Welcome to our fun lesson on if-else statements in coding! These are like little decision-makers in a program. The “else” part is optional, but it helps the program decide what to do when the first condition isn’t true.
Imagine you have a banana, and you want to decide who gets it: a monkey or a goat. Here’s how an if-else statement works:
So, the program checks the color of the banana. If it’s yellow, it follows the first rule. If it’s not yellow (meaning it’s green), it follows the second rule and gives the banana to the goat.
Let’s look at a fun example. We have a banana between a monkey and a goat. Goats love green bananas, while monkeys only eat yellow ones. We want the program to decide who gets the banana based on its color.
Using an if-else statement, we can tell the program:
When we run this program, it checks the banana’s color. If it’s yellow, the monkey gets it. If it’s green, the goat gets it. Let’s see it in action: Ah, the monkey got it because it’s yellow!
Now, let’s try something a bit more challenging. We have four frozen bananas, and we need to decide who gets each one. The goat needs to break the ice first, and then we decide who eats the banana based on its color.
We use a for loop to go through each banana one by one. For each banana, we use an if-else statement:
Let’s run this program: It’s green, it’s yellow, it’s green, it’s yellow. Great job!
Now it’s your turn to use if-else statements in your own coding adventures. Good luck and have fun!
Imagine you are the program! Create a set of colored paper bananas, some yellow and some green. Your task is to sort them into two baskets: one for the monkey (yellow bananas) and one for the goat (green bananas). This will help you understand how if-else statements make decisions based on conditions.
Write a short story where you use if-else statements to decide what happens next. For example, “If it’s raining, the character takes an umbrella. Else, they wear sunglasses.” Share your story with the class and see how many different endings you can create!
Use Scratch to create a simple program where a character decides what to do based on the color of an object. For example, if the object is red, the character jumps; else, they dance. This will give you hands-on experience with if-else logic in a fun, visual way.
Organize a relay race where each team has to decide who runs based on the color of a banana card they draw. If the card is yellow, one team member runs; if it’s green, another team member runs. This activity will help you understand how decisions are made quickly, just like in coding.
Draw a decision tree on a large piece of paper. Start with a question at the top, like “Is the banana yellow?” and create branches for “Yes” and “No” with different outcomes. This visual representation will help you see how if-else statements guide decision-making in programs.
Here’s a sanitized version of the provided YouTube transcript:
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[Music] Welcome to our lesson on if-else statements. The “else” part is optional in an if statement and will execute the indented commands beneath it if the condition isn’t met.
In this example, we have an if-else statement: if the banana is frozen, and that condition is met, the three indented commands will run. After that, we jump outside of the if statement. However, if the banana isn’t frozen (meaning the condition is false), we will go to the else part of the if-else statement and execute the commands indented below it.
Let’s look at an example. Here’s a challenge where we have a banana between a monkey and a goat. Goats love green bananas, while monkeys will only eat yellow bananas. We want the program to determine if the banana is yellow or green. If it’s yellow, we give it to the monkey; if it’s green, the goat should get it.
We can use an if-else statement to help us. If the banana is green, we can say “green,” and you might want to run this when you get to this challenge before making edits, as these commands can assist you. So, if the banana is green, the goat will go to the banana; otherwise, the monkey will have it.
[Applause]
Only one of these commands gets executed: either the goat goes to the banana if it’s green, or the monkey goes to the banana. Let’s run it. Ah, the monkey got it because it’s yellow.
Now, here’s an example with four frozen bananas. We know the goat needs to go to each of those and break the ice. We need to decide for each banana whether the goat or the monkey will eat it, based on whether the banana is green or not.
So, we have a for loop that goes through each banana one at a time. Each time, the goat will go to it and hit it, but then we need to make that decision using an if-else statement. If the banana is green, the goat will go to it; if the banana isn’t green, the monkey will go to it.
Alright, let’s run this. It’s green, it’s yellow, it’s green, it’s yellow.
[Applause]
Great! Now it’s your turn to use if-else. Good luck!
[Music]
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This version removes any informal language, unnecessary repetitions, and maintains clarity while preserving the educational content.
Coding – The process of writing instructions for a computer to follow. – Example sentence: “We spent the afternoon coding a game where you catch falling stars.”
If-else – A programming statement that allows the computer to choose between two options based on a condition. – Example sentence: “In our program, we used an if-else statement to decide if the player had enough points to win.”
Banana – A variable name often used in examples to represent data in a program. – Example sentence: “We created a variable called banana to store the player’s score in the game.”
Monkey – A character or object in a program, often used in coding examples to make learning fun. – Example sentence: “The monkey in our game jumps over obstacles when you press the space bar.”
Goat – A character or object in a program, sometimes used in coding exercises to teach concepts. – Example sentence: “We programmed the goat to eat grass when it reaches the green patch in the game.”
Green – A color often used in coding to represent success or a positive outcome. – Example sentence: “The button turns green when you successfully complete the level.”
Yellow – A color often used in coding to represent a warning or caution. – Example sentence: “The warning message appeared in yellow to alert us about the missing file.”
Program – A set of instructions that a computer follows to perform a task. – Example sentence: “We wrote a program to calculate the total cost of items in a shopping cart.”
Loop – A programming concept that repeats a set of instructions until a condition is met. – Example sentence: “We used a loop to keep the character moving until it reached the end of the path.”
Decide – To make a choice between different options in a program based on conditions. – Example sentence: “The program can decide which path to take based on the player’s input.”
