Year 8 – Computing systems Lesson plan

Lesson 6 – Sharing

Lesson 6: Sharing
Introduction
In this final lesson, learners will take a quiz that will assess their understanding of the
computing systems concepts that they have encountered throughout the unit.
In the second half of the lesson, learners will move away from the technical aspects of
software and hardware that have been the focus of the unit and learn some of the key
concepts of open source software. They will explore this through a discussion about
some common Scratch practices that they are already familiar with (sharing, ‘seeing
inside’ projects, and ‘remixing’), and a reflection on the implications of these practices.

Learning objectives
● Explain the implications of sharing program code

Key vocabulary
Free and open source software

Preparation
Subject knowledge:
● You will need to be aware of what open source software is, and be familiar with
some of the most popular examples. In this lesson, you will not delve into technical
details; you only need to be familiar with common Scratch practices such as
sharing a project, ‘seeing inside’ it, and ‘remixing’ it.
You will need:
● Slides — note that some slides contain animations
● Assessment: questions and answers
● Activities:
○ Implications:
■ ‘Naughty elf’ Scratch program (ncce.io/scratch-elf)
■ Worksheet
○ Open source software: worksheet

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Year 8 – Computing systems Lesson plan
Lesson 6 – Sharing

Assessment opportunities
The primary goal in this lesson is to assess the knowledge that learners have
accumulated over the course of the unit, through the assessment activity.

At a glance
Activity 1 Summative assessment

25–30 mins Ask learners to complete the summative assessment quiz.

Activity 2 Implications

15 mins Explore the See inside and Remix buttons in Scratch and use the
‘Implications’ worksheet to prompt learners to think about the benefits and
drawbacks of making source code available.

Activity 3 Free and open source software

10 mins Provide a broad definition of free and open source software, based on the
previous activity. Use the ‘Open source software’ worksheet to search for
open source software that learners could use for everyday tasks, school
work, or extracurricular activities.

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Year 8 – Computing systems Lesson plan
Lesson 6 – Sharing

Outline plan
Please note that the slide deck labels the activities in the top right-hand corner to help
you navigate the lesson.

*Timings are rough guides

Activity 1 Summative assessment

(Slides 3–4)
Ask learners to complete the summative assessment quiz.
25–30 mins
Should any learners finish the quiz earlier, ask them to start the
‘Implications’ activity. Give them the ‘Implications’ worksheet and ask them
to explore the ‘Naughty elf’ program (ncce.io/scratch-elf).

Note: If you like, you could make some time before the quiz for a few recall
questions. You could also consider starting the lesson with the ‘Implications’
and ‘Open source software’ activities, and leaving the summative
assessment for the end of the lesson.

Activity 2 Implications
(Slides 5–10)
Display slide 5 to provide a link to the ‘Naughty elf’ program in Scratch
15 mins (ncce.io/scratch-elf). Allow learners 3 minutes to run the program and
explore it.

This is ostensibly a number guessing game, but what the learners don’t
know is that the elf is cheating. There is no secret number selected in
advance; the elf provides a sequence of negative replies to the user and
only selects the random number after the game, making sure that it is
consistent with its previous replies.

The reasoning behind using this game is to guide learners to use the See
inside button, to see how the code works. You should not prompt learners
to do this but rather observe how many of them will try looking at the
code, as they consistently fail to guess the number. If they do ‘see inside’
the code, they will not be required to understand it: there are comments
that will immediately inform them that the elf is cheating.

Display slide 6 (animated) and ask learners if they used the See inside
button, then move on to slide 7 to recap what the button does. It is very
common for learners to explore featured programs in Scratch, so you
could also ask them if they tend to use the See inside button when they
see a Scratch program that they like and are curious to see how it works.

Similarly, display slide 8 to ask learners if they know what the Remix button
does, then show slide 9 and recap its functionality.

Note: The Remix button only appears for users that are logged in to

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Year 8 – Computing systems Lesson plan
Lesson 6 – Sharing

Scratch, so learners may not see it when they run the ‘Naughty elf’
program.

Unlike the See inside button, learners may not be familiar with the Remix
button. Some may even be surprised that this is allowed. Ensure that you
stress that attribution to the original project is automatically provided, and
that remixing does not modify the original project, but rather makes a
copy that is modifiable. Otherwise, learners may misunderstand how
remixing works and fear that others may be able to meddle with their
creations.

Hand out the ‘Implications’ worksheet and display the questions on slide 10
while learners complete it. The questions will require them to reflect on how
they feel about the ‘See inside’ and ‘Remix’ possibilities that Scratch offers.
In essence, this activity investigates some of the basic benefits and
drawbacks of making source code available.

Ask learners to give some answers, and write the relevant ones on the
board. You could also click through the animations on slide 10 to reveal
some of the most likely and relevant answers, to help with your discussion.

You could highlight the answer “I can look for malicious code”, as it is
relevant to the naughty elf. Explain that we can never really be sure of how
a program works and even what its purpose is, unless we can see its code.
For example, there is a risk that learners might download a program/app
for a particular purpose, then find out that it is malicious.

Note: At this point, you could mention how closely ‘See inside’ and ‘Remix’
correspond to the “four essential freedoms” associated with free and open
source software (source):

0. The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose.

1. The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does
your computing as you wish. Access to the source code is a
precondition for this.

2. The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help others.

3. The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others. By

doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from
your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

Plenary Free and open source software

(Slides 11–12)
Display slide 11 to provide a broad definition of free and open source
10 mins software, in a way that links to the learners’ experience of using ‘See inside’
and ‘Remix’ in Scratch.

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Year 8 – Computing systems Lesson plan
Lesson 6 – Sharing

Hand out the ‘Open source software’ worksheet and display slide 12
(animated) to prompt learners to complete it. In this activity, learners will
search for open source software that they could use for everyday tasks,
school work, or extracurricular activities. This is a useful skill, but it also
places the ideas discussed in the previous activity in a real-world context:
open source software powers many aspects of our daily computing lives
(Android, based on Linux, is currently one of the most relevant examples
for learners).

Resources are updated regularly — the latest version is available at: ncce.io/tcc.

This resource is licensed under the Open Government Licence, version 3. For more information on this
licence, see ncce.io/ogl.

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