Lesson Plan 1.03: Script Mode and Variables

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to...

• Define and identify: script, print, run, output, variable
• Write a simple script and run it in the IDE
• Print values out to the console (both composed values and from variables)
• Compare script mode vs interactive mode
• Know how to store a value into a variable

Materials/Preparation

• Do Now - Project on screen
• Lab - Printing & Variables
• Associated Reading - section 1.2 of Book
• Read through the Do Now, Lab, and lesson so that you are familiar with the requirements and can assist students.

Pacing Guide

Instructor's Notes

1. Do Now
   • Project the Do Now on the board, circulate around the class to check that students are working and understand the instructions.
2. Printing Lesson/Lab Part 1
   • Explain that the file is the center section of the screen. Sometimes this is called a script.
     • Reminder questions: how do you save/run a file? What happened when you ran the file from the do now?
     • Explain the purpose of the print statement, which will print whatever is in between the parentheses to the console.
       • Explain to students that this what appears on the console is called output
     • Talk to students about reading a program and the order in which the computer executes statements.
   • Ask students how they would print the following:

     Hello World
     Hello World
     Hello World
     Hello World
     Hello World
     

   • Have students work on Part 1 of the lab for 10 Minutes

3. Variables Lesson/Lab Part 2

   • Variable: a name that refers to a value

   • An assignment statement creates new variables and gives them values:

     >>> message = 'And now for something completely different'
     >>> n = 17
     >>> pi = 3.1415926535897932
     

     • Ask the students what they think the assignment operator is.
     • Using the example above, ask which are the variables, and which are the values.
     • Tell students how assignments work from right to left, so the item on the right is assigned to the item on the left.
   • Have students work on Part 2 of the lab for 10 Minutes
4. Debrief
   • Talk about the difference between interactive and script mode. Discuss why you might want to use the interpreted mode: sometimes it can be faster to debug a single line and make sure it works!
   • Talk about differences between SNAP! and Python for declaring variables.

Accommodation/Differentiation

If students are moving quickly, ask students to come up with a way to print two lines with only one print statement. Allow for students to Google the \n character.