Grade Level: 3rd-5th Grade
California CS Standard: 3-5CS.4
Duration: 45-60 minutes
Lesson Objectives:
By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:
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- Identify why the passing of a bill can be used to understand how information is transmitted in a computer.
- Explain how packets travel through multiple devices and networks to reach their destination.
- Model how information is broken down into smaller pieces, or packets, for transmission across a network.
Required Materials:
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- Lined Paper
- Pencils
- Envelopes
Lesson Outline:
Introduction (20 minutes)
- Review last lesson material (2 minutes)
- What kinds of steps are taken to get a bill to the point of becoming a law?
- Game: Pass the Class Rule (15-20 minutes)
- The point of this game is going to be for them to demonstrate how a bill is passed, by making a new class rule
- Have the students split into 3 groups: The rule writers, the class House of Representatives, and the class Senate (although a bill can originate in the house or senate, for the sake of clarity and connection to the computer standards, we want to be sure there is a clear point of origin and a clear ending goal)
- The “president” is the role you will play so that you can monitor the game and also make sure the class rule is appropriate and fair.
- The rule writers will discuss first what they want the new rule to be and write it down on a sheet of paper provided to them and put it inside an envelope. Make sure they are thorough!
- Next, they will have someone take the envelope to the Class House group, and wait while they discuss the rules. If they don’t agree with the new rule, they should explain what the issues are, then return the rule in the envelope to the rule writers to revise. If they agree with they rule, they should then send it to the class senate.
- Once the senate has received the rule, they should take time to discuss it. Like the house, if they disagree, the rule goes back into the envelope and back to the first group. If they agree, they will take the rule to you and you can approve it or veto the rule. If it is vetoed, send it back to the first group. If it is approved, it can be a new class rule!
- For fun, you can have the students all sign the new class rule they worked on together and save it.
Group Discussion Activity (about 30 minutes):
- Watch this video (4 minutes)
- Feel free to also use this site to read together as a class or print out as a handout in their groups:
- Have your students get in groups of 4-5 students, and have them make correlations between what they saw in the video and the bill passing process. Make sure they also identify any major differences (like how a CPU isn’t responsible for “vetoing” a program).
- Once they’ve discussed, have them write on paper or index cards the three main parts of the computer information processing system and what part of the bill process they relate to. (5 minutes)
- this is an example of what it might look like (done by Kelly)
- Once they have finished, have each group join another group, and they are going to spend 5 minutes comparing their answers. (5 minutes)
- After they share, bring the class back together and discuss their findings
- Review the process of information being analyzed and “debated” in small chunks, or packets, like bills are debated in the house and senate, and then is sent to the CPU for final program execution. (10-15 minutes)
Exit Ticket/Assessment (2-5 minutes):
Once the lesson is completed, students should have a couple of minutes to fill out an exit ticket where you can ask them
- What is one thing you learned about the process of computers passing information today?
- Can you think of another information passing process that is like a computer? (Hint: they mentioned it in the video we watched!)
- How does this relate to the lesson we had on how the different physical parts of a computer work together to do tasks?
Feel free to ask any other questions you feel necessary! (2-5 minutes)