Activity set part 2

Activity set summary

The activities focus on driving a delivery van around increasingly complex routes involving twists, turns and traffic lights. At the end of the set they can demonstrate their programming skills by creating a route for friends where they design their backgrounds and characters, and set up variables such as traffic lights to increase the level of challenge.

Resources	Key
• Rapid Router game: www.codeforlife.education • Resource sheets S6 to S10 • Levels Guide • Assets part 2 (Blockly cards) • Video links • Glossary	Vocabulary: Programming terms appear in blue Assessment: Key questions appear in red

Student’s previous experience

Students should have experience of the forward, right, left and simple repeat commands. If they have not used the Rapid Router game before, familiarise yourself with levels 1 to 38, and pick out suitable activities from the Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced part 1 plans to create a preparatory lesson, before moving onto the following activities.

Teacher preparation

If you have not used the Rapid Router game before, set up your class accounts to record progress (see the step–by–step guide at: www.codeforlife.education).

Learning expectations

In this activity set, the students will:

• Create algorithms to move on–screen vans around different routes

• Debug their programs

• Use if… do... commands

• Use if… do… else if… commands

• Understand simple variables (traffic lights green/red)

• Create algorithms to solve more complex challenges to find the best route, with traffic lights, turn right/left

• Design and create their own story for a partner involving characters, objects and creating a background

• Revisit the skills of sequencing, repetition and selection learnt in Advanced part 1

• Learn to use procedures in programming

Links to the National Curriculum for Computing PoS

Key stage 3

Pupils should be taught to:

• design, use and evaluate computational abstractions that model the state and behaviour of real-world problems and physical systems

• understand several key algorithms that reflect computational thinking [for example, ones for sorting and searching]; use logical reasoning to compare the utility of alternative algorithms for the same problem

• use two or more programming languages, at least one of which is textual, to solve a variety of computational problems; make appropriate use of data structures [for example, lists, tables or arrays]; design and develop modular programs that use procedures or functions

• understand simple Boolean logic [for example, AND, OR and NOT] and some of its uses in circuits and programming; understand how numbers can be represented in binary, and be able to carry out simple operations on binary numbers [for example, binary addition, and conversion between binary and decimal]

• understand the hardware and software components that make up computer systems, and how they communicate with one another and with other systems

• understand how instructions are stored and executed within a computer system; understand how data of various types (including text, sounds and pictures) can be represented and manipulated digitally, in the form of binary digits

• undertake creative projects that involve selecting, using, and combining multiple applications, preferably across a range of devices, to achieve challenging goals, including collecting and analysing data and meeting the needs of known users

• create, re-use, revise and re-purpose digital artefacts for a given audience, with attention to trustworthiness, design and usability

• understand a range of ways to use technology safely, respectfully, responsibly and securely, including protecting their online identity and privacy; recognise inappropriate content, contact and conduct and know how to report concerns.