Lesson 22: Pet Giraffe
Overview
Here, students will use Sprite Lab to play with sprites and their properties. Students will use events, behaviors, and custom code to create their very own pet giraffe that gets hungry, playful, and even filthy!
Purpose
Students will use events to make characters move around the screen, change size, and change colors based on user input. This lesson offers a great introduction to events in programming and even gives a chance to show creativity!
Agenda
Warm Up (15 min)
Main Activity (30 min)
Wrap Up (15 min)
View on Code Studio
Objectives
Students will be able to:
- Identify actions that correlate to input events.
- Create an animated, interactive game using sequence and events.
Preparation
- Play through the Course E Online Puzzles 2018 - Website associated with this lesson to find any potential problem areas for your class.
- Review CS Fundamentals Main Activity Tips - Lesson Recommendations.
- Make sure every student has a Think Spot Journal - Reflection Journal.
Links
Heads Up! Please make a copy of any documents you plan to share with students.
For the Teachers
- Course E Online Puzzles 2018 - Website
- CS Fundamentals Main Activity Tips - Lesson Recommendations
For the Students
- Think Spot Journal - Reflection Journal
Support
Report a Bug
Teaching Guide
Warm Up (15 min)
Introduction
Today students will revisit events in programming.
Review: Ask students questions about the Alien Dance Party.
- Do you remember what an event is?
- Can you name any of the events that you used to make the aliens dance? What do they do?
when clicked
when sprite1 touches sprite2
when arrow pressed
Display: Begin by showing Puzzle 1 to your students.
Think/Pair: Ask them to predict what will happen when the code is run, and to discuss with their neighbors. Run the code, and discuss the outcome.
Review of "Personal and Private Information"
Remind students of information that is safe to share online and information that is strictly private.
SAFE - Personal Information | UNSAFE - Private Information |
---|---|
Your favorite food Your opinion (though it shoud be done respectfully) First name (with permission) |
Mother's maiden name Social Security number Your date of birth Parents' credit card information Phone number |
Discuss other examples of the two categories above.
Main Activity (30 min)
Goal: Today, students will be creating their own pet giraffe! They’ll begin by reviewing how to put sprites on the screen, then they will assign events that cause actions and behaviors upon interaction.
Teaching Tip
Encourage students with questions/challenges to start by asking their partner. Unanswered questions can be escalated to a nearby group, who might already know the solution. Have students describe the problem that they’re seeing:
- What is it supposed to do?
- What does it do?
- What does that tell you?
Course E Online Puzzles 2018 - Website
Transition: Move students to their machines. Encourage students to follow the instructions for each puzzle. Help them realize that this is a creative activity, intended to help them learn Sprite Lab. It is not an assessment activity of any sort.
Reminder: If puzzles are sharable, remind the students to only share their work with their close friends or family. For more information watch or show the class Pause and Think Online - Video.
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 do you feel about today's lesson?
- What other options would you like to be able to have your pet do?
Standards Alignment
View full course alignment
CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards (2017)
AP - Algorithms & Programming
- 1B-AP-10 - Create programs that include sequences, events, loops, and conditionals.
- 1B-AP-12 - Modify, remix or incorporate portions of an existing program into one's own work, to develop something new or add more advanced features.
Cross-curricular Opportunities
This list represents opportunities in this lesson to support standards in other content areas.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards
SL - Speaking & Listening
- 4.SL.1 - Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 4 topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.
- 4.SL.6 - Differentiate between contexts that call for formal English (e.g., presenting ideas) and situations where informal discourse is appropriate (e.g., small-group discussion); use formal English when appropriate to task and situation.
W - Writing
- 4.W.6 - With some guidance and support from adults, use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of one page in a
Common Core Math Standards
MP - Math Practices
- MP.1 - Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them
- MP.2 - Reason abstractly and quantitatively
- MP.5 - Use appropriate tools strategically
- MP.6 - Attend to precision
- MP.7 - Look for and make use of structure
- MP.8 - Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning
Next Generation Science Standards
ETS - Engineering in the Sciences
ETS1 - Engineering Design
- 3-5-ETS1-1 - Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.
- 3-5-ETS1-2 - Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.