Standard 2: Problem solving and Algorithms

Students will work in groups to assess their knowledge of the three branches of government using a scratch program. Classmates will provide feedback using a rubric and students will write a self-reflection based on the feedback. This is Lesson 3 of 3 in an integrated civics and computer science mini-unit.  

Type: Lesson Plan

This is the final lesson in a 3-lesson unit. In this integrated civics lesson, students will learn about conditional logic through an unplugged activity and complete the Scratch code for a game that uses conditional statements to determine what form of government the user is thinking of.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is lesson 2 in a Spanish, civics and coding integrated unit.  Students will reinforce their knowledge about flowcharts and identify the symbols used to represent algorithms in flowcharts (oval, rectangle, diamond, and arrow). They will research and organize relevant information to write short phrases in Spanish. Students will use symbols to make a flowchart that identifies the type of government of Spain and Latin American countries.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will create a Scratch program about the three branches of government using work from previous lessons (Resources #208945 and #208958). Students will be required to include multiple Sprites, motion block, control block, looks block, conditional statement using the control block, sound block, and the use of an extension. This is the final lesson in a 3-part series that integrates civics with computer science.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will debug a Scratch program on the three branches of government where the roles/responsibilities are incorrectly matched. Student(s) will design a storyboard to create their own Scratch program to prepare for the next lesson. This is the second lesson in a 3-part integrated civics and computer science mini-unit.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will research the three branches of government and analyze the importance of each branch’s responsibility. Students will also complete an unplugged evaluation of the logical flow of a step-by-step Scratch program by cutting up and rearranging printed code. This is the first lesson in a three-part integrated civics and computer science mini-unit.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will research the required criteria for intellectual property to remain protected under copyright laws and when that intellectual property becomes public domain. Students will create a flow chart of "if-then" conditional statements to sort information concerning whether or not intellectual property is public domain or still protected under US copyright laws. This is the second lesson in a 3-lesson unit.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will use their endangered species research from Lesson 1 for a flowchart to plan a Scratch animation. The animation will educate citizens about a specific Florida endangered species and how it can be protected. This is lesson 2 of a 3-lesson unit integrating Civics with Computer Science and Coding.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is the final lesson of a 3-lesson unit integrating Civics with Computer Science. Students will create an animation in Scratch to raise awareness of an endangered species in Florida. Research from Lesson 1 and a flowchart plan from Lesson 2 will be applied.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is part 3 in a 3-lesson unit involving Algorithm design and voting rights. In this lesson, students work in pairs to evaluate/redesign their flowcharts (from lesson 1). A block-based program that applies conditional logic to determine voting eligibility based on demographic data is created. The lesson concludes with a short response essay reflecting on the effect of expanding voting rights on American society.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is the final lesson in a 3-lesson unit. In this lesson, students will review the Electoral College by debugging and improving upon a Scratch simulation of a presidential election map. Students will also apply their knowledge of variables and inequalities through the debugging process.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will research basic demographic information about historical figures who were key to the passage of the 15^th and 19^th Amendments.  Students will practice their conditional thinking skills by completing two thinking maps designed to reinforce the application of conditional statements. This is lesson 2 of a 3-lesson unit. 

Type: Lesson Plan

The students will be able to use their research on signage in a variety of areas such as national parks, roadways, and local areas of their choice to create a Scratch presentation to share their understanding of the signage obligations of local, state, and national governments. This is part 3 of a 3-part integrated lesson plan that integrates Civics with Computer Science and Coding.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is part 1 of a 3-part unit that reinforces computational thinking and flowchart design.  This unit is also designed to support the understanding of civic participation through the expansion of voting rights throughout U.S. history. 

Type: Lesson Plan

Lesson 1 of a mini-unit integrating Civics with Computer Science. Students identify the differences between national and Florida state laws regulating endangered species. Students select a specific Florida endangered species, research threats, population changes, and relevant local laws protecting it. The third lesson produces a Scratch animation related to the chosen species.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is lesson 3 of 3 in the Goldilocks’ Café Just Right unit. This lesson focuses on systematic investigation on getting a cup of coffee to be the “just right” temperature and turbidity level. Students will use both the temperature probe and turbidity sensor and code using ScratchX during their investigation.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is lesson 2 of 3 in the Just Right Goldilocks’ Café unit. This lesson focuses on systematic investigation on getting a cup of coffee to be the “just right” level of turbidity. Students will use turbidity sensors and code using ScratchX during their investigation.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is lesson 1 of 3 in the Just Right Goldilocks’ Café unit. This lesson focuses on systematic investigation on getting a cup of coffee to be the “just right” temperature. Students will use temperature probes and code using ScratchX during their investigation.

