The Terrible Troll of Trepidation (Gr. 3-5)

Description

You shall not pass! Dash has transformed into the Terrible Troll of Trepidation. To continue, your students will need to defeat this terrifying Troll.

Objectives

• When - students will learn to program an event in the When block that when met, executes a command.
• Variables - students will learn that Change by and If blocks contain placeholders for variables and learn to edit the variable in the Change by and If blocks.
• Eye Pattern - students will edit the Eye Pattern blocks as hit points and will edit the When block to cue eye lights to turn off.
• Change by - students will learn to edit 'greater than', 'less than' or 'equal to' statements in a Change by block and will use the Change by block to increase the value of the variable by a designated increment, e.g., +1.
• If block - students will learn to edit 'greater than', 'less than' or 'equal to' statements in an If block. They will also learn how to program a conditional statement using the If block, e.g., IF x 1, Dash will execute eye pattern and sound.
• All Lights - students will program All Lights in Dash?s ears and chest to look like they are off by selecting the color black from the menu.

Lesson Procedures

Students will learn to edit variables within a Change by and If block over a series of 9 challenges. In this puzzle, the Troll is Dash whose eye lights will act as "hit points," students will need to customize the 12 LED lights in Dash's eye pattern block in order to indicate when the "Troll" is losing an increasing number of hit points over a series of 3 claps. Students will need to understand the concepts of "greater than," "less than" or "equal to" in order to properly identify and set the variables which will be triggered over three sequential claps.