Lesson Plan:

OBJECTIVE

Flowchart Development

To teach the students the fundamentals of flowchart development. INTRODUCTION/ASSESSMENT What is a flowchart? Ask students for ideas and their opinions/examples Discuss purpose of a flowchart and give definition o A flow chart is a graphical representation showing the flow of control among the steps in a program, people in an organization, or pages of a presentation, processes in general. It is a step-by-step illustration of what occurs given a specific situation. Explain attributes of a flow chart: o Start/End Block: Start block includes a brief description of the process which the flowchart is carrying out (represented by ovals) o Input/Output: An event that occurs (represented by parallelograms) o Decision: Should be a question that has only two possible answers (has only one input and two outputs). (Represented by diamonds) o Process: Some operation carried out. Has exactly one input and one output (i.e. can only lead to one other DECISION or PROCESS element). (Represented by rectangles) o Sequence: A series of processes carried out one after the other. o If/Else: Provides choices, using Decision blocks, if I make this choice, this will happen otherwise, that will happen. Developing a Flowchart Step: Write down processes Consider decisions Consider inputs & outputs

Class Exercises: Flowchart examples o Consider waking up in the morning, what are the steps that you take before getting out of bed? Have students give their examples of steps necessary to get out of bed in an ordered list. Make sure that they incorporate decisions, not only processes

Start

Alarm Rings

Yes

Hit Snooze?

No

Get Up

Turn off Alarm

Stop

o o o o o o Materials:

Give each group a process and have them create a flowchart of their own and present to the class Class activities: Self-checkout at the supermarket Making a sandwich Doing a load of laundry Drawing a flowchart Taking a Picture Cleaning a bedroom

Not Applicable

Deliverables (assignment) Illustrate the use of a soda machine: Have the students think about buying a drink from a soda machine. Have them start with a version of the task that involves no choices. Get them to list all the steps for a linear purchase sequence. For example, these might be: Go up to the soda machine; Put in money; Push correct button; Take drink out of machine. Next draw this as a flowchart. This might look like:

Start

Go to Machine

Put in Money

Push Button

Take out Drink

Stop