Warm Up (15 min)

Introduction

This is the first online lesson dealing with variables, so it might be a worthwhile exercise to review the "Envelope Variables" unplugged activity from last time, as well as the vocabulary that was introduced in that lesson.

• What is a variable? (A placeholder for a piece of information that can change.)
• When can a variable be helpful? (When you don't know what information is going to be used in a certain place until runtime, or when you have lots of places that one piece of information will be used, but that information might change someday.)

Ask the class when they could see a variable being helpful in programming. When would they NOT want to use a variable?

If the class seems interested, continue the discussion. Otherwise, move on to one of the bridging activities.

Bridging Activity - Variables (15 min)

This activity will help bring the unplugged concepts from "Envelope Variables" into the online world that the students are moving into. Choose one of the following to do with your class:

Unplugged Activity Using Paper Blocks

Start with a sentence or paragraph on the board that contains at least one (and up to five) named blanks. Give paper blocks to each student group. Challenge each group to "set" their variables for each blank. Call on different student groups to share their assignment of each variable and see what happens!

Now, change the sentence to a math equation. What happens to the sentence "X + Y =" when students assign different values to the variables X & Y?

Preview of Online Puzzles as a Class

Display a puzzle to the class. We recommend the 3rd puzzle. Build the code the long way first (use exact numbers for each value, instead of utilizing variables) then suggest that you should try making the squares only 50 pixels. What a pain! What have students learned that will let them give something a name and use it as often as they want later in the program? Go back and add a variable to the beginning. Set the variable to 80, and substitute all occurrences of 80 in the program. Next, change it to 50. That was easy!

Main Activity (30 min)

CSF Express Course - Website

Notice that this stage first covers the idea of a variable as a constant (a variable that you use in many places, but it does not change.) Once that idea has been presented, it flips to show how you can include a variable for information that changes after the program is run.

Watch out for puzzle #5. It is the first time that students will be expected to set a variable on their own. This can be tricky if they don't have a true grasp on the concept. If they're having trouble, send them back to the prediction level (#4) and have them explain to their partners why the answer ended up what it was. Once both partners are convinced, let them continue back to puzzle #5.

Wrap Up (15 min)

Journaling

Having students write about what they learned, why it’s useful, and how they feel about it can help solidify any knowledge they obtained today and build a review sheet for them to look to in the future.

Journal Prompts:

• What was today’s lesson about?
• How did you feel during today’s lesson?
• What is a variable? Why is it helpful in programming?
• How well do you think you understand variables? (Answer on a scale from 1-5 or with an emoticon.) If you're having troubles, can you put into words what you don't understand?