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Lesson 6: Loops in Artist

Overview

Watch student faces light up as they make their own gorgeous designs using a small number of blocks and digital stickers! This lesson builds on the understanding of loops from previous lessons and gives students a chance to be truly creative. This activity is fantastic for producing artifacts for portfolios or parent/teacher conferences.

Purpose

This series highlights the power of loops with creative and personal designs.

Offered as a project-backed sequence, this progression will allow students to build on top of their own work and create amazing artifacts.

Agenda

Warm Up (15 min)

Bridging Activity - Loops (15 min)

Main Activity (30 min)

Wrap Up (15 min)

View on Code Studio

Objectives

Students will be able to:

  • Identify the benefits of using a loop structure instead of manual repetition.
  • Differentiate between commands that need to be repeated in loops and commands that should be used on their own.

Preparation

Links

Heads Up! Please make a copy of any documents you plan to share with students.

For the Teachers

For the Students

Vocabulary

  • Repeat - To do something again.
  • while loop - a programming construct used to repeat a set of commands (loop) as long as (while) a boolean condition is true.

Support

Report a Bug

Teaching Guide

Warm Up (15 min)

Introduction

Students should have had plenty of introduction to loops at this point. Based on what you think your class could benefit from, we recommend:

  • Creating a new dance with loops just like in "Getting Loopy"
  • As a class, playing through a puzzle from the last lesson, "Loops in Maze"
  • Reviewing how to use Artist by playing through a puzzle from "Programming in Artist"
  • Previewing a puzzle from this lesson

All of these options will either review loops or the artist, which will help prepare your class for fun with the online puzzles!

Bridging Activity - Loops (15 min)

This activity will help bring the unplugged concepts from "My Loopy Robotic Friends" 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

Select a pattern from Stacking Cup Ideas - Manipulatives from the My Robotic Friends unplugged activity and give students Unplugged Blocks (Courses C-F) - Manipulatives prefilled with the repeat loop and the move___ commands. Next, have the students program a "robot" (a partner or the teacher) from their desks to get the correct stacking of the cups. Make sure that they understand that the blocks need to go from top to bottom and they all need to touch! Have the students pair share to check answers and resolve any questions or bugs that may come up.

Previewing Online Puzzles as a Class

Pull a puzzle from the corresponding online puzzles in CSF Express Course - Website. Using the My Robotic Friends - Symbol Key from the My Loopy Robotic Friends Unplugged Activity, have students draw out a pattern that they think the Artist will make. Ask the students to share. See how many other students had the same answer!

Main Activity (30 min)

CSF Express Course - Website

Some students may discover where to add repeat loops by writing out the program without loops then circling sections of repetitions. If the students in your class seem like they could benefit from this, have them keep paper and pencils beside them at their machines. Students might also enjoy drawing some of the shapes and figures on paper before they program it online. (When drawing stamps, it can be easier to symbolize those with simple shapes like circles and squares.)

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 was the coolest shape or figure you programmed today? Draw it out!
  • What is another shape or figure you would like to program? Can you come up with the code to create it?

Standards Alignment

View full course alignment

CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards (2017)

AP - Algorithms & Programming
  • 1B-AP-11 - Decompose (break down) problems into smaller, manageable subproblems to facilitate the program development process.