Topic: Software

Lego coding

Difficulty

Easy

Objective

This activity involves two players. The aim of this activity is to explain to the other player how to build your design without showing them the design or seeing how they are building.

Outline

Computational thinking is a skill that allows us to take a complex problem and understand it in simple terms. It then allows us to come up with a variety of possible solutions to solve this problem. This skill very important when writing good code – so let’s practice it!

Equipment

LEGO bricks
A privacy screen (something to hide your lego creation from the other player, e.g. a piece of cardboard)

Method

Both players will need to start out with the same number and types of LEGO bricks. One player will be “the designer” and the other player will be “the builder.” Set up the privacy screen between the two players.

The Designer will start off by building something with their lego (e.g. a robot, animal or house) – make sure the Builder can’t see!

When the Designer has finished giving instructions compare your builds. How did you go? Does the Builder’s object match the Designer’s?

If you like, the Designer can continue giving the Builder instructions for how to fix their object (this time watching the Builder). This is the process of Debugging.