Type: Lesson Plan

This set of geometry challenges focuses on creating a variety of polygons as students problem solve and think as they learn to code using block coding software.  Student will need to use their knowledge of the attributes of polygons and mathematical principals of geometry to accomplish the given challenges. The challenges start out fairly simple and move to more complex situations in which students can explore at their own pace or work as a team. Computer Science standards are seamlessly intertwined with the math standards while providing “Step it up!” and “Jump it up!” opportunities to increase rigor.

Type: Lesson Plan

This set of geometry challenges focuses on using area/perimeter as students problem solve and think as they learn to code using block coding software.  Student will need to use their knowledge of the attributes of polygons and mathematical principals of geometry to accomplish the given challenges. The challenges start out fairly simple and move to more complex situations in which students can explore at their own pace or work as a team. Computer Science standards are seamlessly intertwined with the math standards while providing “Step it up!” and “Jump it up!” opportunities to increase rigor.

Type: Lesson Plan

This set of geometry challenges focuses on scaled drawings and area as students problem solve and think as they learn to code using block coding software.  Student will need to use their knowledge of the attributes of polygons and mathematical principals of geometry to accomplish the given challenges. The challenges start out fairly simple and move to more complex situations in which students can explore at their own pace or work as a team. Computer Science standards are seamlessly intertwined with the math standards while providing “Step it up!” and “Jump it up!” opportunities to increase rigor.

Type: Lesson Plan

This set of geometry challenges focuses on creating a variety of polygons using the coordinate plane as students problem solve and think as they learn to code using block coding software.  Student will need to use their knowledge of the attributes of polygons and mathematical principals of geometry to accomplish the given challenges. The challenges start out fairly simple and move to more complex situations in which students can explore at their own pace or work as a team. Computer Science standards are seamlessly intertwined with the math standards while providing “Step it up!” and “Jump it up!” opportunities to increase rigor.

Type: Lesson Plan

This set of geometry challenges focuses on using transformations to show similarity and congruence of polygons and circles. Students problem solve and think as they learn to code using block coding software.  Student will need to use their knowledge of the attributes of polygons and mathematical principals of geometry to accomplish the given challenges. The challenges start out fairly simple and move to more complex situations in which students can explore at their own pace or work as a team. Computer Science standards are seamlessly intertwined with the math standards while providing “Step it up!” and “Jump it up!” opportunities to increase rigor.

Type: Lesson Plan

This set of geometry challenges focuses on creating circles and calculating area/circumference as students problem solve and think as they learn to code using block coding software.  Student will need to use their knowledge of the attributes of polygons and mathematical principals of geometry to accomplish the given challenges. The challenges start out fairly simple and move to more complex situations in which students can explore at their own pace or work as a team. Computer Science standards are seamlessly intertwined with the math standards while providing “Step it up!” and “Jump it up!” opportunities to increase rigor

