I designed this unit with the aim of introducing young students to the fundamentals of programming, in the hope of helping them to view programming as a discipline built on logic and sequential processing. Theory is kept to a minimum, with students asked to learn 7 key, interrelated key words. Most of the learning takes place within the Scratch visual programming language environment, and students can be encouraged to work independently, solve their own problems and think creatively. The unit provides three levels of assessment, and I allowed students to decide for themselves which they would tackle, allowing students to differentiate the task for themselves.
- ICT Unit – Y7 – 201011 – Programming 101 – Unit Overview
- ICT Unit – Y7 – 201011 – Programming 101 – Task – 1 Standard
- ICT Unit – Y7 – 201011 – Programming 101 – Task – 2 Challenging
- ICT Unit – Y7 – 201011 – Programming 101 – Task – 3 Ridiculous
- ICT Unit – Y7 – 201011 – Programming 101 – Mark Sheet
On the whole my students seemed to enjoy the challenge, although at times they were very frustrated. I used the following diagram to try to help them understand their feelings, and how they change during the problem solving process:
