Basic Procedures By Phil Bagge HIAS Computing Inspector / Advisor CAS Community Leader Author of the code-it resources Supported by

Procedure A set of instructions grouped together to carry out a task Procedure A set of instructions grouped together to carry out a task. Run a procedure by using its name. Procedures can be run/used lots of times. Read the text By Mr Bagge

Common everyday procedures that your brain already knows how to do Walking Getting dressed Eating Breathing Jumping Hopping Can you think of any more everyday procedures? Ask your pupils if they can think of any more (sleeping is a good one)

Common everyday procedures that your brain already knows how to do Define breathe Breathe in Wait Breathe out wait Define walk Move right leg forward Wait Move left leg forward wait Loop always breathe if need to go somewhere walk if hungry AND food near eat Emphasise that the procedures are started from the algorithm on the right. They can be used over and over again. Read the script on the right and reference the procedures on the left. Define eat Put food in hand Lift hand to mouth Put food into mouth Loop until a paste chew swallow

Procedure stories straight land What procedures does autopilot been programmed to do? Think about the landing procedure. How might you order these instructions? (A-E in right order) Can you think of any other procedures that could be programmed into autopilot? How many times can the pilot use a procedures? Autopilot can land the plane and fly straight ahead. You press these buttons to start these. A) Line up plane with runway B) Put wheels down D) Slow down engines C) Define land E) Reduce height until wheels touch ground land straight Maybe get pupils to order the landing procedure or do it as a whole class.

Procedure stories straight land What procedures does autopilot been programmed to do? Land, fly straight Think about the landing procedure. How might you order these instructions? C&E have to be in those places. D, B & A could be swapped around Can you think of any other procedures that could be programmed into autopilot? Climb (gain altitude) dive (reduce altitude) take off circle (accept any sensible suggestion) How many times can the pilot use a procedures? As many times as they want Autopilot can land the plane and fly straight ahead. You press these buttons to start these. C) Define land A) Line up plane with runway B) Put wheels down D) Slow down engines E) Reduce height until wheels touch ground land straight Go through the answers

Misconceptions (for teachers) Some pupils run the code by directly clicking on the define square block rather than the Square name block This can often mean that they don’t really understand how the procedure works especially if they never intend to use the small blocks that run or call the procedure