Extra challenge at the end

[dullhunk]

An extra challenge at the end or plenary:

1. Get students thinking about where loops occur in real life
2. Are there different kinds of loop? What makes a loop finsih
3. What about a loop that never finished - an infinite loop.
4. When might an infinite loop be useful (or unhelpful)
5. What is the difference between a forever loop and a repeat loop in scratch?

[andylolz]

@dullhunk Sounds good! Can I ask, which project(s) does this refer to?

[dullhunk]

Hello Andy, I'm talking about Lost in Space

https://github.com/CodeClub/scratch-curriculum/tree/master/en-GB/Term%201/Lost%20in%20Space

Is it better to do these sorts of changes through a pull request, rather than raising an issue?

[andylolz]

I'm talking about Lost in Space

Ah right, yes – makes sense. (I do like Q1! I’m now puzzling about infinite loops in real life!)

Is it better to do these sorts of changes through a pull request, rather than raising an issue?

@CodeClubRik is the person to talk to. An issue is certainly good – I imagine a pull request is very welcome too, though!

[rikcross]

Hi @dullhunk thanks for the feedback.

I have been meaning to add a section to the volunteer notes, listing questions that can be asked, to allow children to demonstrate their progress and learning. Maybe we should add these questions to the volunteer notes of the 'lost in space' project?

I'm reluctant to add these questions as a new challenge in the project itself, because I think that the project challenges shouldn't be theoretical, but should promote active learning.

How does that sound?

Thanks, Rik.

[dullhunk]

Hello @CodeClubRik @andylolz @rowanwilson, I can understand why you wouldn't want to change Code Club curriculum materials.

The trouble with putting challenge questions in the volunteer notes is that while the volunteers might read them, the children won't and I'd like to get the children thinking more.

I've been running a Code Club for over a year now and feel that while the practical coding exercises are great, I'd like to put more emphasis on computational thinking and the fundamental concepts that underpin what they are doing. I'm not sure of the best way to do that, but the combination of theory (computer science) and practice (coding) is important, and I'm trying to get children to reflect more.

I'd also like to provide more challenge based exercises for students, rather than having them follow instructions in a worksheet and ticking boxes. Sometimes it is difficult to tell how much people have actually learned if they have been following very well written instructions.

I think the Code Club curriculum materials are very useful, but I'm trying to improve them

[rikcross]

Hi @dullhunk, it is a tricky one, but hopefully the structure of our projects helps with this. The project steps introduce a concept to children, and the challenges are for children to apply what they've learnt. I guess it's in these challenges that children will explore, experiment, and therefore where most of the computational thinking practice will happen. It's the completed challenges that will really let you know what's been learnt.

There are also steps in some projects that introduce small problems, or things to be improved. Children then make small amendments to their code to fix/improve their project. There are times where this may not be a good idea, for example with something like "how can infinite loops sometimes be unhelpful", I don't think we'd want to introduce a program that just doesn't work, even if it's fixed later on in the project, as children will become frustrated.

Maybe additional challenges are the way forward? But again, I'd be reluctant to make them too wordy, as it tends to put children off completing the challenges altogether.

[rik-cross]

I'll close this issue for now, but feel free to re-open this if you want to continue the conversation or submit additional challenges.

Thanks, Rik.