Have you ever faced a problem that seemed too big to handle on your own? Maybe something like cleaning your room? It can feel overwhelming at first, but what if you broke it down into smaller tasks, like putting your clothes in a pile or picking up your books? Suddenly, it doesn’t seem so hard, right? This is the idea behind breaking down big problems into smaller, manageable steps.
Today, we’re going to learn about computational thinking. Let’s start with a fun challenge: try adding all the numbers from 1 to 200 in your head. Sounds tough, doesn’t it? You might not finish in 30 seconds, but that’s okay! The trick is to break the problem down and look for patterns.
Here’s a helpful pattern: if you add 1 and 200, you get 201. If you add 2 and 199, you also get 201. This pattern continues, and you have 100 pairs of numbers that each add up to 201. So, you multiply 201 by 100 to get the answer. See how breaking it down makes it easier?
Now, let’s practice this with a fun activity. You’ll have three different stories. Your task is to find words that are the same in each story and circle them. If the words are different, cross them out or underline them. At the end, you’ll have a list of words that are the same and blanks where the words were different. It’s like creating your own mad lib story!
For example, if the stories say, “I chose a blank and rolled a blank, then a blank, then a blank,” you need to fill in the blanks with your own words. You might choose “lion,” “donkey,” and “puppy.” Then, decide how many times to roll the dice based on your choices. This is how you create your own game rules!
Think about the game you just played. You started with a big problem: creating directions for a game. By breaking it down into smaller parts, you found patterns and used abstraction, which means removing unnecessary details. This helped you create your own story and rules for the game.
In computer science, we often face big problems. We break them down, find patterns, and create solutions that work for everything. By practicing these skills, you’ll become great at solving problems, whether in school, at work, or anywhere else!
Imagine you have a messy room. Write down all the tasks you need to do to clean it up. Break it down into smaller steps like “pick up clothes,” “organize books,” and “vacuum the floor.” Share your list with a partner and discuss how breaking it down makes it easier to tackle.
Work in pairs to add numbers from 1 to 100 using the pairing method. Find pairs that add up to 101, like 1 and 100, 2 and 99, and so on. Write down your pairs and calculate the total sum. Discuss how this method helps simplify the problem.
Read three short stories provided by your teacher. Find and circle the words that are the same in each story. Cross out or underline the words that are different. Create a list of common words and discuss how this activity helps identify patterns.
Using the list of common words from the previous activity, fill in the blanks to create your own mad lib story. Share your story with the class and see how different everyone’s stories are. Reflect on how abstraction helped you focus on important details.
Think about the game you created using the mad lib story. Write a short reflection on how breaking down the task into smaller parts helped you design the game. Share your reflection with a classmate and discuss the importance of computational thinking in problem-solving.
Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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Usually, a teacher will present a complex math problem at the beginning of the lesson and think that their students aren’t quite ready for it. And it’s true—they might not be ready. That’s why it’s important to take that big, complicated problem and break it down into smaller pieces. By giving students the opportunity to tackle it on their own, they’ll learn how capable they are of solving challenges that they might have otherwise thought were too difficult.
So, has anyone ever faced a problem that seemed so big that it felt impossible to handle alone? How about cleaning your room? Has your mom ever told you to go in and clean your room, and you thought, “Oh, that seems overwhelming”? But what if your mom said, “Hey, go in and put your clothes in a pile”? Does that seem so hard? Or “Go in and pick up your books”? Is that so hard? Sometimes, it can feel daunting, but you can reach the same goal by taking little steps at a time.
Today, our lesson will focus on computational thinking. To start, I’m going to ask you to add some numbers in your head. You all know addition, right? Here we go: I want you to add the numbers from 1 to 200 in your head. Ready? Go! You have 30 seconds to add all the numbers from 1 to 200 in your head.
