open-ended, Students will be able to:
collaborative, and creative problem-solving students will be
using over the rest of this unit and course. Students work in Communicate and collaborate with
groups to design aluminum foil boats that will support as many classmates in order to solve a problem
pennies as possible. Groups have two rounds to work on their Identify different strategies used to
boats, with the goal of trying to hold more pennies than they solve a problem
did in round 1. The structure of the activity foreshadows Iteratively improve a solution to a
different steps of the problem-solving process that students problem
will be introduced to in more detail in the following lesson. At
the end of the lesson, students reflect on their experiences with
the activity and make connections to the types of problem- Preparation
solving they will be doing for the rest of the course
For each group
Question of the Day: What can help us to work together and
solve problems as a team? 2 sheets of aluminum foil, 5x5 inches
in length each
Alternate versions of this lesson are also available.
1 container that can hold 3-5 inches
Newspaper Table of water
Spaghetti Bridge Several paper towels or rags that can
Paper Tower be placed under the container
15 pennies
One copy of the activity guide
Standards Full Course Alignment
For the teacher
CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards (2017)
1 container that can hold 3-5 inches
AP - Algorithms & Programming of water
50 pennies
Extra paper towels or rags
Agenda Check the "Teacher's Lounge" forum
Tech Setup for verified teachers to find additional
strategies or resources shared by
Warm Up (5 minutes)
fellow teachers
Set the Stage
If you are teaching virtually, consider
Activity (35 minutes) checking our Virtual Lesson
Building an Aluminum Boat Modifications
Goal and Rules
Develop a Plan
Test Your Boat
Links
Evaluate and Improve
Heads Up! Please make a copy of any
Wrap Up (5 minutes) documents you plan to share with
Discuss the Challenge students.
Reflection
 For the teachers

[Link] How-to Videos

Intro to Problem Solving - Slides
 Make a Copy

For the students

Aluminum Boats - Activity Guide

 Make a Copy

Teaching Guide

Tech Setup
Throughout the year, in order for you to be able to see student work, and for students to be able to access online
tools and resources, all students need to be in the same section on Code Studio. To see assessments and answer
keys that [Link] provides, you also need to be a "verified teacher".

 Teaching Tip 

How-To Videos: The following steps are also covered in a series of [Link] How-to Videos available on
[Link]'s Teacher Support website. You may decide to watch these videos before reading the instructions
below.

Preparing for the Unit

Getting Started with [Link]: Consider watching our Getting Started with [Link] video series for an overview
of how to navigate lesson plans, setup a classroom section, and other important features of the [Link] platform.
Each video also has a support article if you'd prefer to read or print instructions - click here to learn more.

Setup a Classroom Section: You can use a class section in [Link] to manage your students, view their progress,
and assign specific curriculum - click here to learn more.

If you are using a learning management system, there may be additional steps to sync your classes with [Link]:

Click here for steps to setup your classes with Google Classroom
Click Here for steps to setup your classes with Clever

Become a Verified Teacher: Lesson plans and levels have additional resources and answer keys for Verified
Teachers, which is quick process that verifies your position at an educational institution. Click here to complete a
form and you should have access to verified teacher resources in ~1 business day. Verified teachers also have
access to the "Teacher's Lounge" section of the forums.

Get Inspired: Consider watching our Teacher Tips video playlist, featuring current CS Discoveries teachers.

Technical Requirements: For the very best experience with all [Link] content, we recommend consulting with
your school or district's IT department to ensure specific sites are allowed and are not blocked. Click here to see
a list of sites to unblock.

You can also find mobile and tablet support details, hardware recommendation information such as minimum
Internet connection speed, smallest screen size supported, and other hardware recommendations, as well as a list
of supported browsers and platforms at the same technical requirements website.
At the beginning of class
. Have students create a Code Studio account at [Link] if they don't already have one
. Share the section Join URL with students and tell them to navigate to it to join your section
You can confirm that a student successfully joined your section by having the section progress page on
the Teacher Home Page open and hitting refresh as students join. Students should see a small green bar at
the top of their page that says 'You've successfully joined ...'
. From [Link] have students locate the Computer Science Discoveries tile and click 'View course', then
go to Unit 1.

Warm Up (5 minutes)

Set the Stage

Prompt: What makes someone a good problem solver? Be ready to share three ideas with your group.

 Teaching Tip 

Journaling: Journaling is a key practice in CS Discoveries. Students can journal on loose leaf paper, in
notebooks, or digitally.

Slides: Slides for this unit are available in the "Teacher Resources" section of the lesson plan. You will be
prompted to make a copy, which you will only need to do once - after that, you may use the slides for each
lesson in the curriculum.

Discuss: Allow students to share answers at their table groups or with a partner, then have those who are
comfortable share with the whole class.

Discussion Goal: The goal of this warm-up is to start students thinking about problem-solving in preparation for the
day's activity. Highlight answers that reinforce key practices in the class, such as collaboration, persistence, and
creativity. This is also a chance to reinforce a positive culture that encourages students to share out and support
each other in brainstorming ideas.

 Remarks
Those are all great ideas! In computer science, we have to solve problems all of the time, so we'll be looking back
at all of these problem solving skills today and for the rest of the course. Most of the problem solving that people
do in computer science happens in teams. Today, we're going to work in teams to solve a fun problem that
doesn't need computers. While you work on that problem, here's a question that you can think about.

Display: Show students the Question of the Day

Question of the Day: What can help us to work together and solve problems as a team?

Activity (35 minutes)

Building an Aluminum Boat

Group: Put students in groups of 2 or 3.

 Remarks
Today we're going to be building aluminum boats. You'll have an opportunity to build at least two boats and use
your experience with each one to improve your designs. Before we get started, decide as a group what kind of
design you'd like to make with your first boat. Record your ideas and any possible weaknesses of this design on
your activity guide.

Distribute: One copy of the activity guide to each group.

 Teaching Tip 

Getting Copies of Google Docs: Activity Guides in this curriculum are available as Google Docs, Word Docs,
and PDFs. If you'd like to edit or make your own copy of a Google Doc you may without requesting access.
Simply log in with a Google account, click "File" and "Make a copy" from the menu. You may then share your
own copy with your students.

Goal and Rules

As a class, read through the Goal and Rules sections of the activity guide and answer questions.

 Teaching Tip 

This activity can get your room wet! Ideally, each group should have its own bucket/container with water to
conduct its own tests. If needed, you can have several groups share one container, but be mindful to set
guidelines for sharing that container. Place towel/rag under each container. You may also want to consider
teaching this activity in the hallway or some other space if your room is very restrictive, or add in additional
rules as necessary.

Develop a Plan

Give students a couple minutes to discuss in groups the approach they will be taking with this first boat. Once
groups have recorded their ideas and some possible weaknesses they can come to you to get their aluminum foil
and begin building their boats.

 Teaching Tip 

Hold onto the foil until students submit a plan for their boat. The goal isn't to slow them down too much, but
just give them a moment to reflect briefly on the possible approaches they could take. This is one way this
activity foreshadows the Planning step of the problem solving process students will see in subsequent lessons.
Test Your Boat

Once groups are ready, have them test their boats by dropping individual pennies into the boat. Remind them of
the rules, specifically that they can't touch or adjust the boats once they're in the water. Have them record the total
number of pennies held on their activity guides.

Evaluate and Improve

 Remarks
This first attempt at building our boats was just to get familiar with the challenge. We're all going to build a
second boat and see if we can improve the number of pennies our boats held. Before we get started though, let's
see what we can learn from this trial run.

Share: Have students share the results of their first run with neighboring groups. Ask groups to focus particularly
on what the eventual failure of their boat was (e.g. it wasn't deep enough, it was unstable, etc.) and brainstorm
ways to get around those problems.

 Teaching Tip 

While some students will view this portion as a competition, emphasize that each group is looking to improve
its own design, not competing against others. You are appealing for each student to challenge themselves first,
not others.

Develop a Plan

Prompt: Now that you've had a chance to learn from the first round of boat making, let's run the same activity
again. First, your group will develop a new plan. Just as before, record it on your activity guide, and once you're
ready I'll come around and give you a new piece of foil.

Support: As you circulate from group to group, ask questions about the group’s focus in redesign. EX: “What aspect
of your boat needed the most improvement?” “What ideas from other groups did you want to incorporate to
yours?” “Did you feel the need to completely restructure your boat, or make minor modifications?”

Once groups have prepared their new plans give them a new piece of foil and have them each build a new boat.

 Assessment Opportunity 

Iteratively improve a solution to a problem

In the Activity Guide, you can check for strengths and weaknesses in students' original design and connections
to appropriate changes for the next iteration of the project.

Identify different strategies used to solve a problem

You can also check their activity guide for strategies for overcoming the challenges in the activity. You also may
want to check the "strengths" of their designs that students list as part of developing their plan on the second
page of the guide.

Test Your Boat

Groups can test their designs just as before and record the results on their activity guides.
Reflect

Transition: Ask class to return to their own seats to reflect on the activity.

Wrap Up (5 minutes)

Discuss the Challenge

Question of the Day: What can help us to work together and solve problems as a team?

Prompt: You worked in teams for this activity. How did working in a team make this activity easier, how did it make
the activity more challenging? What helped your group overcome these challenges?

Discuss: Allow students time to share thoughts with the class.

 Assessment Opportunity 

Students may recognize that collaboration allowed them to think through their ideas more thoroughly or that
they were able to split up the work that they needed to do. As students list challenges, ensure that they are
coming up with ways to overcome those challenges. If you have noticed any issues in group dynamics during
the activity, you may want to use this time to bring up these as potential problems in a non-confrontational way
and help students to generate strategies for working together more effectively in future activities. These can
serve as classroom norms for group work moving forward.

 Remarks
All of your thoughts around these questions were great. We're going to be doing a lot of teamwork in this class.
You may be used to thinking about computer science as being all about computers, but first and foremost
computer science is about solving problems, and usually that happens in teams. A lot of other parts of this
activity like improving designs, and building things is also going to be a big part of this class. I hope you're excited
for the year. Tomorrow we'll start digging deeper into problem solving itself.

Reflection

Code Studio: Have students answer 5 quick survey questions at the beginning of this unit. Once at least 5 students
have completed the survey you will be able to view the anonymized results in the Teacher Dashboard. Some of
these questions will be asked again at the end of the first project, which can be helpful in seeing student growth
and shifts in attitudes throughout the unit.

●
✓
 1 Check-In Survey

This work is available under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

If you are interested in licensing [Link] materials for commercial purposes contact us.
Lesson 2: The Problem Solving Process
45 minutes

Overview Objectives
This lesson introduces the formal problem-solving process that Students will be able to:
students will use over the course of the year, Define - Prepare -
Try - Reflect. The lesson begins by anchoring the formal Given a problem, identify individual
problem-solving process in some real-life experiences they actions that would fall within each
already have solving problems by asking students to brainstorm step of the problem solving process
all the different types of problems that they encounter in Identify useful strategies within each
everyday life. Students are then shown the four steps of the step of the problem solving process
problem-solving process and work together to relate these
abstract steps to their actual experiences solving problems.
First students relate these steps to the problem activities from Preparation
the previous lesson, then a problem they are good at solving,
then a problem they want to improve at solving. At the end of For each student
the lesson, the class collects a list of generally useful strategies
Print a copy of Activity Guide
for each step of the process to put on posters that will be used
throughout the unit and year. For the class

Question of the Day: What are some common steps we can use Poster paper
to solve many different types of problems? Markers/colored pencils

For the Teacher

Standards Full Course Alignment

Check the "Teacher's Lounge" forum
for verified teachers to find additional
CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards (2017)
strategies or resources shared by
AP - Algorithms & Programming
fellow teachers
If you are teaching virtually, consider
checking our Virtual Lesson
Agenda Modifications
Warm Up (5 minutes)
Problems Brainstorm
Links
Activity (35 minutes)
The Problem Solving Process Heads Up! Please make a copy of any
What it Looks Like documents you plan to share with
A Problem You Are Good at Solving students.
A Problem You and a Classmate Want to Get Better at
Solving For the teachers
Create Posters of the Steps
Problem Solving Process
Wrap Up (5 minutes) The Problem Solving Process - Slides
 Make a Copy
Extended Learning
Article Discussion For the students

Problem Solving Process - Video

(Download)
 The Problem Solving Process -
Activity Guide  Make a Copy
The Problem Solving Process - Video
(Download)

Teaching Guide

Warm Up (5 minutes)

Problems Brainstorm

Prompt: We use the term "problem" to refer to lots of different situations. I could say I have a problem for
homework, a problem with my brother, and a problem with my car, and all three mean very different things. On a
sheet of paper I want you to brainstorm as many different kinds of problems as you can and be ready to share with
the class.

Discuss: Students should silently record their ideas in writing for a couple of minutes. Afterward, invite them to
share what they wrote with a neighbor and then finally bring the whole class together to develop a classwide list.
Record all the different kinds of problems students think of on the board or somewhere else that they'll be clearly
visible.

Discussion Goal: This conversation aims to demonstrate that problems and problem-solving are a part of everyday
life. Use this brainstorm to list as many different kinds of problems on the board as you can. This will be useful when
you later ask students to select one type of problem that you believe they're particularly good at solving.

 Teaching Tip 

Make Categories: You may want to group problems into larger categories during this conversation and invite
students to help you do so. For example, if two suggestions are "finding my keys" and "finding my homework"
suggest a larger category of "finding lost things".

Real World Problems: Try to guide students away from too many homework or subject-area type problems (e.g.
math problems, word problems, science problems, etc.) by saying you're more interested in real-life problems
like solving disagreements, making big decisions, fixing or finding things, getting from one place to another, etc.

 Remarks
Clearly we encounter problems in lots of different areas of our lives. Depending on the context, this word can
have many different meanings. Today, we're going to look at some steps we can use to solve all sorts of problems.

Question of the Day: What are some common steps we can use to solve many different types of problems?

Activity (35 minutes)

 Remarks
We solve problems all the time, but we don't often think about how we're solving problems. Having a strategy or
process to approach lots of different kinds of problems can make you a more thoughtful, creative, and successful
problem solver.

Distribute: Hand out copies of the The Problem Solving Process activity guides.
The Problem Solving Process

 Video: Show students the Problem Solving Process video in the slides.

Questions to consider with the video:

How did you follow the problem-solving process in the last lesson?
How could you use this process on a problem in your everyday life?

Discussion Goal: The first discussion question is part of the core activity in the rest of the lesson. Students should
take time working in their groups to think of specific things that they did that follow each step of the process. The
goal of this discussion is to make the abstract steps more concrete and accessible to students by relating them to
a shared activity. The second question gives students a chance to expand their understanding of the process to a
different problem, seeing how the different steps may look in different domains. The goal of this discussion is to
make sure students have a general enough understanding of the process that they can apply it to a wider variety of
problems since the process will be used throughout the course in various domains.

 Teaching Tip 

Videos are used throughout the curriculum to spark discussions, supplement key concepts with additional
explanations and examples, and expose students to the various roles and backgrounds of individuals in
computer science.

While interacting with the video, turn on closed captioning so students can also read along as they watch.

