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Natural Science - Year II

Unit 66 Lab: The Technological Revolution

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Lab for Unit 66

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Unit 66 Laboratory Activity: Thinking Like a Computer

Goal: To gain an understanding of the process analysis required to program a machine to do something.

Materials

Procedure

  1. Write instructions to set the table for dinner as "code" for a computer.
  2. Identify what "inputs" you need: number of people, number and type of courses, etc.
  3. Identify conditions that may make you use different processes (e.g., if there is soup, set bowls and soup spoons, otherwise skip those steps).
  4. If there is a repeated task, try to write a "loop" so that you perform the same process as many times as necessary. Be sure to specify conditions for ending the loop!
  5. Have another person read and follow your instructions. Did your program give you the results you expected?
  6. Have another person read and follow your instructions (preferably without watching the first person do so). Were your results the same?

Report

  1. Include your program.
  2. Describe the results of your two "trial runs". Did your "computers" perform as expected? Where did the computers do something that wasn't in your program? Where did they do something differently from each other?

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