National curriculum content
Design, write and debug programs that accomplish specific goals; use sequence, selection and repetition in programs; use logical reasoning to explain how some simple algorithms work and to detect and correct errors in algorithms and programs.
Lesson objectives
- Learn about algorithms for a ‘guess my number’ game.
- Learn how more efficient algorithms can solve problems quicker.
- Use a sort algorithm to sort weights into order.
- Use the quicksort algorithm to sort things.
- Create an algorithm to test for prime numbers.
- Create an algorithm to find the highest common factor of two numbers.
What we want children to know
- How some key algorithms can expressed as programs.
- How some algorithms can are more efficient than others for the same problem.
What skills we want children to develop
- Develop the ability to reason logically about algorithms.
- Create efficient algorithms that achieve a specific goal.
- Design, create and debug programs.
Vocabulary
Algorithm, flowchart, pseudocode, linear search, random search, binary search, selection sort, quicksort.