Lesson Plan: Algorithms and Automation - Discipline Generator

Overview
With this activity, Students will learn about the relationships between algorithms and automation
by creating a discipline generator. Students will figure out how to break down sentences and
then mix and match the pieces into new sentences to create the disciplinary action for an action,
based on the student handbook. Once the procedure has been identified, students will write the
algorithm for the generator so the procedure can be automated.

Vocabulary
Algorithm: A list of steps that can be followed to carry out a task.
Automation: Having a machine do work for us, so that we don’t have to do it ourselves.
Pseudocode: Instructions that look like they could be a computer program, but they are easier to
read and don’t necessarily follow rules of any specific programming language.

Lesson Objectives
Students will be able to:
 Understand the importance of the student handbook and categorize various offenses
 Compose logical consequences from random pieces
 Write an algorithm that explains the actions that the student’s “machine” should take to
automate the discipline generator.


Materials and resources

 Paper
 Pencils
 Student handbooks
 Bowls (three per group)

Preparation

Activity
Step 1. Introduction
Begin with a discussion about the student handbook and the rules that students are expected to
follow.
 Do you think rules are important for a school or society to have?
 Why do you think we have rules?
 Should breaking all rules be handled the same way?
o Why/ or why not
 What should people learn from having a punishment?

Next, let's think about all the things that happen in life where instead of looking at the negatives
we would be able to grow from some of those obstacles.
 Where have you seen a problem that a computer or program has helped simplify
a solution?
 Why were some of those problems benefited from a technological solution?

For us to benefit from the use of computers, we need to understand what they can and can’t do,
just like the handbook tells us what students can and can’t do.
Begin with the discussion of algorithms and automation.
Talk about algorithms
 What do you think an algorithm is?
 Why would we ever use an algorithm?

Talk about automation

 What do you think automation is?
 Why would we want to use automation?
 Where do you have automation in your life?
 Would it be possible to automate the student handbook?

Step 2. Program and run

Now it is time for the activity.
Have the students go through the student handbook and break it down into two or three groups.
Mild offenses, moderate offenses, and severe offenses:

For this part of the activity, we are going to be looking at the consequences that could happen if
you break a mild or moderate offense. What do they look like?
For example: “you have 25 minutes of detention with your teacher”

Students will then assemble into groups of 2-3 and come up with 5-10 different
consequences for some negative actions.

Back together as a group:

How can we break these sentences up to be able to mix them around?
 What will the offender do?
 For how long?
 With whom?

Let's look at the lists and create those 3 segments and put them into the baskets to see if they
make sense when we put them back together.

With the 5-10 different consequences have the students take their consequences and have
them divide them into three different groups. Group 1(beginning), 2(middle), and 3(end).
1. Have the students come up with an alternate title for the 3 bowls, for example,
consequence, time, with whom.
2. Students will draw one item from each bowl 5 times to create a random
consequence. Have them write down the complete consequence then return the strips
to the bowl.
3. Have the students troubleshoot the “code.” Does each make sense? If not use this time
to refine the wording on each portion of the consequence generator.
4. Re-run step 2. Did this fix those errors?
5. Create an algorithm for the consequence generator using pseudocode.
1. What steps will it need to follow each time to generate a new consequence?
2. How specific will the program need to be to make sure there are no errors?
3. What steps need to be done after the consequence has been given out?
4. Are there any things that you could do to differentiate between a mild and
moderate infraction?
 5. Have one student be your “program” have another student read the instructions
step by step with the “program” following the reader’s instructions EXACTLY as
they are told.
6. See if the algorithm had the desired results.
7. Adjust the algorithm as needed to fix any problems and run the program again.

Step 3. Share
After each group had completed its algorithm, have each group get together and show their
consequence generator to the class. After each group completes their demonstration, discuss,
do they all work the same? Are there any things that are different?

