Jill Snyder The Wheatlands Elementary School Oswego CUSD #308 IIT Research Mentor: Dr. Cindy Hood

1. Computers: What Have They Done for You Lately? Jill Snyder The Wheatlands Elementary School Oswego CUSD #308 IIT Research Mentor: Dr. Cindy Hood This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant No. EEC-0502174. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

2. Overview • Science/Technology • 4th grade Regular Education Classroom • Approx. 5 hour long lessons • Objective • Content: Students should be able to create a simple model using the computer to perform a pre-determined series of instructions, know the basic parts of a computer and what they do and explain the basic concepts of computer programming.

3. Overview • Inquiry/Problem Solving: Students will construct knowledge of computer concepts and parts through exploration and guided instruction. Students will be encouraged to work out on their own and with their peers. Instruction will be limited in certain activities and questions asked by the students will be answered with another question to prompt them to think of things differently and come to the solution.

4. Overview • Design: Students will design a scenario then write the instructions to create that scenario on the computer program ALICE. Students will be graded on creativity and how the result of their instructions match their original intention

5. Overview • Ethics: Students will explore a current ethical issue in computer science, global education. Because the students will be using a program freely available on the internet they will discuss the complications that come up when the question is asked, ‘What happens where there are gaps in availability of information between rich and poor communities?,’ ‘How will this affect learning and teaching in the future and should it?’ Students will also report on their design project by acting as if they are the local chapter of a scientist association and discuss the ethics of truth in reporting and how interpretation of data can effect results.

6. Standards • Illinois Learning Standards • STATE GOAL 11: Understand the processes of scientific inquiry and technological design to investigate questions, conduct experiments and solve problems. • 11.A.2e Report and display the results of individual and group investigations. • STATE GOAL 13: Understand the relationships among science, technology and society in historical and contemporary contexts. • 13.A.2c Explain why keeping accurate and detailed records is important

7. Background • Basic understanding of computer programming • Basic understanding of how computer programs are run by the system • Basic understanding of scientific inquiry processes • Basic understanding of ethics as it pertains to computer science and education • Basic understanding of the program ALICE

8. Examples • List of activities: • ‘How do You Make a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich?’ • ‘Computers: What Have They Done for You Lately?’ • ‘Go ask ALICE’

9. Activity 1- PB&J • Directions: You have a 5 minute time limit to complete the parts of this test. Carefully read all of the parts of the test before doing anything. In order to ensure the accuracy of this exam, you should not use more than the allotted time of 5 minutes. Good Luck!!

10. Activity 1- PB&J • 1. Write the name of the month that begins with the letter ‘D’ in the top left hand corner of your test paper. • 2. Write the answer to the following multiplication problem directly underneath the date on your test paper--6 X 5 = ? • 3. Write your name and today’s date—month-day-year in the top right hand corner of your test paper. • 4. Add 15 to the answer you got in part #2, and write this new total directly underneath your answer for part #3. • 5. In the lower left hand corner of your test paper, write the names of your favorite singer and your favorite group. • 6. Just above your answer to part #5, write "This test is very easy." • 7. In the lower right hand corner of your test paper, draw a rectangle and inside the rectangle draw a five pointed star. The size of these drawings is not important. • 8. Directly above your answer to part #7, draw a row of three small circles. Once again, size is not important. • 9. Write the name of the first president of the United States on the back of your test paper anywhere you choose. If you don't know who this is, write your own name instead. • 10.Write the name of any country that begins with the letter "I" directly underneath you answer to part #2. • 11. Take the number of dwarfs in the Snow White story and add it to the number of bears in the Goldilocks story.  Divide by 2. Write this total in the approximate center of your test paper. • 12. Think of a number between 1 and 50.  Double that number.  Add 20.  Add 6.  Subtract 17. Subtract 9. Divide by 2.  Write this number on your test paper directly underneath your answer to part #11. • 13. Now that you have carefully read all of the parts so far, and you have not carried out any of the actual work, skip the next 2 parts and go back and only complete part #3. • 14. The name of the first president of the United States is George Washington. He was president from 1789 until 1797.  Add the 2 dates together to see if the total is less than 5000. • 15. You should not be reading the end of the exam before the beginning of the exam, but now that you are here, you have just wasted some of the time you may need to complete the test.

11. Activity 1 - PB & J

12. Activity 2 - Computers • Part 1- Students will learn about the parts of a computer and their functions. They will do this through instruction using Power Point, handouts and games. • Part 2- Students will model a computer through role playing. Students will play the parts of the computer and be asked to ‘run’ a program assigned by the teacher, this will most likely be making a craft of some sort.

13. Activity 2 - Computers • Mind Reader • Wish you could read someone’s mind? The directions here won’t be able to teach you to do that, but they can make someone else believe that you can!! All you have to do is follow the simple steps provided here and you can have people believing that you can read minds!! • Ask someone to think of a number between 1 and 10. Make sure they don’t tell you what it is!! They need to complete each step from here on out in their head or on a sheet of paper where you can’t see!! • Ask the person to multiply their number by 9. • Ask the person to add the two digits of their answer together to get one number. If their answer was only one digit already they can skip this step. • Ask the person to subtract 5 from the number in their head. • Now it starts to get tricky!! They need to think of the letter in the alphabet that correlates with their number. For example: A=1 B=2 C=3. • We’re almost there!! Ask the person to think of a state or country that begins with their letter. They can look at a map if one is available!! • Ask the person to take the second letter in that state and think of an animal that begins with that letter. • Finally, ask the person to think a color that you most associate with that animal. • Here is your chance to blow them away!! Tell them that the color they are thinking of is: • GRAY!!!

14. Activity 2 - Computers Motherboard This is the largest of all circuits in your computer and tells all the other circuits what to do. It also holds the most important parts of the computer. Sound/Video Card These are cards that are on the motherboard that allow your computer to process sounds and images. Modem This is something helps one computer ‘talk’ to another usually using a phone line or cable connection. You can share programs and information directly with another computer using this.

15. Activity 3- Project • Design project or experiment • The culminating project for the module will be a model of an scenario created using the program ALICE • The design will be an ongoing project utilizing all components of the teacher notes and will be worked on at home and during class. • Ethics will be an issue that is discussed in one of the sessions which will relate directly to the resources that they have available to them and the design that they will be creating. It will also be integrated when they report on their design projects

16. Activity 3- Project

17. Materials • A freely available program from the internet, ALICE will be required as well as a computer lab and internet access. • Basic classroom materials or inexpensive materials found at the grocery store. • Lesson plans and background material provided in the module

18. Assessment • The concepts I plan to assess are on computer programming, how a computer works and basic parts and why ethics can create questions that pertain to the field of computer science need to be considered by everyone in the age of the internet. • I plan to assess my students based on observation, discussion, creation of their models (rubric), their written lab on scientific inquiry (rubric), and a multiple choice and short answer quiz on ethics in computer science and parts of a computer.