Warm Up (15 min)

Introduction

Ask students to think about problems they have to solve in everyday life.

• How do you fix something that isn't working?
• Do you follow a specific series of steps?
• The puzzles in this unit have already been solved for you (yay!), but they don't seem to be working (boo!)
• We call the problems in these programs "bugs," and it will be your job to "debug" them.

Vocabulary

This lesson has three new and important vocabulary words:

• Bug - Say it with me - Buhh-g. Something that is going wrong. An error.

• Debugging - Say it with me: Dee-bug-ing. To find and fix errors.

• Persistence - Say it with me: Purr-siss-tense. Not giving up. Persistence works best when you try things many different ways, many different times.

Say:

Debugging is a process. First, you must recognize that there is an error in your program. You then work through the program step by step to find the error. Try the first step, did it work? Then the second, how about now? If you make sure that everything is working line by line, then when you get to the place that your code isn't doing what it's supposed to, you know that you've found a bug. Once you've discovered your bug, you can work to fix (or "debug") it!

If you think it will build excitement in the class you can introduce the character of today's puzzles, Scrat from Ice Age. If students aren't familiar with Scrat, show some video clips of the quirky squirrel running into trouble.

Main Activity (30 min)

Online Puzzles

Before letting the students start on the computer, remind them of the advantages of pair programming and asking their peers for help. Sit students in pairs and recommend they ask at least two peers for help before they come to a teacher.

As mentioned in the purpose of this lesson, make sure the students are aware that they will face frustrating puzzles. Tell them it is okay to feel frustrated, but it is important to work through the problem and ask for help. As the students work through the puzzles, walk around to make sure no student is feeling so stuck that they aren't willing to continue anymore.

Wrap Up (5 - 10 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 kind of bugs did you find today?
• Draw a bug you encountered in one of the puzzles today. What did you do to "debug" the program?

Extended Learning

Use these activities to enhance student learning. They can be used as outside of class activities or other enrichment.

Planting bugs

Have students go back through previous levels, purposefully adding bugs to their solutions. They can then ask other students to debug their work. This can also be done with paper puzzles.

When other students are debugging, make sure that the criticisms are constructive. If this could be a problem for your class, go over respectful debugging before this activity by role playing with another student.