To encourage active engagement and reflection, use one or more of the strategies discussed in the Guide to
Curriculum Videos.

Introduce and as a class review the descriptions of the four steps in the process by reading them aloud. Answer or
discuss any questions students have about the process but otherwise move on to completing the first section of
the activity guide.

What it Looks Like

Have students complete the first section of the activity guide by filling in the steps of the previous day's activity
they think fall within each step of the problem solving process.

Discuss: Once students have completed the first section of the activity guide ask them to share with neighbors and
then with the class as a whole.

Discussion Goal: For this first conversation in particular you're making sure students understand the meaning of the
four different steps. While some steps might sometimes be categorized in two ways, use this chance to talk about
that ambiguity. Your goal is to use the shared context of the aluminum boat problem to understand this process.
Here's a possible set of steps students may come up with.

Define: Understanding the problem when it was assigned, examining available resources, finding problems with
their original design before deciding how to fix them, looking at problems with other groups' boats

Prepare: Discussing with team members how to proceed, brainstorming approaches, anticipating possible
flaws.

Try: Actually building the boats, running the test

Reflect: Examining the results of their test, comparing their results to their predictions, and discussing with
group members the reasons the boat sunk eventually.
A Problem You Are Good at Solving

Ask students to select one type of problem that they think they're really good at solving. Use the list of problems
already on the board to help students think of their type of problem. Again give them a couple of minutes to quietly
record the steps of their process before sharing with a neighbor.

Discuss: Have students share what they wrote with a neighbor and then once again lead a discussion of the
conversations they had. Ask students to talk about the individual steps they're using to solve their chosen problem
but also point out instances where the same types of strategies are appearing multiple times.

Discussion Goal: All three of these discussions in this lesson aim to reinforce the meaning of the 4 steps in the
problem-solving process. In this discussion, you might lean more heavily on other students to ensure that the
strategies and steps being offered by students seem to fit the definitions of the 4 steps provided in the activity
guide.

 Assessment Opportunity 

Given a problem, identify individual actions that would fall within each step of the problem-solving process

You can check that students have written down reasonable actions for each of the four steps in the problem
they are trying to solve on page 2 of the activity guide.

A Problem You and a Classmate Want to Get Better at Solving

Place students in pairs and ask them to complete the final section of the activity guide. They will need to choose a
type of problem that both members of the group want to get better at solving and then write the steps they would
use within the problem solving process to solve that problem.

Discuss: Lead one final share out in which students present how they would use the problem solving process to
approach a less familiar problem.

Create Posters of the Steps

Distribute: Give each group a piece of poster paper.

 Teaching Tip 

You may also choose to do this activity digitally. Check out the forum to see how other teachers have modified
this activity for their classrooms, or to share your own modifications.

Prompt: At your tables, choose one of the problems that you worked on today, and create a poster that shows how
the problem solving process can be used to help solve it.

Circulate: As students work on their posters, ask them questions about their different problems, and how the steps
to solve it relate to the general steps of the problem solving process.

Share: Allow students to share their posters with the rest of the class.

Wrap Up (5 minutes)
Question of the Day: What are some common steps we can use to solve many different types of problems?
Prompt: You saw a lot of different types of problems today, but they all used our Problem Solving Process. For each
step of the process, think of one general tip that could be useful no matter what problem someone is trying to
solve.

 Assessment Opportunity 

Check that students are coming up with effective strategies for each step of the process. These should be
general strategies, not specific to the particular problems that they chose to solve.

 Remarks
I began by saying a formal problem solving process could help us solve all kinds of problems. Today we began to
understand what this process looks like in a variety of real life situations. Tomorrow we're going to start putting
this process into action to see how it actually works.

Extended Learning

Article Discussion

Read through the article, You Are Solving the Wrong Problem

. What was interesting about this article?

. What current events do you think we need to look at through this problem solving process? Why?

This work is available under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

If you are interested in licensing [Link] materials for commercial purposes contact us.
Lesson 3: Exploring Problem Solving
90 minutes

Overview Objectives
In this lesson, students apply the problem-solving process to Students will be able to:
three different problems in order to better understand the value
of each step. They will solve a word search, arrange seating for Apply the problem solving process to
a birthday party, and redesign a classroom. The problems grow approach a variety of problems
increasingly complex and poorly defined to highlight how the Assess how well-defined a problem is
problem-solving process is particularly helpful when tackling and use strategies to define the
these types of problems. The lesson concludes with students problem more precisely
reflecting on their experience with the problem-solving
process. They will justify the inclusion of each step and will
brainstorm questions or strategies that can help them better Preparation
define open-ended problems, as this is often the most critical
step. Print the activity guide for each
student
This lesson will likely take two class periods or more to
Scratch paper for the Birthday Party
complete. The first two problems may fit into a single class
period but the third will need to be moved to a second day. problem
Poster to record strategies for
Question of the Day: How can we apply the problem-solving defining problems in wrap up
process to many different kinds of problems?
discussion
Alternate versions of this lesson are also available. Check the "Teacher's Lounge" forum
for verified teachers to find additional
Animal Theme
strategies or resources shared by
Games Theme
fellow teachers
If you are teaching virtually, consider
checking our Virtual Lesson
Standards Full Course Alignment
Modifications
CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards (2017)
AP - Algorithms & Programming
Links

Agenda Heads Up! Please make a copy of any

documents you plan to share with
Warm Up (5 minutes) students.

Activity (80 minutes)

For the teachers
Understanding the Problem Solving Process
Exploring Problem Solving - Slides
Wrap Up (5 minutes)
 Make a Copy

For the students

Solving Problems - Activity Guide

 Make a Copy
Teaching Guide

Warm Up (5 minutes)
Journal Prompt: Think of the silliest problem the problem solving process could help with. Be prepared to say how
each step of the process could apply.

Allow students to share out individually.

Discussion Goal: This discussion serves as a review of the problem-solving process and highlights how many
different types of problems there could be. Encourage students to be creative and have some fun with the
different "problems" they might solve.

 Remarks
With such a wide variety of problems and strategies, it's important to be able to think about how best to use the
problem solving process. Today we're going to look at some different types of problems, talk about what makes
them different, and reflect on how the problem solving process helped us solve them.

Question of the Day: How can we apply the problem solving process to many different kinds of problems?

Activity (80 minutes)

Group: For all three activities students should be working together in groups, even if they record their results
individually. Groups of 2-4 will likely work best.

Distribute: Hand out the activity guide, one copy for each student. For now they can be face down so that the
word search isn't visible.

Solving Problems

Word Search
Once students are in pairs ask them to flip over their activity guides and begin the first challenge. They'll be finding
the 8 words in a 20 by 20 grid of letters.

Circulate: Walk around the room observing how students are addressing the problem. Make sure that groups are
not sharing locations of words. Encourage them to think about how making a plan might help them address this
task.

 Teaching Tip 

Integrating the Problem Solving Process: This word search can actually take several minutes, especially if
students are approaching without some kind of strategy. Remind them that one step is to Prepare before they
just jump in and start hunting.

Answer Key: An answer key is provided for verified teachers as part of the resources in this lesson plan. If you
do not see the answer key listed as a resource, follow these steps to become a verified teacher.

Once all groups have finished, bring the class back together. Have students flip to the last page of the activity
guide where there is a table to record their experiences with the problem. They will record what parts of solving this
problem fall within each step of the problem solving process.
Discuss: Briefly discuss with students what parts of the activity they felt fell into each step of the problem solving
process. Some possible points to make after students share are below.

Define: This problem was already very well defined. Not all problems will be, though.
Prepare: Developing a plan with a team (such as divvying up the words, splitting the grid into separate sections
that each member searches in, or just being methodical about looking for words) makes this problem much
easier to solve than random searching.
Try: Patience and persistence is important to see your plan through
Reflect: If your early plans are not working you can regroup and choose a new plan

Birthday Guests
Move the class on to the birthday guests problem. Groups may still work together on their solutions but shouldn't
share with other groups.

Circulate: As before, circulate around the room noting the types of strategies that groups are using. Remind them
to use the steps of the problem solving process to help them if they're getting stuck.

 Teaching Tip 

Integrating the Problem Solving Process: This problem is particularly challenging if you don't Define the
problem well. If you take it at face value, your job is to randomly guess and check where to put individual
people until you find a solution. It is much easier if you define the problem as place groups of friends instead.
Make groups of 2 or 3 you know need to be together and then figure out which groups can't be at the same
table.

This isn't the only approach to the problem, and you shouldn't rush to introduce it as such. Rather, encourage
students to discuss with one another what they know needs to be true at the end and whether different
approaches might help.

Draw Pictures: Students will likely do better if they draw pictures. You may wish for students to use a journal or
scratch paper as a place to brainstorm ideas.

Extending the Problem: If one group finishes far before others you could give them a blank sheet of paper and
ask them to solve the problem again but with a new condition of your choosing (e.g. pick two people sitting at
the same table in their solution and ask whether they can solve the problem now that those two people are also
in a fight.)

Once groups have finished solving the problem ask them to move to the last page of the activity guide to record
how they used the problem solving process to solve this problem.

Discuss: Briefly discuss with students what parts of the activity they felt fell into each step of the problem solving
process. Some possible points to make after students share are below.

Define: The problem seems to be a problem of seating individuals. If you instead think of it as a problem of
seating groups of people who would like to be together there are many fewer possible solutions to consider.
Prepare: Ask students to share what types of strategies they considered before just starting to assign people
to seats.
Try: As before, patience and persistence is important to see your plan through
Reflect: If early strategies are not working groups may have regrouped and tried a more structured approach

Redesign Your Classroom

Move the class on to the Redesign Your Classroom problem. Each member of the group will individually be
developing a plan for a layout that follows criteria they'll develop as a team. Give students time to choose the goals
they'll use to plan their layout. For example there may be certain things they'd like to move, new items want to
include, people they want help them, etc.
Circulate: Once groups have goals, they will move through the activity by developing a plan to redesign the
classroom. Give them a time limit on this part of this process, e.g. 15 minutes, to make sure they focus on the key
elements on their plan rather than perfecting it. They should record key information about their plan in their activity
guides.

 Teaching Tip 

Integrating the Problem Solving Process: This problem is intentionally very open-ended and in fact has
students develop the criteria they'll use to measure success. This problem does the best job of highlighting all 4
steps of the process and walks students more intentionally through the Define, Prepare, Try, and Reflect stages.

Give Resource Ideas: Students may just brainstorm ideas and layouts by themselves, but also let them know
about other resources such as search engines and image searchers to help give them inspiration if they are
stuck. Let them look at other classrooms online for help.

When to Stop: This problem could easily take a 50 minute class period. Let students know ahead of time that
there are time limits on what they're doing and encourage them to think how they would improve their route
using the problem solving process if they had more time to iterate.

Bring groups back together and have them share their initial plans. On the activity guides they can record the
feedback their classmates give them on their plans.

Once groups have discussed what they like or don't like about their classmates' proposed plans, they can re-
examine them and make improvements. Are there other things they'd like to do? Do they have new goals? Give
them several minutes to make improvements to their plans before deciding on a final version.

Bring the class back together and have them record the different steps of the problem solving process that they
used in their activity guides.

Discuss: Briefly discuss with students what parts of the activity they felt fell into each step of the problem solving
process. Some possible points to make after students share are below.

Define: This problem was not well-defined. They needed to decide for themselves what a "good" room looked
like, and this definition could have even shifted throughout the process.
Prepare: Narrowing down a list of possible layout is helpful. You may also choose to make the point that this
entire activity is an example of preparation. Some layouts just don't make sense or others work better, so you
need to do the kind of planning they're doing here.
Try: As before, patience and persistence is important to see your plan through
Reflect: In this problem reflection came primarily through feedback from peers. Some layouts might not end up
being that interesting to other group members. Some are fun but require too much moving or too many new
things. Feedback is an important part of the reflect step, especially in group work.

Understanding the Problem Solving Process

Prompt: You just solved a number of very different problems. With your tables review the notes you took on each
of the problems. Be ready to report out on the following questions

For each step in the problem-solving process, what is its purpose? Why is it included?
Are there any kinds of problems that the problem-solving process is particularly helpful at solving?

Discuss: After tables have discussed their responses for several minutes invite the whole class to share their
rationale for including each step in the process. Once each step has been discussed, move on to the second
question. This question may have many responses and you should allow students to share their thoughts and
experiences. If it doesn't arise naturally as you leave the conversation offer some or all of the ideas mentioned in
the discussion goals.
Discussion Goal: Students have practiced using the problem-solving process on a number of different problems.
Help them synthesize the notes they have been keeping to better understand the role of each step and the value of
the problem-solving process in general. A sample set of conclusions is below but you should allow students to
share their own insights before offering your own.

Define: without defining a problem you might solve the wrong problem, not know where to start, or not know
when you're finished

Prepare: Even well-defined problems usually have many possible approaches. Make each try more likely to
succeed by first examining your options and anticipating challenges

Try: Without trying you'll never get anywhere. It's important to be persistent and patient so long as your plan
still may work

Reflect: You'll likely not solve the problem the first time or there will be a better way to solve it. Learn from your
past attempts and get ready to start the process again.

The Problem Solving Process: While you may notice you're using it even for small and trivial problems, this
process is incredibly useful for large, complex, poorly-defined, or open-ended problems. It helps you make
progress when the way forward may not always be clear.
 Assessment Opportunity 

There are a couple of assessment opportunities on page 5 of the Activity Guide:

Apply the problem-solving process to approach a variety of problems You can choose to check the chart to
make sure that students are putting in reasonable steps for each of the problems.

Assess how well-defined a problem is and use strategies to define the problem more precisely

For the last question on page 5 of the Activity Guide, you can make sure that students have at least one
question or strategy that would be an effective way to better define a problem.

Wrap Up (5 minutes)
Question of the Day: How can we apply the problem solving process to many different kinds of problems?

Journal Prompt: The problem solving process is particularly helpful when we encounter poorly-defined problems.
We saw today that without a well-defined problem the rest of the problem solving process is difficult to follow.
What are some questions or strategies we can use to help us better understand and define problems before we try
to solve them?

Discuss: Have groups share quickly before taking suggestions from the class as a whole.

Discussion Goal: There are many different strategies to help define problems, including the questions in the
previous lesson's activity guide. Some potentially useful questions include:

Who in particular the problem affects. What specifically do they need? In what kind of situations?
Why the problem exists? (And why does that problem exist?) Keep asking to get to the heart of the problem.
How could I be able to tell the problem had been solved? What could I observe or measure?

