Materials:

·         One LittleBits Code kit per group (suggestion: 2-3 students per group)

·         One computer for each student group

·         Teacher computer

·         Internet connection

·         Projector

·         Scissors

·         One print out of the handshake function handout per group:

·         Tape (one small piece per group to tape a piece of paper onto a blank space on the wall/board/window)

Preparation:

For the observation activity you will need a large blank wall/board/window space available. In the end it will look like this:

Observation activity:

1)      Show the students the video on the class view “The Best Handshakes Ever”

2)      Show the next section on the class view which instructs the students to create their own handshake with their group and write the directions for the handshake.

3)      Once the students have finished, have them show their team handshakes to the class.

1)      Show the students’ goals on the class view.

2)      Let them know that today we are going to begin learning about function blocks.

3)      Show the next part on the class view where it has the images of the function blocks and descriptions. Have students guess how function blocks would be used within a program.

4)      Show the students the “Code Kit Tutorial 5: Functions” video on the class view.

5)      Facilitate a conversation with your students, how do function blocks work?

6)      Have students go back to their handshake handout. Have them do part 2: name the function (the name should go on the bottom and top function)

7)      Have students cut the 2 function blocks out separately.

8)      Have students tape their 2 function blocks up on the space you cleared out. (the title function under the start, the step by step directions function outside of the main thread)

9)      Once all of the groups have put their functions up. They will imitate how it would work. You will call out the names of the functions in sequential order starting directly under the start. Once you call a function, that group should perform the function.

Ex:

Teacher: “start”

Teacher: “Exploding Octopus Robot Handshake”

Student group performed their handshake “Exploding Octopus Robot Handshake”

Teacher: “coolest handshake ever”

Student group performed their handshake “coolest handshake ever”

Continue until all the function blocks in the main thread have been performed.

10)   Show the example code on the class view. Facilitate a conversation about what the code does. Answer: Instead of repeating this long code over and over again. The programmer made it a function, so in their code they just need to include 1 function block titled “1” for the song to play.

GOAL 1

Show the students’ first goal on the class view.

During the design time, walk around and prompt your students with questions to help deepen their learning and thinking process. Some examples of questions are:

• Why did you make that design decision?
• What do you predict your code will do?

Here is an example of a working code for this goal. The example below only shows the full split function.

CHALLENGE GOAL 2

Present the challenge goal on the class view.

Have students submit their goals as a response to a question on the student view.

During the design time, walk around and prompt your students with questions to help deepen their learning and thinking process. Some examples of questions are:

• Why did you make that design decision?

Have students answer the following questions on their computers. Once all the students have finished answering the questions have a class discussion about their answers. 

1. Explain how function blocks work.
2. What was the most challenging part of using function blocks? What strategies did you use to overcome this challenge?
3. What is the coolest thing about coding with function blocks? Explain why.