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Andrea Tate - 3 Grade Class: Computational Thinking Activity #1 What Does It Mean To Decompose?

This lesson plan teaches 3rd grade students about computational thinking and decomposition. Students will learn that problems can be broken down into smaller steps to solve them. They will discuss decomposition and provide examples of breaking down tasks like making a pizza into steps. Students will then watch a BrainPOP video that models decomposing a problem into steps to find a solution. Finally, students will work in partners to teach each other a secret handshake by decomposing it into 4 steps.

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75 views2 pages

Andrea Tate - 3 Grade Class: Computational Thinking Activity #1 What Does It Mean To Decompose?

This lesson plan teaches 3rd grade students about computational thinking and decomposition. Students will learn that problems can be broken down into smaller steps to solve them. They will discuss decomposition and provide examples of breaking down tasks like making a pizza into steps. Students will then watch a BrainPOP video that models decomposing a problem into steps to find a solution. Finally, students will work in partners to teach each other a secret handshake by decomposing it into 4 steps.

Uploaded by

api-556853971
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Computational Thinking Activity #1

What does it mean to decompose?

Andrea Tate – 3rd grade class

Lesson Plan credit: https://educators.brainpop.com/lesson-plan/computational-thinking-lesson-plan-


decompose/?bp-jr-topic=computational-thinking
(slightly modified to fit my class needs)

This BrainPOP-based vocabulary activity teaches students what it means to be a computational thinker, going
into depth about the first step of computation thinking: decomposition. Students will learn that in order to
effectively solve a problem, you must break it down into smaller parts. This activity will be completed during
our vocabulary block (30 minutes) over 1-2 days.

Lesson Objectives:
1. Students will be able to break a task into smaller parts.
2. Students will be able to identify steps to solve the problem.

Materials:
 BrainPOP video: https://jr.brainpop.com/artsandtechnology/technology/computationalthinking/
 Pizza picture
 Whiteboard
 Apple TV
 Writing notebooks
 Pencils

I do:
 Have a discussion about computational thinking. Ask students what they know, make a list on the
whiteboard. Explain that computational thinking is a method for solving problems by first breaking
them down, and then using smaller steps to solve it.
 Write the word “decompose” on the whiteboard. Think-Pair-Share what decompose means. Create
another list on the whiteboard.
 Show pizza image on TV. Ask students to Think-Pair-Share the steps for making a pizza.

We do:
 Have partner students write down their pizza-making steps in their writing notebooks.
 Ask students, are the steps in sequence? What would happen if we didn’t make the pizza in sequence?
 Think-Pair-Share: Did you just decompose? How did you break down this pizza into smaller parts?
 Think-Pair-Share: What other things can we decompose into smaller steps? (Examples: Peanut butter
and jelly sandwich, how to ride a bike, etc.)
 Watch BrainPOP video and watch how Annie and Moby decompose their own problem to find a
solution: https://jr.brainpop.com/artsandtechnology/technology/computationalthinking/

Two do:
 In writing notebooks, write down how Annie and Moby decomposed their steps. Did it work? Did they
solve their problem?

Assessment activity:
 Allow students to choose their partners. Assign each student the number 1 or the number 2. Tell all
number 1 students that they have a job: to teach their partner a SECRET HANDSHAKE! Their handshake
must have the following:
o 4 steps
o Must teach to partner number 2 step by step
 After all handshakes have been learned, have each partnership share it with the class
 Ask number 1 students: What was it like to teach your partner the handshake? Explain what you did to
make sure they could learn it.

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