English National Curriculum:
Key Stage 1
Tooltip content
To create (and debug) simple programs.
learning objectives
Tooltip content
To be able to apply the if/else rules to various scenarios.
prerequisite knowledge
- An understanding of the Boolean Values True and False.
- An understanding of how ‘If/Then/Else’ works.
success criteria
- I can track the value change of a Memory Box and make If/Else choices based on the value.
- I can understand a (complex) flowchart involving one or more If/Else structures.
top tips
- A flowchart might contain a start, end, action, choices and loops, which all have their own specific shapes.
- When the answer to a choice is true, we go down the true/yes branch. When a choice is false, we go down the false/no branch. The sequence of execution is used to solve problems.
Common misconceptions
- We can take both true and false branches.
- Both branches cannot be taken at the same time, we can only take one branch.
- A choice and a selection are the same.
- No, a flowchart asks a question and a selection processes the answer.
list of activities
Boolean Values
Conditionals
Flowcharts
Boolean Values are True and False. The result of a conditional is either True or False.
Using conditionals is similar to asking questions. Based on your answer you can continue down one route or another. It is common to include conditional statements to decide if a program should do one thing or do something else. The answer to a specific condition is true or false. It is helpful to think of these as choices.
Flowcharts are diagrams that display a step-by-step process. In computer programming, flowcharts show us a sequence of instructions.
previous knowledge
Conditional statements are used through the various programming languages to instruct the computer on the decision to make dependent on the conditions. These decisions are made if and only if the pre-stated conditions are either true or false.
Conditionals can also be called ‘if statements’ one of the building blocks of computer programs. This represents the act of one action IF somethings is true and another action IF it is false. For example:
IF you like pizza:
Eat Pizza
ELSE:
Eat something else
TOPIC BACKGROUND READING
In most scenarios, a question will lead to additional actions but also potentially additional questions. When one question answer leads to another question, we call this a nested set of questions.
Nesting is a term used to describe the situation where an object is contained within another, similar, object. This most often describes code, so for example, a function contained with another function.
The nesting process can be repeated to give a complex, recursive, behaviour. This allows for complex decisions to be made, but we need to be careful when constructing these.