 Remarks
Excellent work everyone. We now understand a great deal about the problem solving process. This is going to be
an incredibly useful tool that we'll use repeatedly throughout the year as we dig deeper into understanding the
world of computer science.
 This work is available under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

If you are interested in licensing [Link] materials for commercial purposes contact us.
Lesson 4: What is a Computer?
45 minutes

Overview Objectives
This lesson builds on the problem-solving theme of the earlier Students will be able to:
lessons and focuses on the specifics of how computing is used
in problem-solving, starting with developing a preliminary Choose problems that can be solved
definition of a computer. To begin the lesson, the class will with computing and justify those
brainstorm possible definitions for a computer and place the choices.
results of this brainstorm on the board. Next, students will work Identify a computer as a machine that
in groups to sort pictures into “is a computer” or “is not a works with information
computer” on poster paper. Groups will place their posters Reason about whether particular
around the room and briefly explain their motivations for
objects are or are not computers.
choosing some of their most difficult categorizations. The
teacher will then introduce a definition of the computer and
allow students to revise their posters according to the new Preparation
definition.
For each group
Question of the Day: What is a computer?
Print out copies of the activity guide.
Note there are two sets of pictures,
Standards Full Course Alignment
but each group only needs a single
set.
CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards (2017)
Scissors (if you will not have time to
CS - Computing Systems cut the pictures prior to class)
Poster paper
Markers or colored pencils
Agenda Glue or tape to attach pictures
Warm Up (5 minutes) For the teacher
Computers then and now
Check the "Teacher's Lounge" forum
Activity (35 minutes) for verified teachers to find additional
Computer or Not? strategies or resources shared by
Present Your Categorizations fellow teachers
Wrap Up (5 minutes) If you are teaching virtually, consider
Journal checking our Virtual Lesson
Modifications

Links
Heads Up! Please make a copy of any
documents you plan to share with
students.

For the teachers

 What is a Computer - Slides
 Make a Copy

For the students

What is a Computer - Video

(Download)
What is a Computer (Version A) -
Activity Guide  Make a Copy
What is a Computer (Version B) -
Activity Guide  Make a Copy

Vocabulary
Computer - A machine that works
with information.

Teaching Guide

Warm Up (5 minutes)

Computers then and now

Journal Prompt: This picture shows one of the world's first computers, and two of the world's first computer
programmers. What are three ways this computer is different from computers that we use today? What are two
ways that it is the same? What is one thing you think is true of ALL computers?
Discuss: Once students have reflected in their journals, they can share out their ideas "popcorn" style, with each
student who shares an idea calling on a new classmate to share next. Run this conversation as a brainstorm,
recording ideas on the board. Note and call out similarities in characteristics. Students may come up with counter
examples for some of the common characteristics. Remind them that you are brainstorming and that it's important
to consider all of the possible ideas, and that they will have more time to think about this question in the lesson.

Discussion Goal: This warm-up starts students thinking about what the defining characteristics of a computer are.
Students do not need to have a definition of a computer, but they should start to think about the different types of
computers in their lives and what they have in common.

Note: The programmers pictured are Elizabeth Jean Jennings Bartik and Frances Bilas Spence. The computer
pictured is the ENIAC.

 Remarks
Computers come in all different forms, and they've changed a lot over the years. Today we're going to think about
what makes something a computer.

Question of the Day: What is a computer?

Activity (35 minutes)

Computer or Not?

Group: Place students in groups of 3 or 4

Distribute: Activity Guide as well as scissors, markers / colored pencils, poster paper, and glue / tape for making
posters. (Note that there are two possible versions of the activity guide. Choose the best for your class, or give
different groups different versions.)

 Teaching Tip 

Modifications from the Forum: Many teachers have shared ideas for extending modifying lessons on the forum
(link). Head there to check out ways teachers have reduced printables, integrated technology, or otherwise
adapted this activity to fit the needs of their class. If you do something new, share your ideas too!

Give students the following directions:

Draw a line down the middle of your poster, label one side "Computer" and the other "Not a Computer"
Discuss as a group which of the objects in your set (from the activity guide) belong in each category
Once your group is in agreement tape your objects to the appropriate side
Develop a list of characteristics your groups used to determine whether an object is a computer

Circulate: Circle the room as students work to categorize the different images on the activity guide. Encourage
groups to talk openly about their ideas and explain why they do or don't think an object should be categorized as a
computer. For groups that can’t decide on a categorization, ask members to defend their points of view, and try to
reach a consensus. Assure groups that it is okay if one or two people disagree, and that everyone's point of view
should be respected.

 Teaching Tip 

Tape First: Students will have an opportunity to update their categorizations later in the lesson. For now they
should just tape their objects to their poster or even just place them on the correct side.
At the end of the time bring the class back together and ask them to place their posters at the front of the room.

Present Your Categorizations

Share: Have each group briefly present their posters, focusing their discussion on the following points

 Teaching Tip 

Comparing Categorizations: There are two different sets of objects in the activity guide. The first page of each
set is identical while the second pages are different. This will mean all students will see some objects that they
categorized already and some that are new. Use this to help drive conversation.

. What rules or definition did you use to categorize your objects?

. Which item was most difficult for you to categorize? How did you eventually make the decision of where to
place it?

Invite the audience to respectfully question any categorizations if they disagree with the presenting group's
decisions.

 Remarks
As you can see, it's not always clear whether something is a computer, and even experts sometimes have
different points of view. Let's have a look, however, at a definition that we'll use throughout this course.

 Display: Show students the What is a Computer video in the slides.

The video presents a computer as a machine that helps with certain kinds of thinking work by manipulating
information. You may want to present the definition as "a machine that works with information".

 Teaching Tip 

To encourage active engagement and reflection, use one or more of the strategies discussed in the Guide to
Curriculum Videos.

Questions to think about with the video:

What made computers different from machines that came before them?

Discussion Goal: After watching the video, students should understand that computers are machines designed to
help people with thinking work, as opposed to physical work. Within a problem-solving context, computers are
designed to solve information problems. Subtleties may come up in the discussion around computers that have
output mechanisms that allow them to do physical work (e.g. robots). It's okay if students do not come to a
particular conclusion about every device they can think of.

Key Vocabulary:

computer: a machine that works with information

Allow students to revise their posters using the definition they have just learned. They can use the following
questions to guide them.

What types of problems is this device used to solve?

Does the device use information to solve problems?
Where does it get the information?
How does it use the information to solve problems?
Discuss: Did any groups change their minds about whether something was a computer? What about the definition
convinced you?
 Assessment Opportunity 

Rather than looking at how particular items are categorized, check students' reasoning about whether a device
is a computer. Make sure that they are mentioning that it manipulates information or solves information (or
thinking) problems, and prompt them with the scaffolding questions if they are unable to give a sufficient
definition.

It may be impossible to tell from the picture alone whether or not an item is a computer. Reassure the class that
even experts often disagree about what exactly is or is not a computer.

Wrap Up (5 minutes)
Question of the Day: What is a computer?

Key Vocabulary:

computer: - a machine that works with information

Journal

Prompt: Today you've had a chance to look at a definition of a computer that focuses on how the computer solves
problems. We've also seen many different types of computers. In your journal, think of a problem that a computer
can help you to solve.

What is the information problem?

What information does the computer need to solve that problem?
What type of thinking work does the computer need to do to solve the problem?

 Teaching Tip 

Identifying Information Problems: Students are still developing an understanding of what information is or
what an information problem that a computer could help solve looks like. Have students share their ideas if you
like but frame the conversation as a first investigation of this question since they'll return to it repeatedly for
the rest of the unit.

 Assessment Opportunity 

Check that the students have chosen information problems and have described how information can be used
to solve the problem. The answers do not need to be specific enough to program into a computer, but should
give enough of a general description to justify that it is an information (or computational) problem.

This work is available under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

If you are interested in licensing [Link] materials for commercial purposes contact us.
Lesson 5: Input and Output
45 minutes

Overview Objectives
This lesson introduces focuses on two of the features identified Students will be able to:
in the previous lesson, input and output, that can help classify
devices as a computer and has students identify different Explain the role that input and output
methods of input or output in common apps. In this lesson, take when computers are used to
students consider how computers get and give information to solve information problems.
the user through inputs and outputs. Students first consider Select the inputs and outputs used to
what information they would need to solve a "thinking problem", perform common computing tasks
then use that information to produce a recommendation. They
then identify the inputs and outputs of that process. Afterward,
students consider an app that engages in the same process and Preparation
determine how that app inputs and outputs information. Last,
they consider other types of inputs and outputs that computers Prepare copies of the activity guide
can use to help solve problems. Check the "Teacher's Lounge" forum
for verified teachers to find additional
Question of the Day: How do computers use input and output
to get and give the information that they need to solve strategies or resources shared by
problems? fellow teachers
If you are teaching virtually, consider
checking our Virtual Lesson

Standards Full Course Alignment Modifications

CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards (2017)

CS - Computing Systems Links
Heads Up! Please make a copy of any
Agenda documents you plan to share with
students.
Warm Up (5 minutes)
Recommending a Pet For the teachers
Activity (35 minutes) Input and Output - Slides
Inputs and Outputs  Make a Copy
Pet Chooser
Story Creator For the students
Improved Pet App
Input and Output - Activity Guide
Wrap Up (5 minutes)  Make a Copy
What Inputs and Outputs Do I Use?
Vocabulary
Input - the information computers get
from users, devices, or other
computers
Output - the information computers
give to users, devices, or other
 computers

Teaching Guide

Warm Up (5 minutes)

Recommending a Pet

Journal
Prompt: Imagine that you are going to recommend a pet to someone. What are three questions you would ask
them to help make that recommendation?

Give students time to write down their three questions.

 Remarks
In the last lesson we learned that a computer is a machine that "works with information". Right now, we're going
to work with information to make a pet recommendation to a classmate.

Group: Put students into pairs.

Prompt: Take turns asking your questions and making a recommendation to your partner.

Discuss: After students have had time to each make a recommendation, allow some students to share out the
answers that their partner gave them and the recommendation that they made. Make a list on the board with the
"answers" next to the "recommendations".

Discussion Goal: In today's lesson, students will be talking about the concepts of "input" and "output" in computing.
For this discussion, it's not so important the exact answers and recommendations, but that students can see that
this information falls into two different categories.

 Remarks
In order to solve this problem, you had to get information from your partner in the form of answers to your
questions. You also had to give information to your partner in the form of a recommendation. Computers do the
same thing. The information that they get from users is called input, and the information that they give to users is
called output. Lets take a look at an app that also makes pet recommendations.

Key Vocabulary:

Input - the information computers get from users, devices, or other computers
Output - the information computer give to users, devices, or other computers

Question of the Day: How do computers use input and output to get and give the information that they need to
solve problems?

Activity (35 minutes)

Inputs and Outputs

Distribute: Copies of the activity guide to each pair (or ask them to answer the questions in their journals).
Vocabulary: The two vocabulary words of the day are found on the top of the activity guide.

Sample Apps
Transition: Send pairs to Code Studio.

 Teaching Tip 

Text-to-Speech Options: The instructions panel includes two options that can support comprehension for
students.

Text to Speech which reads aloud the instructions for students

Microsoft Immersive Reader which opens a new panel for the instructions and gives controls to change
the text size, contrast, or translate to another language.

Click here to learn more about these options

Pet Chooser

Look at the pet chooser app together. Note that it does something very similar to what the students just did in
pairs. As a group, answer the first two questions about the app's input. Make sure students understand that the app
gets the input from the user's behavior, in this case, pressing a button. Depending on the group, you may want to
model the question around output or have students work on it in pairs.

 1 App: Pet Chooser

 Teaching Tip 

Students do not need the exact input for every possible question asked. It's sufficient to say that the input is
information about whether the user has allergies, wants to play with the pet, etc., and that the app gets this
information from the user pressing a button.

Story Creator

Next, allow pairs to look at the story creation app on their own, answering similar questions about its input and
output. This app allows students to put specific information into a form, then generate a personalized story based
on the information provided.

 2 App: Story Creator

 Assessment Opportunity 

Ensure that students are identifying appropriate inputs and outputs. Student answers may vary slightly, but
they should be similar to those in the exemplar provided in the "For the teachers" resources section of the
lesson plan.
Student Apps
In pairs or larger groups, students come up with their own app ideas, and decide the types of input and output that
would be needed for those apps.

Share: Allow students to present their app ideas and the inputs and outputs that they would need.

Other Sources of Input

Prompt: So far, all of the input that we have seen comes directly from the user. Is there any other way that apps
can get the information that they need?

Discuss: Allow students to brainstorm silently, then talk in pairs or small groups before soliciting answers from the
entire group.

Discussion Goal: As students come up with their ideas, ensure that the Internet and sensor data (such as GPS,
microphone, and camera), come up. You may need to prompt students by asking them whether there is anything
that a smartphone knows without the user having to tell it. Although students may not be familiar with every
possible sensor on a phone, by the end of the discussion, they should understand that the phone has sensors that it
can use to get data without the user's direct input.

Improved Pet App

Students should look at the new pet app that is similar to the one they saw before, but with the additional feature
that it gives the user directions to a nearby pet shop where they can get the pet.

Students should identify the different inputs to the improved app, including which inputs are from the user, which
from the Internet, and which from the phone sensors.

 3 App: Improved Pet App

Wrap Up (5 minutes)
Question of the Day: How do computers use input and output to get and give the information that they need to
solve problems?

What Inputs and Outputs Do I Use?

Key Vocabulary:

Input - the information computers get from users, devices, or other computers
Output - the information computers give to users, devices, or other computers

Prompt: Brainstorm an everyday activity you or people you know do with an app or computer.

. What is the input used for that activity?

. What is the output?

Circulate: Have students brainstorm individually and record their ideas on their activity guides or journals.

Discuss: As a class discuss the examples students brainstormed.

  Assessment Opportunity 

Use this wrap up activity to assess how well students have understood the role of input and output in some
common activities on a computer. For example:

Typing on a Keyboard (Input) Makes Letters Appear on a Screen (Output)

Moving a Mouse or Touch Screen (Input) Changes What Appears on the Screen (Output)
Pressing play on a touchscreen (Input) Makes a Song Play through the Speakers (Output)

If you need, give students this or other examples to prompt more examples

This work is available under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

If you are interested in licensing [Link] materials for commercial purposes contact us.
Lesson 6: Processing
45 minutes

Overview Objectives
This lesson introduces the concept of processing within Students will be able to:
computational problem-solving. While this lesson focuses on
four common types of processing - if/then (conditionals), Define processing as the work done
finding a match (searching), counting, and comparing - (possibly by a computer) to turn an
students should understand that processing is whatever a input into an output
computer does to turn inputs into outputs. Students are first Determine which types of processing
introduced to the types of processing through several sample are appropriate for a particular
apps. They then investigate more apps to determine what sorts computing problem.
of processing each uses. They then think of their own app and
Identify several common types of
decide what types of processing it would need to work. Finally,
processing used in computing.
they brainstorm other types of processing that may be useful
but were not included in the main lesson.

Question of the Day: What are the different ways computers Preparation
can process information?
Check the "Teacher's Lounge" forum
for verified teachers to find additional
strategies or resources shared by
Standards Full Course Alignment
fellow teachers
CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards (2017) If you are teaching virtually, consider
AP - Algorithms & Programming checking our Virtual Lesson
Modifications
CS - Computing Systems

Links
Agenda
Warm Up (5 minutes) Heads Up! Please make a copy of any
Analyzing an App (Birthday App) documents you plan to share with
students.
Activity (35 minutes)
Types of Processing For the teachers
Apps and Processing
More Processing Apps with Processing - Slides
Student Apps  Make a Copy

Wrap Up (5 minutes) For the students

What Inputs and Outputs Do I Use?
Apps with Processing - Activity
Guide  Make a Copy
 Vocabulary
Processing - The thinking work
computers do to turn input into
output.

