Puzzles
Probably computational thinking sort of stuff. Year 9 for now, but this might end up someplace else.
1 – Number guess
Binary search first – getting practical before coming back to the theory bit.
Intro slides – web version without second part
Intro slides – full version for teacher to use
Scratch program sheet 1 – basic version
Scratch program sheet 2 – adds guesses in
There's a set of instructions to turn this into a program.
2 – Search algorithms
Come back to binary search and then head into linear search with a program to have the computer guess your number.
Intro slides – calling back to first lesson
Linear search intro and algorithm
Linear search program in Scratch
There's a set of instructions to code some linear search algorithms.
Linear search program instructions
Binary search bot program – not the best program in the world, but it seems to work
Program which allows user to specify the range of values to guess from
And some theoretical maths stuff:
Program to calculate number of guesses required
3 – Highest Common Factor
Euclid's algorithm.
Highest Common Factor program instructions
4 – Code breaking
Codes. This it didn't really work when I did it the first time and I might skip this now.
In Excel first.
Excel slides – a screenshot basically
Some Python files:
There's an ASCII code table handy.
ASCII code program instructions
Plaintext and Ciphertext arrays
Create a random alphabetical cipher
5 – Dice thrower
Dice, probability and Monopoly.
Dice thrower program instructions
6 – Bubble sort
A practical bubble sort activity that I used at an interview. I got the job so it must work.
Method sheet – to print or use on screen
There aren't coding instructions for this (yet?). But here's a program that could be used, one using nested for loops and one with a while loop to add efficiency.
Then there's code where values can be randomly generated, one with values from 1 to 9 without duplicates, and one where users can decide the length and maximum value within the array and where there can be duplicates.
Bubble sort with random values
User defined random number bubble sort
To add
- Tower of Hanoi. There's a program for this I need to add here
- Fox, Goose, Corn river crossing
- paper based GCSE style problems