Lessons summary
This series of five lessons is aimed at pupils aged 10-11 years (KS2 Year 6 in England, Grade 5 in the USA). They are introduced to variables and develop their understanding through a mixture of unplugged and practical programming activities. Pupils design and program the micro:bit to be a star-jump and step counter and a family activity selector.
The sequence comprises five lessons of approximately 60 minutes each:
- Describing with variables
- Using variables in algorithms and programs
- Analysing, programming and evaluating step-counters
- Planning to get active
- Programming and evaluating a family activity picker
Learning objectives
- can understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science, including abstraction, logic, algorithms and data representation
- have repeated practical experience of writing computer programs in order to solve problems
- can evaluate and apply information technology
- are responsible, competent, confident and creative users of information and communication technology
Additional skills
Creative thinking, collaboration, problem-solving, debugging, evaluation.
You will need
Downloadable resources:
- Lesson plan
- Lesson slides
- Student handouts
- HEX files
Other resources:
- colour marker pens
- MakeCode editor
- micro:bits (optional)
- paper - large sheets
- printouts of slides
- stacking games
- student work from previous lesson
- whiteboards & dry-wipe marker pens