Flow Charts: Climbing the Career Ladder Board Game Strategy

Play the game! Split into pairs. Use your counters, dice and cards to move around the board and try to get to the end first! (Note: You do not need to get the exact amount on the die to win the game.) Every time you land on a “work experience” spot, you need to pick up a card and do whatever it says on the card. Your career profiles are there to give you a bit more information about each of the careers spoken about in the game.

Algorithms: Flow Charts Here are the symbols used in flow charts: This is used for the command which starts/ends the process. This is used for instructions which are to be carried out on the variables in a problem. This is used for a question/decision. The route which one follows after this symbol depends on the outcome. This is used for inputs/outputs.

Create your own! Create a basic algorithm on how you play the game. (Note: You do not need to think about exactly what’s on the cards at this stage.) Now, play the game again, but this time record everything that only your counter does, including the cards you pick up and the decisions you have to make.

Flow Charts: The Next Stage! Using the record which you just created for your game, create a flow chart showing exactly what happened to your counter during the game. Here you should think about the decisions you made throughout the game. Remember: This is only about your counter, so ignore what happened to your opponent’s counter as a result of your decisions.

An Example START Roll a 6 Move forward 6 spaces Land on the primary school space. Move forward 2 spaces. Move forward 2 spaces Pick up card 5 Do nothing to my own counter Move forward two spaces. Roll a 6 Move forward 6 spaces Roll a 2 Choose option 1 or 2 Note: Normally, this command would lead onto another command, however to keep this algorithm as simple as possible, we will continue with the option that was taken in the game. (and so on)

Evaluation 1)How could you improve your flow chart if you had more time? 2)What is difficult about creating the flow charts? 3)Would you say that the flow chart you created today is very realistic?

Algorithms in Real Life “ALGORITHMS have become the instruction manuals for a host of routine consumer transactions. Browse for a book on Amazon.com and algorithms generate recommendations for other titles to buy. Buy a copy and they help a logistics firm to decide on the best delivery route. Ring to check your order's progress and more algorithms spring into action to determine the quickest connection to and through a call- centre. From analysing credit-card transactions to deciding how to stack supermarket shelves, algorithms now underpin a large amount of everyday life.”

Algorithms in Real Life Optimising Logistics Operations A video interview with Bill Dowsland