Teaching Guide

Warm Up (5 minutes)

Analyzing an App (Birthday App)

Journal Prompt: Go on Code Studio to try out the birthday app. It has three possible outputs. Try to find each one.

. What is the input to the app?

. What is the output?
. How do you think the app decides which output to give back to the user?

 1 App: Is It Your Birthday?

Circulate: The first part of this reflection serves as a review of input and output. As students reflect on the prompt,
check their answers to ensure that they understand how input and output are used in the app.

 Content Corner 

Students may identify the user's birthdate as one input and possibly the current date as another input. The
message of whether or not it is the birthday is the output. The decision of which message to output is based on
whether the current date matches the date that the user inputs.

Ask students to share out how they thought the app made the decision.

Discussion Goal: Students may have trouble articulating exactly how the app makes its decision. Encourage
discussion and highlight the "matching" and "if/then" facets of the decision make process. (e.g. "The app compares
the birthdate to today's date." / If the birthdate is the same as today's date, then display "Happy Birthday!")

 Remarks
In the past few lessons, we learned that computers are machines that help us with thinking work by turning input
into output. For example, the thinking work this app did was to compare the birthdate to today's date, and to use
that information to decide what to display on the screen. These types of thinking work computers do are called
"processing." We are going to look at some different types of processing today.

Key Vocabulary:

Processing - the thinking work computers do to turn input into output

Question of the Day: What are the different ways computers can process information?
Activity (35 minutes)

Types of Processing

 Remarks
We've already seen two different types of processing in the Birthday App: comparing and if/then. We're going to
look at a couple other apps and see what kinds of processing they might use.

Display: Demonstrate the "National Park " app at the front of the room, or allow students to explore the app on their
own.

 2 App: National Parks

Prompt: How does this app use if/then and comparing to turn the input into output?

Discussion Goal: Allow students to share out their answers, and reinforce that comparing can mean deciding
whether any two things are the same, not just numbers.

Display: Demonstrate the "How Many Countries..." app at the front of the room, or allow students to explore the
app on their own.

 3 App: How Many Countries

Prompt: This app uses some different types of processing to make decisions. What kinds of processing might it
use?

Discussion Goal: Allow students to share out their answers, but make sure that the "counting" and the "find a
match" are highlighted in the discussion.

 Remarks
There are lots of different types of processing that computers can use. Today, we are going to focus on four basic
types: If/then, comparing, finding a match, and counting.

Display: Display the four types of processing and their definitions at the front of the room, and review the
information with the students.

Group: Put students in groups of 2-3. Each group will need access to one computer for this activity.

Distribute: Give each group one copy of the activity guide.

Apps and Processing

As a class, complete the first three rows of the activity guide, which reference the three apps that students have
already seen.

Circulate: Allow students to complete the rest of the chart in their groups. As they fill out the charts, ask them to
elaborate on how the app works and what makes that particular type of processing useful.

 Assessment Opportunity 
 Because almost all apps use more than one form of processing, students may identify unexpected aspects of
the apps. The most important part is their explanation. They should be reasoning about how the input is used to
generate the output of the app.

My Famous Birthday

This app asks users to input their birthday, then tells them the day of the week that they are born and a famous
author born on that same day. The type of processing is included in the "teacher only" notes in the level.

 4 App: My Famous Birthday

Stamp Notebook

This app allows users to click on an icon and "stamp" that icon on the display screen. Clicking an icon more than
once changes the color of the stamp.

 5 App: Stamp Notebook

More Processing

The next chart asks students to find two types of processing for every app. The explanations for processing are
included in the For Teachers Only section in Code Studio. This section asks students to evaluate more complex
apps, which may be difficult for younger students. Feel free to skip this more challenging section and move directly
to the "student app" section.

The Fastest Finger

This app displays which key is being pressed the fastest, the 's' key or the 'k' key.

Guess the Number

This app asks users to guess a number between one and one hundred, and displays whether the guess is too high,
too low, or correct.

Where Should I Live?

This app gives the user advice on where to live based on the answers to a few questions.

 6 App: The Fastest Finger

 7 App: Guess the Number

 8 App: Where Should I Live?

Student Apps

Students come up with their own app ideas, using their previous app from the Inputs and Outputs lesson, or
coming up with a new one. They then think of the types of processing that would be needed for those apps.

Share: Allow students to present their app ideas and the processing that they would need.

Wrap Up (5 minutes)

What Inputs and Outputs Do I Use?

Prompt: We saw four different types of processing today, but there are many more.

. What’s another type of processing that you think would be useful?

. What kind of app might use it?

Circulate: Have students brainstorm individually and record their ideas on their activity guides or journals.

Discuss: As a class, discuss the examples students brainstormed.

 Assessment Opportunity 

Students' answers will vary, but make sure that they are reasonably using processing to change an input into an
output.

This work is available under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

If you are interested in licensing [Link] materials for commercial purposes contact us.
Lesson 7: Storage
45 minutes

Overview Objectives
This lesson introduces the final component of the unit's model Students will be able to:
of computing: storage. After trying out an "outfit picker" app,
students discuss what information should be stored in the app Determine which information in a
versus input every time the app is run. They then look at a series computing problem should be stored
of apps and use their decisions about what should be stored to for later use.
create guidelines for deciding what information to store. They Identify guidelines regarding what
then review the four components of this chapter's model of information should and should not be
computing: input, output, storage, and processing. Afterward, stored as part of the computing
they have one last opportunity to revise their decisions about
process.
which items should be classified as a "computer" from earlier in
Use the input-output-storage-
the chapter. The lesson ends with a reflection on their own app
processing model to describe a
ideas and how storage could be used.
computing process.
Question of the Day: Why is storage an important part of the
computing process?
Preparation
Print a copy of the activity guide for
Standards Full Course Alignment
each student
CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards (2017) Check the "Teacher's Lounge" forum
AP - Algorithms & Programming for verified teachers to find additional
strategies or resources shared by
IC - Impacts of Computing
fellow teachers
If you are teaching virtually, consider
Agenda checking our Virtual Lesson
Modifications
Warm Up (5 minutes)
Analyzing an App (Outfit Picker)
Links
Activity (35 minutes)
Apps with Storage
Heads Up! Please make a copy of any
Outfit Picker
documents you plan to share with
Friend Finder students.
Choose a Kid's Movie
Guidelines For the teachers
Introducing the IOSP Model Apps with Storage - Slides
Wrap Up (5 minutes)  Make a Copy

Journal
For the students

Apps with Storage - Activity Guide

 Make a Copy
What Do Computers Do - Video
(Download)
 Vocabulary
storage - saving information to use in
the future

Teaching Guide

Warm Up (5 minutes)

Analyzing an App (Outfit Picker)

Journal Prompt: Go on Code Studio to look at the outfit picker app. What is one input, one output, and one kind of
processing it might use? Let’s say you used this app every day. What information would you want this app to
remember?

Circulate: The first part of this reflection serves as a review of input, output, and processing. As students reflect on
the prompt, check their answers to ensure that they understand how input, output, and processing are used in the
app.

 Content Corner 

Students may identify the weather, favorite color, or season as the input, and the pictures of outfits as the
output. Although the exact processing of the app may not be clear, students may point out that there are
several likely if/then scenarios ("If the weather is rainy, then include an umbrella.") or matching between the
user's input and features of the outfits.

Discuss: Ask students to share out what information they thought should be stored and why.

Discussion Goal: While it's not important that students agree on the answers, this discussion introduces them to
the idea of storing information for later and prompts them to think about what information should and should not
be stored in an app.

 Remarks
This example app asks for some information that won't change very often, such as your favorite color. Instead of
being required to enter this data every time, it would be helpful if the app could remember our answers by storing
it. All computers can save information for later and read saved information through storage.

Key Vocabulary:

Storage - saving information to use in the future

Question of the Day: Why is storage an important part of the computing process?

Activity (35 minutes)

Apps with Storage

 Remarks
 We're going to look at a few apps that use a few kinds of information. We want to identify which information
could be stored so that we don't have to enter it every time.

Group: Put students in groups of 2-3. Each group will need access to one computer for this activity.

Distribute: Give each group one copy of the activity guide.

As a class, complete the first section of the activity guide, which references the outfit picker app used in the warm-
up.

Send students to Code Studio to see the sample apps.

Circulate: Allow students to complete the rest of the activity guide in their groups. As they fill out the charts, ask
them to elaborate on why they thought each input should be stored or not.

 Assessment Opportunity 

There is some flexibility about what should and shouldn't be stored, since that is a choice that the app designer
could make. The most important part is their explanation. They should be reasoning about whether that
information will change frequently.

Outfit Picker

The first app asks users to input their favorite color, the current season, and the weather, then outputs a picture of
an outfit based on the user input.

 1 App: Outfit Picker

Friend Finder

The second app asks users to input which friends should be on their friends list, then outputs a map that displays
the locations of the friends on the list.

 2 App: Friend Finder

Choose a Kid's Movie

The third app asks users to input several preferences around movies, then outputs a movie recommendation based
on the user's preferences.

 3 App: Choose a Kid's Movie

Guidelines

As groups move on to the final activity, you may need to briefly explain what a guideline is and what the question is
asking for. Make sure that all groups have time to come up with guidelines, even if they have to skip parts of the
earlier chart.
Circulate: If groups get stuck writing their guidelines, ask them about which inputs they said should be stored in
the other apps. Ask them to see if they can find any similarities between which inputs were stored and were not
stored. Remind them that they can also write guidelines about which inputs were not stored.

 Assessment Opportunity 

Student answers may vary, but in general, they should realize that whether information should or should not be
stored relates to how frequently it changes, if changes at all.

Once most of the groups are done writing their guidelines, bring the class back together and ask if any group would
like to share one of their guidelines.

Introducing the IOSP Model

 Remarks
Now we can understand a computer as a machine that does four things: input, output, storage, and processing

 Display: Show students the What Do Computers Do video in the slides which introduces the IOSP model.

Prompt for discussion with two discussion questions.

 Teaching Tip 

If you are using journaling, prompt the students to write their answers down in their journals.

To encourage active engagement and reflection, use one or more of the strategies discussed in the Guide to
Curriculum Videos.

. Think of something you do on the computer. What sort of input, output, storage, and processing are
happening?

. What kinds of input, output, storage, and processing are used in a modern smartphone?

Finally, look at the poster from the "What is a Computer?" lesson and check to see if any of the machines should be
reclassified as computers or not computers based on this new IOSP model.

 Assessment Opportunity 

You can use the two journal prompts here to asses students' ability to identify the different parts of IOSP in an
app they commonly use and in a smartphone.

Wrap Up (5 minutes)

Journal

Prompt: Think of an app you would like to make. What information would it store?

Share: Time permitting, allow students to share out their ideas.

Discussion Goal: As student share their ideas, ensure that they are using the key vocabulary of the lesson:

storage - saving information to use in the future

 This work is available under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

If you are interested in licensing [Link] materials for commercial purposes contact us.
Lesson 8: Project - Propose an App
225 minutes

Overview Objectives
To conclude this unit, this project combines the two major Students will be able to:
themes of Unit 1, the problem-solving process and the
input/output/store/process model of a computer, to have Design an app that inputs, outputs,
students identify real-world problems and find ways to use stores, and processes information in
technology to help solve them. This project will be completed order to solve a problem
across multiple days and will result in students creating a poster Identify and define a problem that
of a proposed app they design to solve a real-world problem, could be solved using computing
highlighting the features of their app that they will present to Provide and incorporate targeted peer
their classmates. A project guide provides step-by-step
feedback to improve a computing
instructions for students and helps them organize their
artifact
thoughts. The project is designed to be completed in pairs
though it can be completed individually.

Question of the Day: How can the IOSP model help us to Preparation
design an app that solves a problem?
Print a copy of Apps and Problem
Solving for each pair of students
Poster paper, pens, markers and other
Standards Full Course Alignment
supplies for making posters
CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards (2017) Check the "Teacher's Lounge" forum
AP - Algorithms & Programming for verified teachers to find additional
strategies or resources shared by
CS - Computing Systems
fellow teachers
If you are teaching virtually, consider
Agenda checking our Virtual Lesson
Modifications
Warm Up (5 minutes)
Introduce the Project
Links
Activity (215 minutes)
Project Guide
Heads Up! Please make a copy of any
Presenting Apps
documents you plan to share with
Wrap Up (5 minutes) students.
Reflection
Teacher End-Of-Unit Survey For the teachers

Extended Learning Project - Propose an App - Slides

Shark Tank  Make a Copy

Post-Project Test For the students

Apps and Problem Solving - Activity

Guide  Make a Copy
Apps and Problem Solving - Peer
Review  Make a Copy
 Apps and Problem Solving - Rubric
 Make a Copy
Apps and Problem Solving - Student
Checklist - Resource
 Make a Copy
Computer Science Practices -
Activity Guide  Make a Copy

Teaching Guide

Warm Up (5 minutes)

Introduce the Project

Prompt: Of the apps we've seen in this unit, what was your favorite? What problem did it solve?

Share: Allows students to share out their favorite apps.

 Remarks
This whole unit we’ve been learning about the problem solving process and how computers process information
to help solve problems by taking inputs and processing them to create useful outputs. Today we're going to start
a project where you and a partner will design an app to solve a problem of your choosing.

Question of the Day: How can the IOSP model help us to design an app that solves a problem?

Activity (215 minutes)

Project Guide

Distribute: Give one project guide and one rubric or student checklist to each student. As a class, review the
information provided on the first sheet of the project guide which explains the project, lists the steps, and shows
what students will need to produce. Then provide a brief overview of each of the more detailed steps.

Step 1: Choose a Partner: Place students in pairs or groups of three.

 Teaching Tip 

Creating Groups: Ideally, this project is done in pairs. If need be, groups of 3 will work. You should decide
beforehand whether you will assign or allow students to pick their partners.

Facilitating Group Projects: If students are working in pairs or small teams to complete projects, consider
showing these two videos to the class:

How Teamwork Works

Dealing with Disagreements

Depending on your goals with this project, consider having teams complete a Student Guide to Team Planning,
which reinforces the message in the video
Step 2: Brainstorm Problems: Prompt groups to spend several minutes silently brainstorming problems and
recording them on their project guides. Circulate the room and remind them that at this point they shouldn't be
thinking about an app they want to build or even whether it's possible to solve this problem with an app. Make sure
they're beginning with the problem rather than the solution.

 Teaching Tip 

Helping the Brainstorm: Listen carefully to student conversations. Identify students who are stuck, and the
reason why they are stuck. Are they thinking too big? Help those students to think about problems as
annoyances or inconveniences, or an opportunity to improve your quality of life to a small or big degree.

Step 3: Choose Your Problem: The project guide provides several criteria students can use to assess which of their
problems they'd like to address. Ask students to look forward to Step 4 if they need more guidance on how they'll
need to define or scope their problems. Give students a few minutes to discuss with their group and choose the
problem they'd like to address with their app.

