Assignment 1: Blockly

PrairieLearn Quiz Due: Thursday January 22 at 11:59pm (no grace day, no late submissions)
Assignment Due: Thursday January 22 at 11:59pm

TIPS

For every assignment, you should read through the whole assignment before starting!

You don’t need your python environment set up to do this assignment.

Overview and Motivation

The Blockly website is one of several that is part of the world-wide Hour Of Code that celebrated programming and aimed to reach a broader and more diverse audience to motivate and help sustain interest in Computer Science.

Computer Science programs have used languages that enable a virtual robot to navigate the world since Rich Pattis invented Karel the Robot in roughly 1981. The language is still used in the Stanford 106A course, which is their version of our Compsci 101.

Learning Goals

• Have a first experience with programming.
• Practice thinking logically and computationally.

Programming Tasks to Complete

Using Blockly

You'll need to go to The Blockly website to start.

What to Program

For full credit, you must complete 6 to 10 levels in the Maze game. Level 6 for complete credit, if you can, go to a higher level, up to level 10. Save a picture of the maze of the highest level you accomplish to turn in.

What to Turn In

For the highest level maze you complete (level 6 minimum for full credit), you should 1) include a picture of your maze solution, 2) explain how the program works in words and 3) reflect on the experience in a document you create with Microsoft Word or Google Docs. You'll create a PDF of your document and turn it in as described below.

Each reflection should include information about how easy/hard the task was, mistakes you made (and corrected), and any other thoughts you have about the task and your completion of that task.

Type your name and NetID at the top of your write-up.

Be sure to number the three parts. 1) the picture, 2) the explanation of the program and 3) reflection. When you've completed your document, save it as a PDF. You'll turn in the PDF as described in the last section of this document.

Grading and Submission

Grading

This assignment is worth 15 points. Points may be deducted if your write-up is hard to read.

• [9] Maze picture - Level 6 or higher
• [3] Explanation of the program
• [2] Reflection
• [1] Name and NetID at the top of the document

Submission Instructions

Steps to submit:

• Log in to Gradescope.
  • Under the CompSci 101 dashboard, click “Assignment 1: Blockly”.
  • Click “Submit PDF”, select your write-up, and click “Upload PDF”.
  • Select all pages of your write-up and click “Submit”. (There is no need to match pages to the question outline, but there is no issue if you do.)

You can submit more than once. Your active submission will be graded.