In class I went through the 6 concepts of computational thinking (see course on ‘Gateway ‘ / new ICT E’s & O’s). Today we recalled them and then focused on algorithms. I made a very simple ‘assault course’ which required someone to walk forwards 3 steps, take a half turn to the right etc. I explained that my instructions were an algorithm – very much like a computer code. Each group then went off with a clipboard and devised their own courses and codes. They tried the codes out in their own groups and we then swapped the groups around so that they could try each others codes. Part way through I gathered the children to discuss any problems that they were having – these essentially came down to the size of a ‘step’ etc. At this point I introduced the ‘Key approaches’ to computational thinking (tinkering, creating, de-bugging (computer programmers spend half of their time de-bugging), persevering and collaborating). In the end we discussed what we had learned etc.

This was  a very successful lesson and a great way to introduce children to coding and algorithms 🙂