Step 4: Define Your Problem: For this step students will need to appropriately scope their problem by defining who
their audience is, what specifically is the problem, and how they will know they have fixed it.

 Teaching Tip 

How Much to Help: At this point students have had a lot of practice defining problems. They also have a peer
review process shortly after this step. Encourage them to be as detailed as possible but avoid giving specific
advice for how to define their problem.

Step 5: Your App: Once students have scoped their problem, ask them to discuss an app that could be used to help
solve their problem. To begin they'll just need to provide a high level description of the app that describes how a
user would use it and what it does.

 Teaching Tip 

What Kind of App?: This project is supposed to result in a simple app, along the lines of those seen in the
previous lesson. Even large problems or parts of large problems can be addressed by collecting and processing
information appropriately.

Scoping Student Projects: Students may ideate projects that are beyond the skills they currently have or that
would take longer than the allotted time to implement. Rather than asking students to choose a different
project, consider asking students to imagine a more scaled-down version of their initial idea. As an analogy, if
students initial idea is the "Run" step, imagine a less intense version that represents what the "Walk" step would
look like. If necessary, you can keep going back further to a "Crawl" step as well.

Digging Deeper: This is sometimes referred to as the Minimal Viable Product - you can learn more about this
process and adapt it into your project strategies by reading this article: Making Sense of MVP by Henrik
Kniberg

Step 6: Input, Output, Store, Process: In this step students design the way their app will actually work to process
data.

First students will draw and then describe the outputs of their apps. On the left side they can make a rough sketch
of what their app would look like. This does not need to be a final draft and is just there to help them brainstorm
ideas and communicate to another group how their app would look. On the right side they have space to label each
individual piece of information on the screen.

Using the outputs that students selected as a guide, students should pick the inputs they'll need to create them.
Only 6 spaces are provided though students could opt to choose more. This is somewhat intentional to help
students scope the functionality of their app.
Students will describe the way their app processes data using as a model the way they would process it
themselves. The goal here is primarily just to ensure students have selected inputs that could be processed to
produce the outputs. For example, if they're finding a list of friends with birthdays this month then both a computer
and human would need to know a list of friends' birthdays and the current month.

Lastly students are asked to decide what information, if any, it makes sense to store long term.

Distribute: Apps and Problem Solving - Peer Review, one copy to each pair of students

Step 7: Peer Review: Each group should trade their project guides with another. They should fill out the first line of
the peer review which asks what specific part of their project they'd like feedback on. Afterward, there are a
number of directed questions as well as a chance to provide more open-ended feedback on the idea.

Students should be given their project guides back as well as their peer feedback. On the back, there are questions
where they can indicate what changes or improvements to their projects they intend to make on their apps based
on the feedback.

Step 8: Finalize App and Make Poster: Students should incorporate the ideas of their peers in finalizing their app
idea. They should then make a poster presenting their app following the guidance provided in the activity guide.

Students should revisit the rubric for this project to see how their project aligns. You may also decide to distribute
the Apps and Problem Solving - Student Checklist so students can self-assess how well their project meets the
requirements for this project.

 Teaching Tip 

Rubric and Checklist: Students have two resources they can use for self-reflection and making sure they are on
the right track: the rubric and the student checklist. We recommend having students use the checklist for their
own self-assessment and reflection, since it may be easier to digest and understand when reviewing their own
project. However, we recommend teachers use the full rubric for evaluating projects to give more accurate
feedback to students. You can see examples of this with the Sample Marked Rubrics resource at the top of the
lesson plan (only visible to verified teachers)

 Assessment Opportunity 

Use the project rubric attached to this lesson to assess student mastery of the learning goals of this unit. You
may also choose to assign the post-project test through code studio.

Presenting Apps

Share: Decide if and how students will share their posters with one another. If students will be doing more formal
presentations then use the guidelines provided in Step 9 of the project guide to structure the presentations.

Collect: At the end of the presentation collect the completed project guides, peer feedback forms, and posters
from each group.

Wrap Up (5 minutes)

Reflection

Question of the Day: How can the IOSP model help us to design an app that solves a problem?

Reflect: Students reflect on the following question in their journals:

What are you most proud of in your project?

Send students to Code Studio to complete their reflection on their attitudes toward computer science. Although
their answers are anonymous, the aggregated data will be available to you once at least five students have
completed the survey.

 1 End of Unit Survey

Teacher End-Of-Unit Survey

We also have a teacher end-of-unit survey to learn more about how the unit went for you and your students. While
students take their survey, please complete this end of unit survey for teachers as well. Your feedback is valued
and appreciated!

Extended Learning

Shark Tank

Run a mock “Shark Tank” as the backdrop for this unit project. Some things to consider:

Is the culture of your class one where this competition can remain at a healthy level?
Invite faculty / staff, local residents, or other professionals to hear the Phase 2 presentations and decide on a
first, second, third place idea.
Invite local business people / other professionals to share during Day 1 or Day 2 so students can see how
computer science relates to jobs in their community.

Post-Project Test
Post-Project tests are included at the end of every unit. These include several multiple choice and matching
questions as well as open ended reflections on the final project of the unit. These tests are aligned to the learning
framework of each unit and are designed to assess parts of the framework that may not have been covered by the
project rubrics. To holistically assess the learning objectives of the unit, the post-project test should be paired with
the end-of-unit project which is the primary student assessment in each unit.

Unlocking The Tests: This test is locked and hidden from student view by default. In order for students to see and
take this test, you'll need to unlock it by clicking the "Lock Settings" button and following the instructions that
appear. Click here for more information about unlocking and admistering assessments

This work is available under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

If you are interested in licensing [Link] materials for commercial purposes contact us.
Lesson 1a: Intro to Problem Solving -
Newspaper Table
45 minutes

Overview Objectives
This lesson is a fun introduction to the open-ended, Students will be able to:
collaborative, and creative problem-solving students will be
using over the rest of this unit and course. In this lesson, Communicate and collaborate with
students work in groups to design newspaper tables that will classmates in order to solve a problem
hold as many books as possible. Groups have two rounds to Identify different strategies used to
work on their tables, with the goal of trying to hold more books solve a problem
than they did in the first round. The structure of the activity Iteratively improve a solution to a
foreshadows different steps of the problem-solving process problem
that students will be introduced to in more detail in the
following lesson. At the end of the lesson, students reflect on
their experiences with the activity and make connections to the Preparation
types of problem-solving they will be doing for the rest of the
course. For each group

Question of the Day: What can help us to work together and 2 full newspapers for each group of
solve problems as a team? students

This is an alternate activity to Intro to Problem Solving - 1 roll of tape for each group of
Aluminum Boats students
One copy of the activity guide

For the teacher

Standards Full Course Alignment
10-20 books of similar weight.
CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards (2017) Check the "Teacher's Lounge" forum
AP - Algorithms & Programming for verified teachers to find additional
strategies or resources shared by
fellow teachers
Agenda If you are teaching virtually, consider
checking our Virtual Lesson
Tech Setup
Modifications
Before class
At the beginning of class

CSD Pre-Course Survey Links

Warm Up (5 minutes)
Heads Up! Please make a copy of any
Set the Stage documents you plan to share with
students.
Activity (35 minutes)
Building a Newspaper Table
Goal and Rules For the teachers
Develop a Plan [Link] How-to Videos
Test Your Table Intro to Problem Solving
Evaluate and Improve (Newspapers) - Slides
 Wrap Up (5 minutes)  Make a Copy
Discuss the Challenge
For the students

Build a Newspaper Table - Activity

Guide  Make a Copy

Teaching Guide

Tech Setup
Throughout the year, in order for you to be able to see student work, and for students to be able to access online
tools and resources, all students need to be in the same section on Code Studio. To see assessments and answer
keys that [Link] provides, you also need to be a "verified teacher".

Before class

Ensure you are registered on Code Studio as a "verified" teacher account

Anyone can create a teacher account on Code Studio, which means that we need an extra layer of authorization to
allow CS Discoveries teachers to see assessments, answer keys, and any other collateral that students should not
be able to trivially get access to. If you attended a [Link] professional learning workshop during the summer,
you should already have this access.

To check whether you have access:

. Navigate to the Unit 1 course overview page

. Do you see the CS Discoveries Pre-course Survey as the first "stage" of the course?
. If not, please fill out this form. Note that it can take a day or so to become a verified teacher account, so
please do this step early!

If you are not a verified teacher account, you can still create a section for your class, but you will not be able to
administer the pre-course survey on the first day.

Create a class section on Code Studio.

To create a section:

. Navigate to the Teacher Home Page

. Click 'New section' under 'Classroom Sections'
. Choose 'Email Logins'
. In the space provided, give your section a name (e.g. CSD Period 1), the grade of your students, Course:
'Computer Science Discoveries', Current Unit: 'Unit 1: Problem Solving', and click 'Save'
. Once the section is created, click the name of the section
. On the new page, you will see a unique Join URL that you will distribute to your students in class.

For a video walkthrough of these steps and more on navigating your [Link] account, go to the [Link] How-to
Video Playlist

At the beginning of class

. Have students create a Code Studio account at [Link] if they don't already have one
. Share the section Join URL with students and tell them to navigate to it to join your section
 You can confirm that a student successfully joined your section by having the section progress page on
the Teacher Home Page open and hitting refresh as students join. Students should see a small green bar at
the top of their page that says 'You've successfully joined ...'
. From [Link] have students locate the Computer Science Discoveries tile and click 'View course', then
go to Unit 1.

Once students are looking at the Unit 1 overview page, they will be ready to take the CSD Pre-Course survey

CSD Pre-Course Survey

Important! Have your students take the CSD Pre-Course Survey!

Students can find a link to the survey in Code Studio as the first item on the Unit 1 overview page. To ensure that
students only take the survey at the appropriate time, it is "locked" and unviewable by them until you "unlock" the
survey. The [r how-to-administer-a-locked-assessment/csd/2021] document provides details on how to do that
when you are ready. Note that the instructions for administering an assessment and a survey are the same.

How much time does it take? The survey does take some time - it is roughly 30 questions. You might consider
administering it on an admin day at school, or as an early homework.

When should I give the survey? Because it is a pre-course survey it is important that students take it as early in the
course as possible before they have had much (or any) exposure to the class so that we may accurately gauge
changes in attitudes and beliefs caused by the course.

 Teaching Tip 

A major goal of CS Discoveries is to broaden participation in computer science.

It is crucial therefore to have insight into students' attitudes and beliefs about computer science before
the course so that we can measure the amount of change that occurred after the course is over.

Please note that this survey is anonymous for students

Completing it also helps us understand important improvements we can make to the curriculum to improve
the teacher and student experience.

Please help by having your students contribute to this vital dataset. Their voices make the difference!

Warm Up (5 minutes)

Set the Stage

Prompt: What makes someone a good problem solver? Be ready to share three ideas with your group.

 Teaching Tip 

Journaling: Journaling is a key practice in CS Discoveries. Students can journal on loose leaf paper, in
notebooks, or digitally.

Slides: Slides for this unit are available in the "Teacher Resources" section of the lesson plan. You will be
prompted to make a copy, which you will only need to do once - after that, you may use the slides for each
lesson in the curriculum.

Discuss: Allow students to share answers at their table groups or with a partner, then have those who are
comfortable share with the whole class.
Discussion Goal: The goal of this warm-up is to start students thinking about problem-solving in preparation for the
day's activity. Highlight answers that reinforce key practices in the class, such as collaboration, persistence, and
creativity. This is also a chance to reinforce a positive culture that encourages students to share out and support
each other in brainstorming ideas.

 Remarks
Those are all great ideas! In computer science, we have to solve problems all of the time, so we'll be looking back
at all of these problem solving skills today and for the rest of the course. Most of the problem solving that people
do in computer science happens in teams. Today, we're going to work in teams to solve a fun problem that
doesn't need computers. While you work on that problem, here's a question that you can think about.

Display: Show students the Question of the Day

Question of the Day: What can help us to work together and solve problems as a team?

Activity (35 minutes)

Building a Newspaper Table

Group: Put students in groups of 2 or 3.

 Remarks
Today we're going to be building tables out of newspaper and tape. Each table should hold books at least one
foot off the ground. You'll have an opportunity to build at least two tables and use your experience with each one
to improve your designs. Before we get started, decide as a group what kind of design you'd like to make with
your first table. Record your ideas and any possible weaknesses of this design on your activity guide.

Distribute: One copy of the activity guide to each group.

 Teaching Tip 

Getting Copies of Google Docs: Activity Guides in this curriculum are available
as Google Docs, Word Docs, and PDFs. If you'd like to edit or make your own
copy of a Google Doc you may without requesting access. Simply log in with a
Google account, click "File" and "Make a copy" from the menu. You may then
share your own copy with your students.

Goal and Rules

As a class, read through the Goal and Rules sections of the activity guide and answer questions.

 Teaching Tip 

This activity can take some space. You may also want to consider running this activity in the hallway or some
other space if your room is very restrictive, or add in additional rules as necessary.
Develop a Plan

Give students a couple minutes to discuss in groups the approach they will be taking with this first table. Once
groups have recorded their ideas and some possible weaknesses they can come to you to get their newspaper and
tape and begin building their tables.

 Teaching Tip 

Hold onto the supplies until students submit a plan for their table. The goal isn't to slow them down too much,
but just give them a moment to reflect briefly on the possible approaches they could take. This is one way this
activity foreshadows the Planning step of the problem solving process students will see in subsequent lessons.

Test Your Table

Once groups are ready, have them test their tables by placing individual books onto the top. Remind them of the
rules, specifically that they can't touch or adjust the tables once they've begun to add books, and that the books
need to be at least one foot (or 30 cm) off the ground. Have them record the total number of books held on their
activity guides.

Evaluate and Improve

 Remarks
This first attempt at building our tables was just to get familiar with the challenge. We're all going to build a
second table and see if we can improve the number of books our tables hold. Before we get started though, let's
see what we can learn from this trial run.

Share: Have students share the results of their first run with neighboring groups. Ask groups to focus particularly
on what the eventual failure of their table was (e.g. it wasn't wide enough, it was unstable, etc.) and brainstorm
ways to get around those problems.

 Teaching Tip 

While some students will view this portion as a competition, emphasize that each group is looking to improve
its own design, not competing against others. You are appealing for each student to challenge themselves first,
not others.

Develop a Plan

 Remarks
Now that you've had a chance to learn from the first round of table making, let's run the same activity again. First,
your group will develop a new plan. Just as before, record it on your activity guide, and once you're ready I'll come
around and give you a new newspaper.

Support: As you circulate from group to group, ask questions about the group’s focus in redesign. EX: “What aspect
of your table needed the most improvement?” “What ideas from other groups did you want to incorporate to
yours?” “Did you feel the need to completely restructure your table, or make minor modifications?”

Once groups have prepared their new plans give them a new newspaper and have them each build a new table.
  Assessment Opportunity 

Iteratively improve a solution to a problem

You can check for strengths and weaknesses in students' original design and connection to appropriate
changes for the next iteration of the project in the Activity Guide.

Identify different strategies used to solve a problem

You also may want to check the "strengths" of their designs that students list as part of developing their plan on
the second page of the guide.

