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Growing into a butterfly

Beginner robot Difficulty 1/5 Screen-free lesson Stop 2 / 19 ages 5-7

A classroom activity linking the 'Sorting networks' unit with biology (ages 5-7). For an adult to run with children.

For a grown-up to do with a child.

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AI-written overview

What is it?

Growing into a butterfly is part of a CS Unplugged unit about sorting. You walk through a path drawn on the ground, comparing numbers with other people, until everyone ends up in order.

Is it for me?

It is for children about 5-7 and up who like moving around and working in a team, with a grown-up or teacher. It is a Beginner activity and needs chalk or tape and some space.

Grown-ups: only one team walks the path at a time, so give the watchers a job, like checking the results.

How to start

  1. Draw the sorting path on the ground with chalk or tape.
  2. Give six people a number each and let them walk through, comparing at each meeting.
  3. Check if everyone ended up in order, then try new numbers.

How much time?

Most lessons take 30 to 45 minutes. Plan about 15 minutes for a session. (estimate)

15 min per session 2 sessions estimate

A plan you can follow

  1. Day 1 45 min Walk through the path with six numbers.
  2. Day 2 30 min Try different cards, such as bigger numbers.
  3. Week 1 30 min Sort other things, like heights.
  4. Week 2 30 min Draw your own bigger network.

Times are estimates. Go at your own speed.

Go to the learning site

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Go to the learning site (opens the original site in a new tab)

https://www.csunplugged.org/en/topics/sorting-networks/integrations/growing-into-a-butterfly/

On this site. From the list: uccser/cs-unplugged · License: CC-BY-SA-4.0 · CS Unplugged: Sorting networks

Lesson from CS Unplugged, University of Canterbury CSER Group, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes were made: translated and level-tagged by Open Cosmos, with AI. Shared under the same license.

Your path through Searching & sorting

Stop 1 Divide and conquer Screen-free lesson Stop 2 Growing into a butterfly Screen-free lesson Stop 3 How many guesses? Screen-free lesson Stop 4 Investigating variations using the Sorting Network Screen-free lesson Stop 5 Reinforcing numeracy through a Sorting Network Screen-free lesson Stop 6 Retelling a story Screen-free lesson Stop 7 Searching algorithms (unit) Screen-free lesson

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