Lesson Plan for If Only Teach and Try

Lesson Objective

To learn how to use if statements to make decisions

Success Criteria

• I know what selection is for
• I know about true and false
• I know the comparison operators
• I know about the if pattern
• I know how to use the if pattern in a Go program

Key Vocabulary

• if
• selection
• true
• false
• boolean
• operator
• comparison
• variable assignment
• equality
• equivalence
• program flow

Period of Study

KS2 Emerging

NC Computing links

Co2/1.1 design, write and debug programs that accomplish specific goals, including controlling or simulating physical systems; solve problems by decomposing them into smaller parts

Co2/1.2 use sequence, selection, and repetition in programs; work with variables and various forms of input and output

Co2/1.3 use logical reasoning to explain how some simple algorithms work and to detect and correct errors in algorithms and programs

Cross Curricular Links

Maths - The pupils must have covered less than, less than or equal to, greater than, greater than or equal to, equal to and not equal to for numeric values. This is a prelude to full blown boolean algebra.

History of Secience/Maths - See the wikipedia entry for George Boole, who invented boolean algebra. See also the Wikipedia entry for Claude Shannon, the father of information theory: Shannon’s master’s thesis showed how Boole’s idea from 100 years before could be put to practical use to solve any numeric or logical question, a discovery which opened the field of digital electronics.

SMSC

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Resources/Homework

The pupils will need to have Go installed on the school computers. They will also need a text editor installed. For Windows/MacOS X and Linux they should install Atom. For RaspberryPi they should install liteIDE. See the install guides on the website for more details.

The simpleio package needs to be downloaded and installed on the pupils computers.

Prerequisites

The example program uses the concept of temperature so the pupils must be familiar with this first.

The lesson builds on earlier lessons so the pupils should have covered Lessons 1-8 in the series

Starter Activity

Show the pupils some numbers and ask them to compare them to various quantities. Can they group them correctly into less than, greater than or equal to?

Can they do the same with groups of expressions?

Main teaching points

• Selection is how a computer makes decisions
• Selection involves testing the value of variables
• It controls the flow of the program.
• Selection is about boolean values - true or false
• Go calls selection an if statement
• Show the comparison operators
• Show the if statement pattern
• Explain the worldtemperature program

For High Achievers

The pupils should understand that selection is mechanism used by a computer to make decision

The pupils should understand that a computer can make decision by testing the value of variables.

The pupils should understand that selection controls the program’s flow when the program runs.

The pupils should understand that selection depends on the truth of an expression.

The pupils should know that in Go selection happens with an if statement.

The pupils should know the comparison operators, <, >, <=, >=, == and what they mean largely without support.

The pupils should know the pattern for an if statement largely without support

The pupils should be able to enter the worldtemperature program and run it without support.

For Middle Achievers

The pupils should understand that selection is mechanism used by a computer to make decision

The pupils should understand that a computer can make decision by testing the value of variables.

The pupils should understand that selection controls the program’s flow when the program runs.

The pupils should understand that selection depends on the truth of an expression.

The pupils should know that in Go selection happens with an if statement.

The pupils should know the comparison operators, <, >, <=, >=, == and what they mean with support.

The pupils should know the pattern for an if statement with support

The pupils should be able to enter the worldtemperature program and run it with out support.

For Low Achievers

The pupils should understand that selection is mechanism used by a computer to make decision.

The pupils should understand that a computer can make decision by testing the value of variables.

The pupils should understand that selection controls the program’s flow when the program runs.

The pupils should understand that selection depends on the truth of an expression.

The pupils should know that in Go selection happens with an if statement.

The pupils should know the comparison operators, <, >, <=, >=, == and what they mean with support

The pupils should know the pattern for an if statement with support

The pupils should be able to enter the worldtemperature program and run it with out support.

Plenary

The comparison operators also work for strings. This means that if statements can compare strings in the condition part. The comparison operators have the same meaning when used with strings.

Strings are compared in “dictionary” order - with capital letters coming before lower case letters. The pupils should be able to guess this.