Test Your Table

Groups can test their designs just as before and record the results on their activity guides.

Reflect

Transition: Ask class to return to their own seats to reflect on the activity.

Wrap Up (5 minutes)

Discuss the Challenge

Question of the Day: What can help us to work together and solve problems as a team?

Prompt: You worked in teams for this activity. How did working in a team make this activity easier, how did it make
the activity more challenging? What helped your group overcome these challenges?

Discuss: Allow students time to share thoughts with the class.

 Assessment Opportunity 

Students may recognize that collaboration allowed them to think through their ideas more thoroughly or that
they were able to split up the work that they needed to do. As students list challenges, ensure that they are
coming up with ways to overcome those challenges. If you have noticed any issues in group dynamics during
the activity, you may want to use this time to bring up these as potential problems in a non-confrontational way
and help students to generate strategies for working together more effectively in future activities. These can
serve as classroom norms for group work moving forward.

 Remarks
All of your thoughts around these questions were great. We're going to be doing a lot of teamwork in this class.
You may be used to thinking about computer science as being all about computers, but first and foremost
computer science is about solving problems, and usually that happens in teams. A lot of other parts of this
activity like improving designs, and building things is also going to be a big part of this class. I hope you're excited
for the year. Tomorrow we'll start digging deeper into problem solving itself.

This work is available under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

If you are interested in licensing [Link] materials for commercial purposes contact us.
Lesson 1b: Intro to Problem Solving -
Spaghetti Bridge
45 minutes

Overview Objectives
This lesson is a fun introduction to the open-ended, Students will be able to:
collaborative, and creative problem-solving students will be
using over the rest of this unit and course. In this lesson, Communicate and collaborate with
students work in groups to design spaghetti bridges that will classmates in order to solve a problem
support as many books as possible. Groups have two rounds to Identify different strategies used to
work on their bridges, with the goal of trying to hold more solve a problem
books than they did in Round 1. The structure of the activity Iteratively improve a solution to a
foreshadows different steps of the problem-solving process problem
that students will be introduced to in more detail in the
following lesson. At the end of the lesson, students reflect on
their experiences with the activity and make connections to the Preparation
types of problem solving they will be doing for the rest of the
course. For each group

Question of the Day: What can help us to work together and 1 pound of dry spaghetti noodles
solve problems as a team? (about 1 box)

This is an alternate activity to Intro to Problem Solving - 1 glue gun

Aluminum Boats One copy of the activity guide

For the teacher

Standards Full Course Alignment 10-20 books of similar size and weight
Check the "Teacher's Lounge" forum
CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards (2017) for verified teachers to find additional
AP - Algorithms & Programming strategies or resources shared by
fellow teachers
If you are teaching virtually, consider
Agenda checking our Virtual Lesson
Modifications
Tech Setup
Before class
At the beginning of class Links
CSD Pre-Course Survey
Heads Up! Please make a copy of any
Warm Up (5 minutes) documents you plan to share with
Set the Stage students.

Activity (35 minutes)

Building a Spaghetti Bridge For the teachers
Goal and Rules [Link] How-to Videos
Develop a Plan Intro to Problem Solving (Spaghetti)
Test Your Bridge - Slides  Make a Copy
Evaluate and Improve
 Test Your Table For the students
Reflect
Spaghetti Bridge - Activity Guide -
Wrap Up (5 minutes) Activity Guide  Make a Copy
Discuss the Challenge

Teaching Guide

Tech Setup
Throughout the year, in order for you to be able to see student work, and for students to be able to access online
tools and resources, all students need to be in the same section on Code Studio. To see assessments and answer
keys that [Link] provides, you also need to be a "verified teacher".

Before class

Ensure you are registered on Code Studio as a "verified" teacher account

Anyone can create a teacher account on Code Studio, which means that we need an extra layer of authorization to
allow CS Discoveries teachers to see assessments, answer keys, and any other collateral that students should not
be able to trivially get access to. If you attended a [Link] professional learning workshop during the summer,
you should already have this access.

To check whether you have access:

. Navigate to the Unit 1 course overview page

. Do you see the CS Discoveries Pre-course Survey as the first "stage" of the course?
. If not, please fill out this form. Note that it can take a day or so to become a verified teacher account, so
please do this step early!

If you are not a verified teacher account, you can still create a section for your class, but you will not be able to
administer the pre-course survey on the first day.

Create a class section on Code Studio.

To create a section:

. Navigate to the Teacher Home Page

. Click 'New section' under 'Classroom Sections'
. Choose 'Email Logins'
. In the space provided, give your section a name (e.g. CSD Period 1), the grade of your students, Course:
'Computer Science Discoveries', Current Unit: 'Unit 1: Problem Solving', and click 'Save'
. Once the section is created, click the name of the section
. On the new page, you will see a unique Join URL that you will distribute to your students in the class.

For a video walkthrough of these steps and more on navigating your [Link] account, go to the [Link] How-to
Video Playlist

At the beginning of class

. Have students create a Code Studio account at [Link] if they don't already have one
. Share the section Join URL with students and tell them to navigate to it to join your section
 You can confirm that a student successfully joined your section by having the section progress page on
the Teacher Home Page open and hitting refresh as students join. Students should see a small green bar at
the top of their page that says 'You've successfully joined ...'
. From [Link] have students locate the Computer Science Discoveries tile and click 'View course', then
go to Unit 1.

Once students are looking at the Unit 1 overview page, they will be ready to take the CSD Pre-Course survey

CSD Pre-Course Survey

Important! Have your students take the CSD Pre-Course Survey!

Students can find a link to the survey in Code Studio as the first item on the Unit 1 overview page. To ensure that
students only take the survey at the appropriate time, it is "locked" and unviewable by them until you "unlock" the
survey. The [r how-to-administer-a-locked-assessment/csd/2021] document provides details on how to do that
when you are ready. Note that the instructions for administering an assessment and a survey are the same.

How much time does it take? The survey does take some time - it is roughly 30 questions. You might consider
administering it on an admin day at school, or as an early homework.

When should I give the survey? Because it is a pre-course survey it is important that students take it as early in the
course as possible before they have had much (or any) exposure to the class so that we may accurately gauge
changes in attitudes and beliefs caused by the course.

 Teaching Tip 

A major goal of CS Discoveries is to broaden participation in computer science.

It is crucial therefore to have insight into students' attitudes and beliefs about computer science before
the course so that we can measure the amount of change that occurred after the course is over.

Please note that this survey is anonymous for students

Completing it also helps us understand important improvements we can make to the curriculum to improve
the teacher and student experience.

Please help by having your students contribute to this vital dataset. Their voices make the difference!

Warm Up (5 minutes)

Set the Stage

Prompt: What makes someone a good problem solver? Be ready to share three ideas with your group.

 Teaching Tip 

Journaling: Journaling is a key practice in CS Discoveries. Students can journal on loose leaf paper, in
notebooks, or digitally.

Slides: Slides for this unit are available in the "Teacher Resources" section of the lesson plan. You will be
prompted to make a copy, which you will only need to do once - after that, you may use the slides for each
lesson in the curriculum.

Discuss: Allow students to share answers at their table groups or with a partner, then have those who are
comfortable share with the whole class.
Discussion Goal: The goal of this warm-up is to start students thinking about problem-solving in preparation for the
day's activity. Highlight answers that reinforce key practices in the class, such as collaboration, persistence, and
creativity. This is also a chance to reinforce a positive culture that encourages students to share out and support
each other in brainstorming ideas.

 Remarks
Those are all great ideas! In computer science, we have to solve problems all of the time, so we'll be looking back
at all of these problem solving skills today and for the rest of the course. Most of the problem solving that people
do in computer science happens in teams. Today, we're going to work in teams to solve a fun problem that
doesn't need computers. While you work on that problem, here's a question that you can think about.

Display: Show students the Question of the Day

Question of the Day: What can help us to work together and solve problems as a team?

Activity (35 minutes)

Building a Spaghetti Bridge

Group: Put students in groups of 2 or 3.

 Remarks
Today we're going to be building spaghetti bridges. Each bridge will need to cross a 1-foot (or 30cm) gap and
hold as many books as possible. You'll have an opportunity to build at least two bridges and use your experience
with each one to improve your designs. Before we get started, decide as a group what kind of design you'd like to
make with your first bridge. Record your ideas and any possible weaknesses of this design on your activity guide.

Distribute: One copy of the activity guide to each group.

 Teaching Tip 

Getting Copies of Google Docs: Activity Guides in this curriculum are available
as Google Docs, Word Docs, and PDFs. If you'd like to edit or make your own
copy of a Google Doc you may without requesting access. Simply log in with a
Google account, click "File" and "Make a copy" from the menu. You may then
share your own copy with your students.

Goal and Rules

As a class, read through the Goal and Rules sections of the activity guide and answer questions.

 Teaching Tip 

This activity can take some space and can get a little messy. You may also want to consider teaching this
activity in the hallway or some other space if your room is very restrictive, or add in additional rules as
necessary.
Develop a Plan

Give students a couple minutes to discuss in groups the approach they will be taking with this first bridge. Once
groups have recorded their ideas and some possible weaknesses they can come to you to get their spaghetti and
begin building their bridges. Give about 1/2 pound of spaghetti to each group.

 Teaching Tip 

Hold onto the supplies until students submit a plan for their bridge. The goal isn't to slow them down too much,
but just give them a moment to reflect briefly on the possible approaches they could take. This is one way this
activity foreshadows the Planning step of the problem solving process students will see in subsequent lessons.

Test Your Bridge

Once groups are ready, have them test their bridges by placing individual books onto the bridge. Remind them of
the rules, specifically that they can't touch or adjust the bridges once they've placed a book on it. Have them
record the total number of books held on their activity guides.

Evaluate and Improve

 Remarks
This first attempt at building our bridge was a great chance to learn more about the problem. We're all going to
build a second bridge and see if we can improve the number of books our bridges held. Before we get started
though, let's see what we can learn from this trial run.

Share: Have students share the results of their first run with neighboring groups. Ask groups to focus particularly
on what the eventual failure of their bridge was (e.g. it wasn't long enough, it was unstable, etc.) and brainstorm
ways to get around those problems.

 Teaching Tip 

While some students will view this portion as a competition, emphasize that each group is looking to improve
its own design, not competing against others. You are appealing for each student to challenge themselves first,
not others.

If running this activity over two days, you may choose to break here.

Develop a Plan

 Remarks
Now that you've had a chance to learn from the first round of bridge making, let's run the same activity again.
First, your group will develop a new plan. Just as before, record it on your activity guide, and once you're ready I'll
come around and give you new spaghetti.

Support: As you circulate from group to group, ask questions about the group’s focus in redesign. EX: “What aspect
of your bridge needed the most improvement?” “What ideas from other groups did you want to incorporate to
yours?” “Did you feel the need to completely restructure your bridge, or make minor modifications?”

Once groups have prepared their new plans give them more spaghetti and have them each build a new bridge.
  Assessment Opportunity 

Iteratively improve a solution to a problem

You can check for strengths and weaknesses in students' original design and connection to appropriate
changes for the next iteration of the project in their Activity Guide.

Identify different strategies used to solve a problem

You also may want to check the "strengths" of their designs that students list as part of developing their plan on
the second page of the guide.

Test Your Table

Groups can test their designs just as before and record the results on their activity guides.

Reflect

Transition: Ask class to return to their own seats to reflect on the activity.

Wrap Up (5 minutes)

Discuss the Challenge

Question of the Day: What can help us to work together and solve problems as a team?

Prompt: You worked in teams for this activity. How did working in a team make this activity easier, how did it make
the activity more challenging? What helped your group overcome these challenges?

Discuss: Allow students time to share thoughts with the class.

 Assessment Opportunity 

Students may recognize that collaboration allowed them to think through their ideas more thoroughly or that
they were able to split up the work that they needed to do. As students list challenges, ensure that they are
coming up with ways to overcome those challenges. If you have noticed any issues in group dynamics during
the activity, you may want to use this time to bring up these as potential problems in a non-confrontational way
and help students to generate strategies for working together more effectively in future activities. These can
serve as classroom norms for group work moving forward.

 Remarks
All of your thoughts around these questions were great. We're going to be doing a lot of teamwork in this class.
You may be used to thinking about computer science as being all about computers, but first and foremost
computer science is about solving problems, and usually that happens in teams. A lot of other parts of this
activity like improving designs, and building things is also going to be a big part of this class. I hope you're excited
for the year. Tomorrow we'll start digging deeper into problem solving itself.

This work is available under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

If you are interested in licensing [Link] materials for commercial purposes contact us.
Lesson 1c: Intro to Problem Solving - Paper
Tower
45 minutes

Overview Objectives
This lesson is a fun introduction to the open-ended, Students will be able to:
collaborative, and creative problem-solving students will be
using over the rest of this unit and course. In this lesson, Communicate and collaborate with
students work in groups to design paper towers that can stand classmates in order to solve a problem
as high as possible. Groups have two rounds to work on their Identify different strategies used to
towers, with the goal of trying to go higher than they did in solve a problem
Round 1. The structure of the activity foreshadows different Iteratively improve a solution to a
steps of the problem-solving process that students will be problem
introduced to in more detail in the following lesson. At the end
of the lesson, students reflect on their experiences with the
activity and make connections to the types of problem-solving Preparation
they will be doing for the rest of the course.
For each group
Question of the Day: What can help us to work together and
solve problems as a team? 20 sheets of paper, 8.5 x 11 inches
Space to build their tower
This is an alternate activity to Intro to Problem Solving -
Aluminum Boats One copy of the activity guide

For the teacher

Extra paper
Standards Full Course Alignment
Timer
CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards (2017) Ruler
AP - Algorithms & Programming Check the "Teacher's Lounge" forum
for verified teachers to find additional
strategies or resources shared by
Agenda fellow teachers
If you are teaching virtually, consider
Tech Setup
checking our Virtual Lesson
Before class
Modifications
At the beginning of class

CSD Pre-Course Survey

Links
Warm Up (5 minutes)
Set the Stage Heads Up! Please make a copy of any
documents you plan to share with
Activity (35 minutes)
students.
Building a Paper Tower
Goal and Rules
For the teachers
Develop a Plan
Test Your Tower [Link] How-to Video Playlist
Evaluate and Improve
 Wrap Up (5 minutes) Intro to Problem Solving (Paper
Discuss the Challenge Tower) - Slides  Make a Copy

For the students

Paper Tower - Activity Guide

 Make a Copy

Teaching Guide

Tech Setup
Throughout the year, in order for you to be able to see student work, and for students to be able to access online
tools and resources, all students need to be in the same section on Code Studio. To see assessments and answer
keys that [Link] provides, you also need to be a "verified teacher".

Before class

Ensure you are registered on Code Studio as a "verified" teacher account

Anyone can create a teacher account on Code Studio, which means that we need an extra layer of authorization to
allow CS Discoveries teachers to see assessments, answer keys, and any other collateral that students should not
be able to trivially get access to. If you attended a [Link] professional learning workshop during the summer,
you should already have this access.

