Tony Sarg was a puppeteer and marionette master who invented the first, larger than life, helium balloons for the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The resource includes a lesson plan/book card, a design challenge, and copy of a design thinking journal that provide guidance on using the book to inspire students' curiosity for design thinking. Maker Challenges include: (1) Dash/Sphero: Develop a Macy’s Day Parade route using tape on the ground with a partner. Then, switch routes with another group and program the robot of your choice to navigate the parade route using code. (2) Ozobot: Develop a synchronized dance routine for both Ozobots for the stage of the Macy’s day parade using https://ozoblockly.com/editor (3) Create a moveable puppet that will be featured in the Macy’s Day Parade.

A document is included in the resources folder that lists the complete standards-alignment for this book activity.

Following the introduction to booleans and _if_ statements in the previous lesson, students are introduced to a new block called `keyDown()` which returns a boolean and can be used in conditionals statements to move sprites around the screen. By the end of this lesson students will have written programs that take keyboard input from the user to control sprites on the screen.

In this multi-day lesson, students use the problem solving process from Unit 1 to create a platform jumper game. They start by looking at an example of a platform jumper, then define what their games will look like. Next, they use a structured process to plan the backgrounds, variables, sprites, and functions they will need to implement their game. After writing the code for the game, students will reflect on how the game could be improved, and implement those changes.

Students will plan and build their own game using the project guide from the previous two lessons to guide their project. Working individually or in pairs, students will first decide on the type of game they'd like to build, taking as inspiration a set of sample games. They will then complete a blank project guide where they will describe the game's behavior and scope out the variables, sprites, and functions they'll need to build. In Code Studio, a series of levels prompts them on a general sequence they can use to implement this plan. Partway through the process, students will share their projects for peer review and will incorporate feedback as they finish their game. At the end of the lesson, students will share their completed games with their classmates. This project will span multiple classes and can easily take anywhere from 3-5 class periods.

This lesson introduces students to the process they will use to design games for the remainder of the unit. This process is centered around a project guide which asks students to define their sprites, variables, and functions before they begin programming their game. In this lesson students begin by playing a game on Game Lab where the code is hidden. They discuss what they think the sprites, variables, and functions would need to be to make the game. They are then given a completed project guide which shows one way to implement the game. Students are then walked through this process through a series of levels. As part of this lesson students also briefly learn to use multi-frame animations in Game Lab. At the end of the lesson students have an opportunity to make improvements to the game to make it their own.

In this lesson students learn how to use variables to label a number in their program or save a randomly generated value. Students begin the lesson with a very basic description of the purpose of a variable. Students then complete a level progression that reinforces the model of a variable as a way to label or name a number. Students use variables to save a random number to see that variables actually store or save their values, allowing them to use the same random number multiple times in their programs.

Using a _for loop_ to iterate over all of the elements in an array is a really useful construct in most programming languages. In this lesson, students learn the basics of how a _for loop_ can be used to repeat code, and then combine it with what they've already learned about arrays to write programs that process all elements in an array. Students use for loops to go through each element in a list one at a time without having to write code for each element. Towards the end of the lesson students will apply this with the `colorLed` list on the board to create an app that changes all of the LEDs each time a button is clicked.

In preparation for this chapter's final project, students will learn how to develop a prototype of a physical object that includes a Circuit Playground. Using a modelled project planning guide, students will learn how to wire a couple of simple circuits and to build prototypes that can communicate the intended design of a product, using cheap and easily found materials such as cardboard and duct tape.

In this final project for the course, students team to develop and test a prototype for an innovative computing device based on the Circuit Playground. Using the inputs and outputs available on the board, groups will create programs that allow for interesting and unique user interactions.

An array is an ordered collection of items, usually of the same type. In this lesson, students learn ways to access either a specific or random value from a list using its index. They then learn how to access the colorLEDs array that controls the behavior of the color LEDs on the Circuit Playground. Students will control the color and intensity of each LED, then use what they have learned to program light patterns to create a light show on their Circuit Playground.

In Unit 4 students learned a very simple approach to app development in App Lab that required a separate screen for most interactions. To expand the kinds of apps that students can make, and to encourage them to think in new ways about how users interact with apps, we introduce the `setProperty()` block. This command can be used to set the content and properties of various UI elements, allowing students to write programs that update information on a single screen, instead of manually creating duplicate screens. In this lesson students build up simple apps that only require a single screen, the content of which is changed using `setProperty()`.

In this lesson students get their first opportunity to write programs that use the Circuit Playground. After first inspecting the board visually and hypothesizing possibly functionalities, students move online where they will learn to write applications that control an LED. By combining App Lab screens with the Circuit Playgrounds, students can gradually start to integrate elements of the board as an ouput device while relying on App Lab for user input.

This lesson transitions students from consider the Circuit Playground as strictly an output device towards using it as a tool for both input and output. Starting with the hardware buttons and switch,sing the hardware buttons and switch, students learn to use `onBoardEvent()`, analogously to `onEvent()`, in order to take input from their Circuit Playgrounds.

In this lesson, students explore how the three analog sensors (sound, light, and temperature) can be used to write programs that respond to changes in the environment. The use of these sensors marks a transition in terms of how users interact with a program. By using sensors as an input, the user of an app doesn't have to directly interact with it at all, or may interact without actually realizing they are doing so.

Students take what they've learned through chapter one, and develop an app of their own design that uses the board to output information.

In this lesson, students work in groups to design aluminum foil boats that will support as many pennies as possible. Groups have two rounds to work on their boats, with the goal of trying to hold more pennies than they did in round 1. The structure of the activity foreshadows different steps of the problem solving process that students will be introduced to in more detail in the following lesson. At the end of the lesson students reflect on their experiences with the activity and make connections to the types of problem solving they will be doing for the rest of the course.

This lesson introduces the formal problem solving process that students will use over the course of the year, Define - Prepare - Try - Reflect. The lesson begins by asking students to brainstorm all the different types of problems that they encounter in everyday life. Students are then shown the four steps of the problem solving process and work together to relate these abstract steps to their actual experiences solving problems. First students relate these steps to the aluminum boats problem from the previous lesson, then a problem they are good at solving, then a problem they want to improve at solving. At the end of the lesson the class collects a list of generally useful strategies for each step of the process to put on posters that will be used throughout the unit and year.

In this lesson students apply the problem solving process to three different problems in order to better understand the value of each step. They will solve a word search, arrange seating for a birthday party, and plan a trip. The problems grow increasingly complex and poorly defined to highlight how the problem solving process is particularly helpful when tackling these types of problems. The lesson concludes with students reflecting on their experience with the problem solving process. They will justify the inclusion of each step and will brainstorm questions or strategies that can help them better define open-ended problems, as this is often the most critical step.

This lesson will likely take two class periods or more to complete. The first two problems may fit into a single class period but the third will need to be moved to a second day.

In this lesson students are introduced HTML as a solution to the problem of how to communicate both the content and structure of a website to a computer. The lesson begins with a brief unplugged activity demonstrating the challenges of effectively communicating the structure of a web page. Students then look at an exemplar HTML page in Web Lab and discuss with their classmates how HTML tags help solve this problem. Students then write their first HTML. A wrap-up discussion helps to solidify the understanding of content vs. structure that was developed throughout the lesson.

In this lesson, students continue to use HTML to structure text on web pages, this time with headings. Students learn how the different heading elements are displayed by default and practice using them to create page and section titles. Students then start to decide how they will organize their content on their own personal web pages. In the last level, students begin the project that they will continue to work on throughout the unit.