Lesson 0: Getting Started

This document provides an introduction and overview to the Invasive Species module, as well as a Lesson Structure overview, a Project Path, Teacher Background Information, Standards Alignment, and Additional Features of the Curriculum.

View the module with your teacher login on code.org

Our lessons are available on Code.org, with puzzles and example projects using Code.org’s Sprite Lab.

1. Lesson 1: Surprising Stories about Plants and Animals
   Students notice and wonder about organisms featured in news stories about organisms in unexpected places. Students choose an article to read or video to watch to learn more about a particular species. In a concluding discussion, they surface similarities between the featured animals and plants in the stories.

2. Lesson 2: When Species Invade
   Students learn what it means for a species to be “invasive,” and reflect on the use of the terms invade/invasive. They use a flowchart and look for evidence to determine whether an organism in native, non-native, or invasive.

3. Lesson 3: Algorithms: Watch Me Dance
   Students consider behaviors, and how more than one behavior can be happening at a time. They are introduced to algorithms, following and creating them for dances.

4. Lesson 4: Swimming into Sprite Lab
   Students are introduced to Sprite Lab, using a goldfish pond example project. They work through several challenges in Course E, then examine the code in the Goldfish Pond example.

5. Lesson 5: Analyzing the Impact
   Students examine a food web, considering interactions between organisms. They analyze data to make a claim about how the Burmese pythons are affecting the Everglades.

6. Lesson 6: Local Invasive Species
   Students share what they’ve learned so far and new questions they have. They begin research on local invasive species.

7. Lesson 7: Big Goldfish, Little Pond
   Students discuss how people might use computers to solve an invasive species problem. They revisit the goldfish pond example project to examine sprites and their behaviors.

8. Lesson 8: SciComm and Me
   Students practice their coding skills by creating an interactive poster to share facts about invasive species.

9. Lesson 9: Communicating with Comics
   Students examine comics that show how invasive species got to new locations and discuss the human role in the process. They consider how the comics communicate key information and how they might plan a code.org project in a similar way.

10. Lesson 10: Pet Debate
    Students read articles about problems that arise when people have wild animals as pets and debate if there should be laws banning such pets.

11. Lesson 11: Responding to Conditions
    Students examine the code in a sample project about one of the invasive species from a prior lesson (iguanas). They begin to think about how they might write algorithms to control the behavior of sprites in ways that use conditionals.

12. Lesson 12: Conditionals
    Students are introduced to conditionals and how they work within algorithms. They remix the sample project to add more information and utilize conditional blocks.

13. Lesson 13: Exploring Solutions for the Burmese Python Problem
    Students delve into ways that people are trying to solve the problem of the Burmese python in the Everglades by watching a video and discussing the range of solutions.

14. Lesson 14: Conditionals in Minecraft
    Students continue to build their knowledge of how conditionals work in algorithms.

15. Lesson 15: Exploring Solutions for Invasive Species
    Students research the various solutions that are being used for an invasive species of their choice, including the successes and challenges of each. They think about what information they want to include in their code.org project.

16. Lesson 16: Debugging
    Students learn about debugging. They return to the various projects they have worked on so far and focus on fixing any bugs they have found.

17. Lesson 17: Inspiration and Algorithm
    Students think back on what they have learned during the module and consider what they want their final Sprite Lab project to include. They create a draft algorithm for their project, including information about sprites and behaviors.

18. Lesson 18: Making It Work
    Based on their draft algorithm and feedback from the teacher, students begin creating their final projects in Sprite Lab.

19. Lesson 19: Debugging My Project
    Students continue working on their final projects in Sprite Lab, including identifying and addressing any bugs in their code.

20. Lesson 20: Sharing Our Projects
    Students share their final Sprite Lab projects and receive feedback from their peers. They make revisions based on that feedback and reflect on the coding process.