To check whether you have access:

. Navigate to the Unit 1 course overview page

. Do you see the CS Discoveries Pre-course Survey as the first "stage" of the course?
. If not, please fill out this form. Note that it can take a day or so to become a verified teacher account, so
please do this step early!

If you are not a verified teacher account, you can still create a section for your class, but you will not be able to
administer the pre-course survey on the first day.

Create a class section on Code Studio.

To create a section:

. Navigate to the Teacher Home Page

. Click 'New section' under 'Classroom Sections'
. Choose 'Email Logins'
. In the space provided, give your section a name (e.g. CSD Period 1), the grade of your students, Course:
'Computer Science Discoveries', Current Unit: 'Unit 1: Problem Solving', and click 'Save'
. Once the section is created, click the name of the section
. On the new page, you will see a unique Join URL that you will distribute to your students in the class.

For a video walkthrough of these steps and more on navigating your [Link] account, go to the [Link] How-to
Video Playlist.

At the beginning of class

. Have students create a Code Studio account at [Link] if they don't already have one
. Share the section Join URL with students and tell them to navigate to it to join your section
 You can confirm that a student successfully joined your section by having the section progress page on
the Teacher Home Page open and hitting refresh as students join. Students should see a small green bar at
the top of their page that says 'You've successfully joined ...'
. From [Link] have students locate the Computer Science Discoveries tile and click 'View course', then
go to Unit 1.

Once students are looking at the Unit 1 overview page, they will be ready to take the CSD Pre-Course survey

CSD Pre-Course Survey

Important! Have your students take the CSD Pre-Course Survey!

Students can find a link to the survey in Code Studio as the first item on the Unit 1 overview page. To ensure that
students only take the survey at the appropriate time, it is "locked" and unviewable by them until you "unlock" the
survey. The [r how-to-administer-a-locked-assessment/csd/2021] document provides details on how to do that
when you are ready. Note that the instructions for administering an assessment and a survey are the same.

How much time does it take? The survey does take some time - it is roughly 30 questions. You might consider
administering it on an admin day at school, or as an early homework.

When should I give the survey? Because it is a pre-course survey it is important that students take it as early in the
course as possible before they have had much (or any) exposure to the class so that we may accurately gauge
changes in attitudes and beliefs caused by the course.

 Teaching Tip 

A major goal of CS Discoveries is to broaden participation in computer science.

It is crucial therefore to have insight into students' attitudes and beliefs about computer science before
the course so that we can measure the amount of change that occurred after the course is over.

Please note that this survey is anonymous for students

Completing it also helps us understand important improvements we can make to the curriculum to improve
the teacher and student experience.

Please help by having your students contribute to this vital dataset. Their voices make the difference!

Warm Up (5 minutes)

Set the Stage

Prompt: What makes someone a good problem solver? Be ready to share three ideas with your group.

 Teaching Tip 

Journaling: Journaling is a key practice in CS Discoveries. Students can journal on loose leaf paper, in
notebooks, or digitally. See the CSD Guide to Journaling for more information.

Slides: Slides for this unit are available in the "Teacher Resources" section of the lesson plan. If you'd like to edit
your own copy of a slide deck you may without requesting access. Simply log in with a Google account, click
"File" and "Make a copy" from the menu.

Discuss: Allow students to share answers at their table groups or with a partner, then have those who are
comfortable share with the whole class.
Discussion Goal: The goal of this warm-up is to start students thinking about problem-solving in preparation for the
day's activity. Highlight answers that reinforce key practices in the class, such as collaboration, persistence, and
creativity. This is also a chance to reinforce a positive culture that encourages students to share out and support
each other in brainstorming ideas.

 Remarks
Those are all great ideas! In computer science, we have to solve problems all of the time, so we'll be looking back
at all of these problem solving skills today and for the rest of the course. Most of the problem solving that people
do in computer science happens in teams. Today, we're going to work in teams to solve a fun problem that
doesn't need computers. While you work on that problem, here's a question that you can think about.

Display: Show students the Question of the Day

Question of the Day: What can help us to work together and solve problems as a team?

Activity (35 minutes)

Building a Paper Tower

Group: Put students in groups of 2 or 3.

 Remarks
Today we're going to be building paper towers. You'll have an opportunity to build at least two towers and use
your experience with each one to improve your designs. Before we get started, decide as a group what kind of
design you'd like to make with your first tower. Record your ideas and any possible weaknesses of this design on
your activity guide.

Distribute: One copy of the activity guide to each group.

 Teaching Tip 

Getting Copies of Google Docs: Activity Guides in this curriculum are available
as Google Docs, Word Docs, and PDFs. If you'd like to edit or make your own
copy of a Google Doc you may without requesting access. Simply log in with a
Google account, click "File" and "Make a copy" from the menu. You may then
share your own copy with your students.

Goal and Rules

As a class, read through the Goal and Rules sections of the activity guide and answer questions.

 Teaching Tip 

This activity needs some space! Ideally, each group should have its own space to conduct its tests. You may
also want to consider teaching this activity in the hallway or some other large area if your room is very
restrictive.
Develop a Plan

Give students a couple minutes to discuss in groups the approach they will be taking with this first tower. Once
groups have recorded their ideas and some possible weaknesses they can come to you to get their paper and begin
building their towers.

 Teaching Tip 

Hold onto the paper until students submit a plan for their tower. The goal isn't to slow them down too much,
but just give them a moment to reflect briefly on the possible approaches they could take. This is one way this
activity foreshadows the Planning step of the problem solving process students will see in subsequent lessons.

Test Your Tower

Once groups are ready, have them test their towers by recording its height and see if it can stand on its own.
Remind them of the rules, specifically that they can't touch or adjust the towers once they let go of it.

Evaluate and Improve

 Remarks
This first attempt at building our towers was just to get familiar with the challenge. We're all going to build a
second tower and see if we can improve the height of our tower without having it fall. Before we get started
though, let's see what we can learn from this trial run.

Share: Have students share the results of their first run with neighboring groups. Ask groups to focus particularly
on what the eventual failure of their tower was (e.g. tall but doesn't stand on its own, stands but is really short, etc.)
and brainstorm ways to get around those problems.

 Teaching Tip 

While some students will view this portion as a competition, emphasize that each group is looking to improve
its own design, not competing against others. You are appealing for each student to challenge themselves first,
not others.

Develop a Plan

 Remarks
Now that you've had a chance to learn from the first round of tower making, let's run the same activity again.
First, your group will develop a new plan. Just as before, record it on your activity guide, and once you're ready I'll
come around and give you more paper.

Support: As you circulate from group to group, ask questions about the group’s focus in redesign. EX: “What aspect
of your tower needed the most improvement?” “What ideas from other groups did you want to incorporate to
yours?” “Did you feel the need to completely rebuild your tower, or make minor modifications?”

Once groups have prepared their new plans give them new pieces of paper and have them each build a new tower.

 Assessment Opportunity 
 Iteratively improve a solution to a problem

You can check for strengths and weaknesses in students' original design and connection to appropriate
changes for the next iteration of the project in their Activity Guide.

Identify different strategies used to solve a problem

You also may want to check the "strengths" of their designs that students list as part of developing their plan on
the second page of the guide.

Test Your Tower

Groups can test their designs just as before and record the results on their activity guides.

Reflect

Transition: Ask class to return to their own seats to reflect on the activity.

Wrap Up (5 minutes)

Discuss the Challenge

Question of the Day: What can help us to work together and solve problems as a team?

Prompt: You worked in teams for this activity. How did working in a team make this activity easier, how did it make
the activity more challenging? What helped your group overcome these challenges?

Discuss: Allow students time to share thoughts with the class.

 Assessment Opportunity 

Students may recognize that collaboration allowed them to think through their ideas more thoroughly or that
they were able to split up the work that they needed to do. As students list challenges, ensure that they are
coming up with ways to overcome those challenges. If you have noticed any issues in group dynamics during
the activity, you may want to use this time to bring up these as potential problems in a non-confrontational way
and help students to generate strategies for working together more effectively in future activities. These can
serve as classroom norms for group work moving forward.

 Remarks
All of your thoughts around these questions were great. We're going to be doing a lot of teamwork in this class.
You may be used to thinking about computer science as being all about computers, but first and foremost
computer science is about solving problems, and usually that happens in teams. A lot of other parts of this
activity like improving designs, and building things is also going to be a big part of this class. I hope you're excited
for the year. Tomorrow we'll start digging deeper into problem solving itself.

This work is available under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

If you are interested in licensing [Link] materials for commercial purposes contact us.
Lesson 3a: Exploring Problem Solving -
Animals Theme
90 minutes

Overview Objectives
In this lesson, students apply the problem-solving process to Students will be able to:
three different problems in order to better understand the value
of each step. They will solve tangrams, choose a pet for several Apply the problem solving process to
people, and plan a pet adoption event. The problems grow approach a variety of problems
increasingly complex and poorly defined to highlight how the Assess how well-defined a problem is
problem-solving process is particularly helpful when tackling and use strategies to define the
these types of problems. The lesson concludes with students problem more precisely
reflecting on their experience with the problem-solving
process. They will justify the inclusion of each step and will
brainstorm questions or strategies that can help them better Preparation
define open-ended problems, as this is often the most critical
step. Print the activity guide for each
student
This lesson will likely take two class periods or more to
Prepare tangrams for students, or
complete. The first two problems may fit into a single class
period but the third will need to be moved to a second day. print out one tangram sheet and get
scissors for each group.
Question of the Day: How can we apply the problem-solving Poster to record strategies for
process to many different kinds of problems?
defining problems in wrap up
This is an alternate activity to Exploring Problem Solving discussion
Check the "Teacher's Lounge" forum
for verified teachers to find additional
Assessment Opportunities strategies or resources shared by
. Apply the problem solving process to approach a variety fellow teachers
of problems If you are teaching virtually, consider
checking our Virtual Lesson
On page 5 of the Activity Guide, check the chart to make
Modifications
sure that students are putting in reasonable steps for each
of the problems.

. Assess how well-defined a problem is and use strategies Links

to define the problem more precisely

For the last question on page 5 of the Activity Guide, make Heads Up! Please make a copy of any
sure that students have at least one question or strategy documents you plan to share with
that would be an effective way to better define a problem. students.

For the teachers

Standards Full Course Alignment
Exploring Problem Solving (Animals)
- Slides  Make a Copy
CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards (2017)
AP - Algorithms & Programming For the students
Agenda Solving Problems - Activity Guide
 Make a Copy
Warm Up (5 minutes) Tangrams - Resource
 Make a Copy
Activity (80 minutes)
Solving Problems
Understanding the Problem Solving Process

Wrap Up (5 minutes)

Teaching Guide

Warm Up (5 minutes)
Journal Prompt: Think of the silliest problem the problem solving process could help with. Be prepared to say how
each step of the process could apply.

Allow students to share out individually.

Discussion Goal: This discussion serves as a review of the problem solving process and highlights how many
different types of problems there could be. Encourage students to be creative and have some fun with the
different "problems" they might solve.

 Remarks
With such a wide variety of problems and strategies, it's important to be able to think about how best to use the
problem solving process. Today we're going to look at some different types of problems, talk about what makes
them different, and reflect on how the problem solving process helped us solve them.

Question of the Day: How can we apply the problem solving process to many different kinds of problems?

Activity (80 minutes)

Group: For all three activities students should be working together in groups, even if they record their results
individually. Groups of 2-4 will likely work best.

Distribute: Hand out the activity guide, one copy for each student. For now they can be face down so that the
tangrams aren't visible.

Solving Problems

Tangrams
 Teaching Tip 

Integrating the Problem Solving Process: The tangrams can actually take several minutes, especially if students
are approaching without some kind of strategy. Remind them that one step is to Prepare before they just jump
in and start hunting.

Make It a Race: Making this problem a race is a good way to drive motivation and also ensure that groups don't
share the solutions once they've found them.
 Key: A key showing possible solutions can be found online following the link provided above.

Once students are in groups, hand them the sheets with the tan pieces. ask them to flip over their activity guides
and begin the first challenge. They'll be creating the images using their tan pieces that they can cut out.

Circulate: Walk around the room observing how students are addressing the problem. Make sure that groups are
not sharing answers. Encourage them to think about how making a plan might help them address this task.

Once all groups have finished, bring the class back together. Have students flip to the last page of the activity
guide where there is a table to record their experiences with the problem. They will record what parts of solving this
problem fall within each step of the problem solving process.

Discuss: Briefly discuss with students what parts of the activity they felt fell into each step of the problem solving
process. Some possible points to make after students share are below.

Define: This problem was already very well defined. Not all problems will be, though.
Prepare: Developing a plan with a team (such as divvying up the images or just working together on each
image) makes this problem much easier to solve than randomly placing pieces places.
Try: Patience and persistence is important to see your plan through
Reflect: If your early plans are not working you can regroup and choose a new plan

Choose a Pet
 Teaching Tip 

Integrating the Problem Solving Process: This problem is particularly challenging if you don't define the
problem well. If you take it at face value, your job is to randomly guess and check where to place individual puts
until you find a solution. It is much easier if you first list the possible pets for each person, then choose pets for
the most selective people first.

This isn't the only approach to the problem, and you shouldn't rush to introduce it as such. Rather, encourage
students to discuss with one another what they know needs to be true at the end and whether different
approaches might help.

Extending the Problem: If one group finishes far before others you could give them a blank sheet of paper and
ask them to solve the problem again but with a new condition of your choosing (e.g. pick one person in their
solution and ask whether they can solve the problem with an added requirement.)

Move the class on to the choose a pet problem. Groups may still work together on their solutions but shouldn't
share with other groups.

Circulate: As before, circulate around the room noting the types of strategies that groups are using. Remind them
to use the steps of the problem solving process to help them if they're getting stuck.

Once groups have finished solving the problem ask them to move to the last page of the activity guide to record
how they used the problem solving process to solve this problem.

Discuss: Briefly discuss with students what parts of the activity they felt fell into each step of the problem solving
process. Some possible points to make after students share are below.

Define: The problem seems to be a problem of choosing a pet for each person according to requirements. If
you first break that problem down into choosing a pet from a list of possible pets, it is much easier.
Prepare: Ask students to share what types of strategies they considered before just starting to assign people
to seats.
Try: As before, patience and persistence is important to see your plan through
Reflect: If early strategies are not working groups may have regrouped and tried a more structured approach
Plan a Pet Adoption Event
 Teaching Tip 

Integrating the Problem Solving Process: This problem is intentionally very open-ended and in fact has
students develop the criteria they'll use to measure success. This problem does the best job of highlighting all 4
steps of the process and walks students more intentionally through the Define, Prepare, Try, and Reflect stages.

Give Resource Ideas: Students may just brainstorm ideas by themselves, but also let them know about other
resources such as search engines and image searchers to help give them inspiration if they are stuck. Let them
look at other event pages and flyers online for help.

When to Stop: This problem could easily take a 50 minute class period. Let students know ahead of time that
there are time limits on what they're doing and encourage them to think how they would improve their plan
using the problem solving process if they had more time to iterate.

Move the class on to the Plan a Pet Adoption Event problem. Each member of the group will individually be
developing a plan for a layout that follows criteria they'll develop as a team. Give students time to choose the goals
they'll use to plan their plan. For example there may be certain things they'd like to move, places people will have to
go, people they want to help them, etc.