Step 4. Discuss together

Gather students together to talk about their projects.
 What was the hardest part?
 Did anyone get their algorithm perfectly correct the first time?
 How were you able to fix it or tweak it to make it better?
 Can you think of any other tasks that you could create an algorithm for?
 If you were to get a consequence for breaking the rules in this way, what would your
thoughts be on the results you received? Would you prefer to “choose your own destiny”
or stick with a traditional consequence for breaking the rules?
Step 5. In the real world
Algorithms are a big part of the automation process, and automation is a big part of computer
science. We use things like calculators to automate calculations that would be difficult to do by
hand.
 What algorithms do you see in your life?
 How does automation impact your life?
 Is algorithms and automation applicable to your life or are they just part of a computer
science class?
 In my lesson about the discipline generator, students will learn about how algorithms and
automation work using the student handbook at out school to create appropriate consequences for
various infractions. This lesson would be an introduction to both algorithms and automation so that
students will understand the general idea of them before they get into trying to use them to write more
efficient code. By using something that students understand already and connecting to things that
impact them, students will be able to see the relevance to them and understand the reason for
automation.

This lesson meets computer science standards for both algorithms and automation. The
automation standards that this lesson addresses are: 1B-AP-08 Compare and refine multiple algorithms
for the same task and determine which is the most appropriate, 2-AP-10 Use flowcharts and/or
pseudocode to address complex problems as algorithms, and 3A-AP-13 Create prototypes that use
algorithms to solve computational problems by leveraging prior student knowledge and personal
interests. This also meets the standards for program development of 1B-AP-15 Test and debug (identify
and fix errors) a program or algorithm to ensure it runs as intended and 2-AP-17 Systematically test and
refine programs using a range of test cases.

With the nature of this lesson the core subject that has standards that would best align would
be language arts. This lesson meets the language arts standards of Describe how a text presents
information (e.g., sequentially, comparatively, causally) (RH.6-8.5), analyze the structure an author uses
to organize a text, including how the major sections contribute to the whole and to an understanding of
the topic (RST.6-8.5), and analyze the author’s purpose in providing an explanation, describing a
procedure, or discussing an experiment in a text, defining the question the author seeks to address.
(RST.9-10.6). Since the students will be breaking down the sentences into its key components and
checking to make sure their program makes sense with the responses generated, these standards apply
the best.

The most important part of any lesson is to make sure that students understand the material
being taught. In this lesson, there are a lot of points for formative assessment throughout. The first way
that I would check for student understanding is when the students are putting together their
consequences with their offenses. I would be able to observe students as I move around the room and
ask different questions to students as I see different responses. I would also be able to see if students
understand when they are presenting their machines to the class. While the students are debugging
their machines would also be a great place to see if students understand because they will have to
identify and work through their problems. While I didn’t include it in this lesson, it would also be very
easy to add an exit ticket to this lesson or have a warm up question in the next lesson where students
would be able to demonstrate their knowledge about algorithms and automation.

With this lesson, I designed this to be used in a high school setting. This lesson would be best
used with students who have had some sort of coding experience, so they have some point of reference
as to where this fits what we are doing. To implement this lesson, I would more than likely use it at the
beginning of an algorithms unit to introduce the concept. The algorithms unit would more than likely be
taught after the unit on loops, as loops are very useful in programming algorithms. I would use this to
introduce algorithms because it is an unplugged activity and students will be able to understand
algorithms without needing to understand the coding behind an algorithm.
 This lesson has a lot of aspects that could be used again to teach other concepts in computer
science. One way that it could be improved to include more is to have the program include some type of
loop that would check to make sure the consequences matched the offenses. Another way that this
lesson could be used to extend the concepts is to teach the idea of parameters. In the initial lesson, as
the teacher I set the parameters, but we could take that away and use it to teach students about how to
set their own parameters for a problem so that you don’t get a low-level consequence with a high-level
offense.

While not ideal, this lesson could potentially be used in an online setting. Depending on the
online setting, some of the discussions may not be able to happen. If the whole class is on a Zoom call,
the discussion would be able to continue, but if content needs to be prerecorded, the discussions will
have to either be cut out of the lesson or moved to some sort of a discussion board such as padlet.
Students will still need to be able to collaborate, so I would have to be able to utilize the breakout rooms
that Zoom and Google Meet offer. The main idea of the lesson of having students put different
responses into various groups could stay the same, students may just have to take turns drawing and
putting their responses together. We would still be able to show off their programs, but students may
have to record their machines if the class isn’t meeting in a live setting. If they are in a live setting, the
teacher would be able to let each group of students present. Overall, the concepts of the lesson would
stay the same, but the delivery may need to be tweaked to move to an online setting.