Okay, is anyone done yet? How far did you get? One plus 200 plus 199 plus 198? Not quite all the way? Was that a big problem for any of you that you didn’t even try? Does anyone think they have the actual answer? It was a challenging problem, wasn’t it? What we were doing was adding one plus two—that’s a lot to do in your head!
But what if I taught you a trick to help you solve it? The first step is to break that big problem down into smaller steps. Then, we can look for patterns. Does anyone see a pattern? If you add one plus 200, you get 201. If you keep going, like two plus 199, you also get 201. And three plus 198 gives you 201 as well. So, you have 201, 201, 201. How many of these do you have? You have 200 divided by 2, which is 100, and then you multiply 201 by 100.
You all did that in your head! So, what does that equal? Thank you! You just took a big, scary problem, broke it down, found a pattern, and created an algorithm to solve it. You did it all in your head, and if you were to do this again, it would only take you less than 30 seconds. I guarantee you these are skills you can use for the rest of your life.
You’re going to notice that if someone hands you a big problem, you can think, “Wait, that’s a big problem. How can I break it down into smaller parts and solve them one at a time until I figure it all out?” You’ll be the smartest kids in your class, the smartest people at your workplace, and the best bosses because you’ll be unstoppable.
Now, we’re going to practice this. There are three different stories you need to go through. Wherever the stories have the same word in the same place, circle it. Wherever the words are different, cross them out or underline them. At the end, we’ll write down all the things that are the same, and wherever there was something different, you’ll have a blank. You’re kind of going to create your own version, similar to a mad lib.
So, go ahead and get started, and I’ll walk around to help you if you get stuck. There is an obvious pattern, and teachers like to ensure that the kids pick up on it. But it’s also important for the kids to come up with their own thoughts based on the activity. If one group comes up with a different game than another, that’s perfectly okay. Just have them explain their reasoning and let them know where they succeeded or where they could use a little help.
Now, read it out loud: “I chose a blank and rolled a blank, then a blank, then a blank.” That means I need to draw a blank on my blank. Now you have to figure out how to play the game based on what you just wrote.
So, I chose a blank, and they said lion, donkey, and puppy. What do you think is the first thing you need to do? You can choose any of them you want. Now you know your first step of the game. Then, I rolled a blank, a blank, and a blank. How many times do you think you have to roll the dice? Very good! Now make up your own rules for the game based on the instructions.
Now, let’s think about the game we just played. You had a big problem: you needed to figure out how to create directions for this game. You broke it down into smaller bits by having three different stories. You found patterns—what were those patterns? Right! There were some things that were the same in every story, and you circled them.
Then we used abstraction, which means taking out all the details. We crossed out the things that were different until we were ready to create our own story. So, we ended up with words and underlines that allowed us to create our own story, which became our algorithm for making rules for our game.
This is what we do in computer science all the time: we find big problems, pull them apart to see what things are the same and what things are different, and then based on what we find out, we can create a solution that works for everything.
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This version removes informal language, filler words, and clarifies the content while maintaining the original message.
Computational – Related to using computers or calculations to solve problems – In math class, we used computational methods to find the answer to the equation.
Thinking – The process of using your mind to consider something carefully – Logical thinking helps us solve math problems more efficiently.
Problems – Questions or exercises that require a solution, often found in math – We worked on several math problems in our homework today.
Patterns – Repeated designs or sequences, often used in math to predict what comes next – We learned how to identify patterns in number sequences during our lesson.
Numbers – Symbols or words used to represent quantities in math – We practiced adding and subtracting numbers in class.
Activity – A task or exercise designed to practice a skill – Our teacher gave us a fun math activity to help us understand fractions better.
Rules – Guidelines or principles that explain how something should be done – We followed the rules for solving equations to find the correct answer.
Game – An activity with rules and objectives, often used for learning or fun – We played a math game to practice our multiplication skills.
Skills – Abilities or expertise needed to perform tasks – Developing strong math skills is important for solving complex problems.
Solutions – Answers to problems or exercises – After working hard, we finally found the solutions to all the math problems.