Circulate: Once groups have goals, they will move through the activity by developing a plan to create the adoption
event. Give them a time limit on this part of this process, e.g. 15 minutes, to make sure they focus on the key
elements on their plan rather than perfecting it. They should record key information about their plan in their activity
guides.

Bring groups back together and have them share their initial plans. On the activity guides they can record the
feedback their classmates give them on their plans.

Once groups have discussed what they like or don't like about their classmates' proposed plans, they can re-
examine them and make improvements. Are there other things they'd like to do? Do they have new goals? Give
them several minutes to make improvements to their plans before deciding on a final version.

Bring the class back together and have them record the different steps of the problem solving process that they
used in their activity guides.

Discuss: Briefly discuss with students what parts of the activity they felt fell into each step of the problem solving
process. Some possible points to make after students share are below.

Define: This problem was not well-defined. They needed to decide for themselves what a "good" adoption
event looked like, and this definition could have even shifted throughout the process.
Prepare: Narrowing down a list of possible layouts is helpful. You may also choose to make the point that this
entire activity is an example of preparation. Some layouts just don't make sense or others work better, so you
need to do the kind of planning they're doing here.
Try: As before, patience and persistence is important to see your plan through
Reflect: In this problem reflection came primarily through feedback from peers. Some layouts might not end up
seeming as practical to other group members. Some are fun but require too much moving or too many new
things. Feedback is an important part of the reflect step, especially in group work.

Understanding the Problem Solving Process

Prompt: You just solved a number of very different problems. With your table groups, review the notes you took on
each of the problems. Be ready to report out on the following questions

For each step in the problem-solving process, what is its purpose? Why is it included?
Are there any kinds of problems that the problem-solving process is particularly helpful at solving?
Discuss: After tables have discussed their responses for several minutes invite the whole class to share their
rationale for including each step in the process. Once each step has been discussed, move on to the second
question. This question may have many responses and you should allow students to share their thoughts and
experiences. If it doesn't arise naturally as you leave the conversation offer some or all of the ideas mentioned in
the discussion goals.

Discussion Goal: Students have practiced using the problem-solving process on a number of different problems.
Help them synthesize the notes they have been keeping to better understand the role of each step and the value of
the problem-solving process in general. A sample set of conclusions is below but you should allow students to
share your own insights before offering your own.

Define: without defining a problem you might solve the wrong problem, not know where to start, or not know when
you're finished

Prepare: Even well-defined problems usually have many possible approaches. Make each try more likely to succeed
by first examining your options and anticipating challenges

Try: Without trying you'll never get anywhere. It's important to be persistent and patient so long as your plan still
may work

Reflect: You'll likely not solve the problem the first time or there will be a better way to solve it. Learn from your
past attempts and get ready to start the process again.

The Problem-Solving Process: While you may notice you're using it even for small and trivial problems, this process
is incredibly useful for large, complex, poorly-defined, or open-ended problems. It helps you make progress when
the way forward may not always be clear.
 Assessment Opportunity 

Apply the problem-solving process to approach a variety of problems On page 5 of the Activity Guide, check
the chart to make sure that students are putting in reasonable steps for each of the problems.

Assess how well-defined a problem is and use strategies to define the problem more precisely

For the last question on page 5 of the Activity Guide, make sure that students have at least one question or
strategy that would be an effective way to better define a problem.

Wrap Up (5 minutes)
Question of the Day: How can we apply the problem solving process to many different kinds of problems?

Journal Prompt: The problem solving process is particularly helpful when we encounter poorly-defined problems.
We saw today that without a well-defined problem the rest of the problem solving process is difficult to follow.
What are some questions or strategies we can use to help us better understand and define problems before we try
to solve them?

Discuss: Have groups share quickly before taking suggestions from the class as a whole.

Discussion Goal: There are many different strategies to help define problems, including the questions in the
previous lesson's activity guide. Some potentially useful questions include:

Who in particular the problem affects. What specifically do they need? In what kind of situations?
Why does the problem exist? (And why does that problem exist?) Keep asking to get to the heart of the
problem.
How could I be able to tell the problem had been solved? What could I observe or measure?

 Remarks
 Excellent work everyone. We now understand a great deal about the problem solving process. This is going to be
an incredibly useful tool that we'll use repeatedly throughout the year as we dig deeper into understanding the
world of computer science.

This work is available under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

If you are interested in licensing [Link] materials for commercial purposes contact us.
Lesson 3b: Exploring Problem Solving -
Games Theme
90 minutes

Overview Objectives
In this lesson, students apply the problem-solving process to Students will be able to:
three different problems in order to better understand the value
of each step. They will solve a maze, organize a team to race as Apply the problem solving process to
fast as possible, and design a game. The problems grow approach a variety of problems
increasingly complex and poorly defined to highlight how the Assess how well-defined a problem is
problem-solving process is particularly helpful when tackling and use strategies to define the
these types of problems. The lesson concludes with students problem more precisely
reflecting on their experience with the problem-solving
process. They will justify the inclusion of each step and will
brainstorm questions or strategies that can help them better Preparation
define open-ended problems, as this is often the most critical
step. Print the activity guide for each
student
This lesson will likely take two class periods or more to
Scratch paper for the Partner Race
complete. The first two problems may fit into a single class
period but the third will need to be moved to a second day. Relay problem
Poster to record strategies for
Question of the Day: How can we apply the problem-solving defining problems in wrap up
process to many different kinds of problems?
discussion
This is an alternate activity to Exploring Problem Solving Check the "Teacher's Lounge" forum
for verified teachers to find additional
strategies or resources shared by
Standards Full Course Alignment
fellow teachers
If you are teaching virtually, consider
CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards (2017)
checking our Virtual Lesson
AP - Algorithms & Programming Modifications

Agenda Links
Warm Up (5 minutes)
Heads Up! Please make a copy of any
Activity (80 minutes) documents you plan to share with
Solving Problems students.
Understanding the Problem Solving Process
For the teachers
Wrap Up (5 minutes)
Exploring Problem Solving (Games) -
Slides  Make a Copy

For the students

Solving Problems - Activity Guide

 Make a Copy
Teaching Guide

Warm Up (5 minutes)
Journal Prompt: Think of the silliest problem the problem solving process could help with. Be prepared to say how
each step of the process could apply.

Allow students to share out individually.

Discussion Goal: This discussion serves as a review of the problem-solving process and highlights how many
different types of problems there could be. Encourage students to be creative and have some fun with the
different "problems" they might solve.

 Remarks
With such a wide variety of problems and strategies, it's important to be able to think about how best to use the
problem solving process. Today we're going to look at some different types of problems, talk about what makes
them different, and reflect on how the problem solving process helped us solve them.

Question of the Day: How can we apply the problem solving process to many different kinds of problems?

Activity (80 minutes)

Group: For all three activities students should be working together in groups, even if they record their results
individually. Groups of 2-4 will likely work best.

Distribute: Hand out the activity guide, one copy for each student. For now they can be face down so that the
maze isn't visible.

Solving Problems

Maze
 Teaching Tip 

Integrating the Problem Solving Process: This word search can actually take several minutes, especially if
students are approaching without some kind of strategy. Remind them that one step is to Prepare before they
just jump in and start hunting.

Make It a Race: Making this problem a race is a good way to drive motivation and also ensure that groups don't
share the locations of words once they've found them.

Key: A key showing possible solutions can be found online following the link provided above.

Once students are in pairs ask them to flip over their activity guides and begin the first challenge. They'll be finding
a solution to a multi-step maze.

Circulate: Walk around the room observing how students are addressing the problem. Make sure that groups are
not sharing solutions. Encourage them to think about how making a plan might help them address this task.
Once all groups have finished, bring the class back together. Have students flip to the last page of the activity
guide where there is a table to record their experiences with the problem. They will record what parts of solving this
problem fall within each step of the problem solving process.

Discuss: Briefly discuss with students what parts of the activity they felt fell into each step of the problem solving
process. Some possible points to make after students share are below.

Define: This problem was already very well defined. Not all problems will be, though.
Prepare: Developing a plan with a team (such as divvying up the maze, or just being methodical about looking
for a path) makes this problem much easier to solve than random trying.
Try: Patience and persistence is important to see your plan through
Reflect: If your early plans are not working you can regroup and choose a new plan

Partner Race Relay

 Teaching Tip 

Integrating the Problem Solving Process: This problem is particularly challenging if you don't Define the
problem well. If you take it at face value, your job is to randomly guess and check partnering the players until
you find a fast solution. It is much easier if you come up with general strategies first (send fast people back, pair
slow people together).

This isn't the only approach to the problem, and you shouldn't rush to introduce it as such. Rather, encourage
students to discuss with one another what they know needs to be true at the end and whether different
approaches might help.

Draw Pictures: Students will likely do better if they try out different solutions. You may wish for students to use
a journal or scratch paper as a place to brainstorm ideas.

Extending the Problem: If one group finishes far before others you could give them a blank sheet of paper and
ask them to solve the problem again but with a shorter time. The minimum time for the solution is 42 minutes,
and if students have already reached that time, challenge them to explain how they know that their time is the
fastest.

Move the class on to the partner race relay problem. Groups may still work together on their solutions but shouldn't
share with other groups.

Circulate: As before, circulate around the room noting the types of strategies that groups are using. Remind them
to use the steps of the problem solving process to help them if they're getting stuck.

Once groups have finished solving the problem ask them to move to the last page of the activity guide to record
how they used the problem solving process to solve this problem.

Discuss: Briefly discuss with students what parts of the activity they felt fell into each step of the problem solving
process. Some possible points to make after students share are below.

Define: The problem seems to be a problem of getting a team to move quickly. If you instead think of it as a
problem of having fast people run more trips or pairing slow people so they don't slow down fast people, the
problem can be solved more quickly.
Prepare: Ask students to share what types of strategies they considered before just starting to try out
solutions.
Try: As before, patience and persistence is important to see your plan through
Reflect: If early strategies are not working groups may have regrouped and tried a more structured approach

Make a Game
 Teaching Tip 
 Integrating the Problem Solving Process: This problem is intentionally very open-ended and in fact has
students develop the criteria they'll use to measure success. This problem does the best job of highlighting all 4
steps of the process and walks students more intentionally through the Define, Prepare, Try, and Reflect stages.

Give Resource Ideas: Students may just brainstorm ideas by themselves, but also let them know about other
resources such as search engines and image searchers to help give them inspiration if they are stuck. Let them
look at other games online for help.

When to Stop: This problem could easily take a 50 minute class period. Let students know ahead of time that
there are time limits on what they're doing and encourage them to think how they would improve their route
using the problem solving process if they had more time to iterate.

Move the class on to the Make a Game problem. Each member of the group will individually be developing a plan
for a layout that follows criteria they'll develop as a team. Give students time to choose the goals they'll use to plan
their game. For example there may be certain space restrictions, number of students included, etc.

Once groups have goals, they will move through the activity by developing a plan to make their game. Give them a
time limit on this part of this process, e.g. 15 minutes, to make sure they focus on the key elements on their plan
rather than perfecting it. They should record key information about their plan in their activity guides.

Bring groups back together and have them share their initial plans. On the activity guides they can record the
feedback their classmates give them on their plans.

Once groups have discussed what they like or don't like about their classmates' proposed plans, they can re-
examine them and make improvements. Are there other things they'd like to do? Do they have new goals? Give
them several minutes to make improvements to their plans before deciding on a final version.

Bring the class back together and have them record the different steps of the problem solving process that they
used in their activity guides.

Discuss: Briefly discuss with students what parts of the activity they felt fell into each step of the problem solving
process. Some possible points to make after students share are below.

Define: This problem was not well-defined. They needed to decide for themselves what a "good" game looked
like, and this definition could have even shifted throughout the process.
Prepare: Narrowing down a list of possible layout is helpful. You may also choose to make the point that this
entire activity is an example of preparation. Some games just don't make sense or others work better, so you
need to do the kind of planning they're doing here.
Try: As before, patience and persistence is important to see your plan through
Reflect: In this problem reflection came primarily through feedback from peers. Some games might not end up
being that interesting to other group members. Some are fun but require too much work or too many materials.
Feedback is an important part of the reflect step, especially in group work.

Understanding the Problem Solving Process

Prompt: You just solved a number of very different problems. With your tables review the notes you took on each
of the problems. Be ready to report out on the following questions

For each step in the problem-solving process, what is its purpose? Why is it included?
Are there any kinds of problems that the problem-solving process is particularly helpful at solving?

Discuss: After tables have discussed their responses for several minutes invite the whole class to share their
rationale for including each step in the process. Once each step has been discussed, move on to the second
question. This question may have many responses and you should allow students to share their thoughts and
experiences. If it doesn't arise naturally as you leave the conversation offer some or all of the ideas mentioned in
the discussion goals.
Discussion Goal: Students have practiced using the problem-solving process on a number of different problems.
Help them synthesize the notes they have been keeping to better understand the role of each step and the value of
the problem-solving process in general. A sample set of conclusions is below but you should allow students to
share your own insights before offering your own.

Define: without defining a problem you might solve the wrong problem, not know where to start, or not know when
you're finished

Prepare: Even well-defined problems usually have many possible approaches. Make each try more likely to succeed
by first examining your options and anticipating challenges

Try: Without trying you'll never get anywhere. It's important to be persistent and patient so long as your plan still
may work

Reflect: You'll likely not solve the problem the first time or there will be a better way to solve it. Learn from your
past attempts and get ready to start the process again.

The Problem-Solving Process: While you may notice you're using it even for small and trivial problems, this process
is incredibly useful for large, complex, poorly-defined, or open-ended problems. It helps you make progress when
the way forward may not always be clear.
 Assessment Opportunity 

Apply the problem-solving process to approach a variety of problems On page 5 of the Activity Guide, check
the chart to make sure that students are putting in reasonable steps for each of the problems.

Assess how well-defined a problem is and use strategies to define the problem more precisely

For the last question on page 5 of the Activity Guide, make sure that students have at least one question or
strategy that would be an effective way to better define a problem.

Wrap Up (5 minutes)
Question of the Day: How can we apply the problem solving process to many different kinds of problems?

Journal Prompt: The problem solving process is particularly helpful when we encounter poorly-defined problems.
We saw today that without a well-defined problem the rest of the problem solving process is difficult to follow.
What are some questions or strategies we can use to help us better understand and define problems before we try
to solve them?

Discuss: Have groups share quickly before taking suggestions from the class as a whole.

Discussion Goal: There are many different strategies to help define problems, including the questions in the
previous lesson's activity guide. Some potentially useful questions include:

Who in particular the problem affects. What specifically do they need? In what kind of situations?
Why the problem exists? (And why does that problem exist?) Keep asking to get to the heart of the problem.
How could I be able to tell the problem had been solved? What could I observe or measure?

 Remarks
Excellent work everyone. We now understand a great deal about the problem solving process. This is going to be
an incredibly useful tool that we'll use repeatedly throughout the year as we dig deeper into understanding the
world of computer science.

This work is available under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
If you are interested in licensing [Link] materials for commercial purposes contact us.