English National Curriculum:
Key Stage 2
Tooltip content
To use sequence, selection and repetition in programs.
learning objectives
Tooltip content
To understand that count-controlled loops are determined by the number of repeats it performs.
success criteria
- I understand that the number of times a loop is repeated can be predetermined.
- I understand how to use flowcharts to describe loops.
- I can follow a loop flowchart and perform the actions.
- I can identify a loop in everyday life.
- I can use loops to simplify instructions.
top tips
Sometimes it is necessary for an algorithm to loop a number of times.
Common misconceptions
- A loop does not start at a number.
- A count-controlled loop always starts at a number and then counts until it reaches that limit.
- A event-controlled loop always starts at a number and then counts
- An event-controlled loop will always continue indefinitely if the condition is met.
Boolean Values
Conditionals
A loop is a sequence of instructions that is continously repeated until a certain condition is reached. There are two ways that programs can loop; count-controlled loop and event-controlled loop.
A count-controlled loop is used when the number of repetitions of the loops is already known.
It keeps track of how many times the loop has executed and will stop when the count has been reached, for example, it might repeat for 3 times.
Previous Knowledge
A computer programmer who needs to use the same lines of code many times in a program can use a loop to save time. There are many forms of loops that are used for different scenarios.
The most basic concept of a loop is to repeat a set of actions a number of times until the criteria has been filled. Given our example of eating food, you would loop the same eating actions until all the food was gone. There are many relatable examples of loops in the world around us, and these can easily be related back to a flowchart of repeating actions.
TOPIC BACKGROUND READING
In computer science, a loop is a programming structure that repeats a sequence of instructions until a specific condition is met. Programmers use loops to cycle through values, add sums of numbers, repeat functions, and many other things.
A loop that is required or specified to run a set amount of times is referred to as count-controlled the amount of loops is controlled by the count, we know the amount of loops before we begin.
