In this exercise, children create instructions (an activity diagram) of how to safely eat candy in a public place during the coronavirus pandemic. In the end of the exercise, they get to try out the instructions created by another group and see if they are specific enough for candy eating. During the exercise, children learn how to break a task into smaller steps, as well as, the importance of simple and clear instruction.
| Subject | Mathematics, Social Studies, Science, Environmental Education |
| Length | 45 minutes |
| Pedagogical Approach | Haptic Learning, Real-Life Learning |
| Competences | Problem Solving, Decomposition |
| Grades | 4th-6th grade |
| Technologies | No Technology |
Other Materials Needed
One candy for each child. For each group, one small hand sanitizer bottle (or, children can wash their hands), one A3 or bigger paper, pile of post-it notes, colored pencils/pens (regular ones are okay as well).
Remember to consider children’s allergies when picking out the candy. Candy can also be replaced with something else that the children enjoy eating. To speed things up, you can organize children into groups with the equipment before starting the class, but do not give them candy and hand sanitizer until the start of the actual assignment, if you think that they might get distracted.
Description
Models, algorithms, and diagrams
The teacher explains the class that a model is a simplified representation that can be created of different things, situations and activities. For example, a smiley face can be used to represent a happy person
Algorithms are written descriptions or diagrams explaining how a task or a process is carried out. For a task to be completed, it is important that its different steps are described at a specific enough level. Think about for a few minutes how you would describe the process of putting on your shoes before leaving for school. What is wrong with the below example?
- Put on your shoe
- Tie the shoe
- Leave for school
First, the instructions are on a very general level, meaning that the instructor assumes that the instructed person is very familiar with the process, and can fill in the blanks without specific instructions. This is often the case, but If we had a robot that could understand written instructions, they would be very confused by these phases. First, the robot would say something like “ERROR, shoe not specified”. The robot needs to know which shoe to pick up, and which foot to put it on. Second, what would happen when the robot moves to the second phase, but the shoe does not require tying anything? Finally, even though the robot would pick up a shoe in random and would get it tied, they would still be leaving for school with only one shoe.
In addition to lists, different processes can also be described using a diagram. The below activity diagram describes the process of reading a book.
You can see the start point of the diagram in the left upper corner and the finish point in the lower right corner, indicated by circles. The different phases of the activity are portrayed by squares, while the diamond shape describes potential points where a decision needs to made before moving on to the next phase. What do you think of the diagram – is it specific enough? could something be added to it?
You can model even the simplest activities at a very specific level. This is especially important for computers, because they do not make assumptions on their own. However, in other cases, you can balance between specific and general instruction to find the right fit to that situation.
The Assignment
The teacher divides the class into groups of 3-5 children. Each group is given one big paper (A3 or bigger), post-it notes, and one hand sanitizer bottle (alternatively, the children can think of the exercise with hand washing). Each group also gets as many candies as there are members in the group. Remember to advice the children to not eat the candy at this point, because they are needed later in the exercise.
The teacher explains the class that keeping in mind the activity diagram of the bookshelf example, they are to prepare an activity diagram that explains a human robot how to safely eat candy in a public place during coronavirus pandemic. What steps have to be considered, so that the goal (candy safely eaten) can be achieved? What are the different phases of this process? Remember, that a human robot does not make too many assumptions, so the level of specificity probably needs to be close to the bookshelf example.
Children should use the post-it notes to portray the different steps of the process (one step per post-it note). The big paper works as a background where the post-its can be placed. They can draw arrows between the phases as well as the start and finish points straight on the big paper. If they feel that decisions need to be made at some point, they can create the crystal shape with post-its by tilting them a bit against the background.
Depenging on how much time is left, give the children 15-20 minutes to work on the assignment. You should leave about 10 minutes for the final phase.
Once the diagrams are finished, switch the diagrams between groups so that each group gets a diagram created by another group. Instruct the children to follow the steps of the diagram to see if they get to eat the candy. Are there any steps missing? Do some of the steps require clarification? If there is time, you can have a class conversation. Finally, tell everyone that they can eat their candy, even if the instructions had some flaws in them.
Attachment 1
If you want to print the introduction materials for the students, you can find the entire introduction (including pictures) here, and a bigger version of the book reading activity diagram here. You can also find a hand-out of the 1st phase of the assignment here.
Other Information
The Erasmus+ Modeling at School (MAS) project is a collaborator of the COTA project. They aim to promote skills and competences needed in the 21st century by introducing modeling as teaching and learning strategy and tool in several subjects. If you are interested in finding more materials about modeling, you can go to the MAS project website.
One thought on “Safe Candy Eating”