I am completely lost in Lesson 7; why is this lesson so much more difficult than in previous years???. The instructions are very hard to understand and the videos online do not match the lesson. For example I am stuck on Lesson 7B part 2 and part 3. The online video does not address what the instructions are asking the students to accomplish, and the code is not matching what is in the lesson!
I am very STUCK and very CONFUSED regarding this lesson. I need one-on-one help SOON. I always go through the levels in each lesson, but find this lesson to be too difficult for me to teach. If I do not understand it, how can I have my students do this lesson? I want lesson 7 from the previous years back!!! Is there someone who is willing to walk me through this lesson please??? I have spent three days trying to understand this lesson and I am just getting all the more frustrated and confused.
I get that we are building from part 1 to part2 , etc. BUT I am so stuck I do not know what to do!!! I have about 9 days before I open this lesson to the students. HELP!!!
Here is the video I was watching for Lesson 7B part 3.
I’m sorry to hear that this lesson is frustrating you. I can try to give a quick rundown of each of these levels here:
In level 2, you’re trying to make a conditional statement to figure out what the intended result should be.
I’m going to give a different example than the level to illustrate the point. Let’s say you’re making an app to determine what the user’s favorite color is. The four possible answers, or results, might be red, green, blue, and yellow. You would initialize four result variables corresponding to these.
In the example from the above bullet point, you may have one question that asks the user to choose their favorite fruit. If they choose strawberries, the red result variable increases in value (or increments) by one. If they choose limes, the green increments by one. Blueberries and bananas would similarly increment the blue and yellow results variables by 1.
The code for this is something to the effect of:
If (strawberries were chosen) {
red_score ++; //++ is shorthand for "red_score = red_score + 1
} else if (limes were chosen) {
green_score++;
} else if (blueberries were chosen) {
blue_score++;
} else {
yellow_score++;
}
Note that we do not need to check anything with yellow because by default, it’s all that’s left. You can write it in there if you want to, but you don’t have to.
The level is asking students to do something similar, but with different questions and with the answers corresponding to a superhero.
Level 3 is where the students program their app to tell the user their favorite superhero. Let’s go with my example of the favorite color to illustrate the point here:
We now have four results variables to compare. Let’s call them red_score, green_score, blue_score, and yellow_score.
We need to write code to figure out their favorite color. The pseudocode might say something like,
If red_score > blue_score && red_score > green_score && red_score > yellow_score, then return the result that their favorite color is red.
This only works if there is one result that has the highest score. The student needs to write code to check if there is a tie for the highest score as well, and then determine what result that should give.
I hope this example helped clear some of that up. If you’d still like 1:1 help and you’re located in the US, I’d recommend contacting your local Regional Partner through this web form. They will have a facilitator who may be able to talk you through the lesson & they can even get you signed up for the Professional Learning Program for next year! There are also several facilitators and knowledgeable teachers on this forum, so it’s possible some of them may be willing to meet with you virtually as well.
One note on YouTube videos: anything not posted by the offical Code.org channel is neither authorized nor endorsed by Code.org. This user is allowed to post this content as it’s shared under a Creative Commons license, but please be advised that we can’t guarantee such content is accurate or helpful.
I agree with you 100%. It does not make sense that the three projects involve the use of functions (several of them) when functions are introduced in lesson 9. I am planning on assigning my students lesson 7 from last year’s curriculum.
We might be able to use the projects later on, but not here. I honestly think the students will only get confused and frustrated.
I agree. This lesson is a mess. I have quite a lot of experience coding and this lesson isn’t well done. My kids have 0 coding experience and all of the sudden they are using functions. I only barely understand because of my prior experience with the Libraries lesson/project at the end of last year’s AP CSP. And to make it worse, the example code uses the variable category 1 and on top of that all of the sudden they are using category1 ++. I know what that means but my students WILL NOT. The variable should not be category 1. You’ve got to fix this. I won’t let my kids pick this project because it is asking way too much and I thought we were trying to get kids feeling good about coding. I appreciate the content but this leap is too large and the assistance is incorrect.
Does anyone have a fool proof way for the emoji’s to work in the Emoji Movie Quiz? I have students trying to copy and paste the emojis from the comments without success.
I think it might be a good idea to do last year’s lesson. Grumble grumble.
I agree as well! I have used Code.org for many years and this is the not the usual standard of clarity and scaffolding.
Some things I hate to see in this are local variable, ==, .toUpperCase, nested conditional and so many tools in the toolbox. THIS IS TOO MUCH so soon. BIG JUMP here. I also think the directions lack clarity and there far to much in each bubble. I absolutely understand why any teacher (as well as student) is overwhelmed, confused and frustrated by this lesson. I too will be assigning last years Lesson 7 and possibly come back to this later. Assigning it now is just “asking” them to go out and copy the videos out there.
I’m agreeing with everyone else here. The instructions are not as clearly written as we usually see for the practice lessons. This practice lesson would require way more teacher support than the Conditionals Investigate lesson. I felt like copying and pasting the emojis was annoying, as I was sometimes just copying 1/2 of the emoji. Also agree that using functions (for the 2-spice and 3-spice examples) messes with the usually good scaffolding that is presented in the lessons.
I am suggesting that code.org remove this lesson and replace it with something like we had last year. I mean STRONGLY suggest. I absolutely do not want to go through this again. Too many things going wrong with this lesson with different students. One big one is that the emojiis are not working!
This lesson is too much of a jump for students. Some of the Conditionals practice elements from last year need to be incorporated into this lesson.
I understand how code.org is trying to break down the steps here for students, but it is not a successful lesson. I agree that some major changes are needed here.