Type: Lesson Plan

This set of geometry challenges focuses on using Pythagorean Theorem to find missing triangle side lengths and to draw triangles. Students problem solve and think as they learn to code using block coding software.  Student will need to use their knowledge of the attributes of polygons and mathematical principals of geometry to accomplish the given challenges. The challenges start out fairly simple and move to more complex situations in which students can explore at their own pace or work as a team. Computer Science standards are seamlessly intertwined with the math standards while providing “Step it up!” and “Jump it up!” opportunities to increase rigor.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson uses statistical analysis to evaluate data. The data used is from the app created by the students in lesson 2 of the Data Set and Statistics Unit. This lesson also guides students in recognizing the different types of data collected and how the distribution's shape can be affected when graphed at different intervals in histograms. This is the final lesson in the unit.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson allow students to gather, calculate, and plot data using both computer code and mathematical equations. In this lesson students will create a pedometer app to demonstrate the understanding of algorithms, components (such as buttons, textboxes, sensors, etc.), and If/Then statements. This lesson uses algebraic equations and random data to access the needed components to store data in a spreadsheet.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson shows how data can be represented by computers, in relation to everyday activities we may not be aware that we use computer. It gives an overview of graphing data by creating a histogram based on population data. Using the data collected, students will get a chance to hand write code to show what structure is needed for computers to collect, analyze and distribute such data. This lesson is lesson 1 of the Data Set and Deviation Statistics Unit and bridges statistical concepts of data collection, graphing and analysis with programming a computer using coding language while reinforcing foundational algebraic skills.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is lesson 3 of 3 in the Slope Intercept unit. This lesson introduces similar triangles to explain why slope is the same between any two points on a non-vertical line. In this lesson students perform an activity to determine that slope is constant throughout a line and students will discover the slope for vertical and horizontal lines.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is lesson 2 of 3 in the Slope Intercept unit. This lesson introduces graphing non-proportional linear relationships. In this lesson students will perform an activity to collect data to derive y = mx + b and will use a Scratch program to plot the graph of the data, as well as check for proportional and/or linear relationships.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is a culminating lesson in the Florida Landforms & Water Unit that gives students the ability to use their knowledge of water and potential weather hazards that affect different Florida landforms. This lesson allows students to create a computer program that demonstrates a flood hazard and how to monitor it.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson introduces the water cycle to enhance the understanding of how bodies of water and landforms interact to form a complex system. This lesson provides students the opportunity to see how systems can be found in many different forms from science to computers. This lesson will also introduce pseudocode as another form of a procedure. This is lesson 3 of 4 in the Florida Landform and Water Unit.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson will allow students to understand Florida landforms as systems and identify their characteristics. This lesson will also give understanding of how computers take input, give output, take commands, and execute an action from a user. Lastly this lesson will use different graphical representations, like tables and flowcharts to understand how computers think, while students create origami to review their science concepts. This is lesson 2 in a 4-lesson unit on Florida Landforms and Water.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is the introductory lesson in a 4-lesson unit of study about different bodies of water, their characteristics, and how to translate natural language into computer language.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson introduces students to the idea of recursive division and its application to radioactive dating with a worksheet and Scratch programming. This is the final lesson in the Radioactive Dating Unit.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will further explore the idea of radioactive dating through a drawing activity and creating a model simulation in Scratch.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will learn about the importance of using multiple radioactive dating methods to date an artifact as well as learn about the if programming control structure. This is Lesson 2 in the Radioactive Dating Unit and will begin the experience in coding a program to illustrate student understanding of radioactive dating.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this PBL activity, students use online data to determine the extent of temperature changes in the Antarctic. They will analyze their data using measures of central tendency as well as measuring its variability. They will also use scratch to assist them in the calculations. These lesson will take two 50-minute periods.

Type: Lesson Plan

Using the case study, Real-life Algorithms, students will read the case study and then the students will be paired up to discuss what algorithm was more efficient and why. The students will choose (and circle) what attempt is the most effective and build a HTML website with the ingredients and instructions used by Liliana. This lesson is intended to introduce students to the concept of algorithm in computer science with the idea that computers and devices are able to execute a program when given sequences of algorithms.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will apply their knowledge of mathematical operations to provide inputs in a Scratch program to try and make a specific given output, in this lesson plan.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will analyze a Scratch program and compare its computerized algorithm to the mathematical order of operations, in this lesson plan.

Type: Lesson Plan

Using the case study," Real Life Algorithms," students will read the case study and use block coding to simulate the building of a sandwich. This lesson is intended to introduce students to the concept of algorithm in computer science with the idea that it is possible to create algorithms in their daily lives.

Type: Lesson Plan

Using the case study, “Real-life Algorithms,” students will read the case study and analyze each attempt Liliana took to make her school sandwich. Students will create their own algorithm for a real-life scenario. This lesson is intended to introduce students to the concept of algorithm in computer science with the idea that it is possible to create algorithms in their daily lives.

Type: Lesson Plan

Listen as Dr. Austin Mast describes how and why an herbarium collects, maintains, and distributes plant samples for scientific research.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert