Create Performance Task Lesson 2: Create PT- Make a Plan

Overview

This lesson uses the Create PT Survival Guide as the backbone for a series of activities to ramp up to doing the actual Create PT. It contains activities to help you understand the algorithm and abstraction requirements of the task, as well as activities to help you narrow down and brainstorm ideas for your actual project.

The lesson concludes by providing you with resources to make a plan to complete the task starting in the next lesson.

Goals

Students will be able to:

Describe the elements and purpose of the Create PT
Describe the scoring guidelines for the Create PT
Evaluate sample Create PT components by applying the scoring guidelines

Purpose

Although this lesson does not introduce any new content, it serves as a review of the processes and requirements of the Create Performance Task before students begin working on it individually.

Resources

Getting Started

Prompt: Based on the review of the Create PT in the last lesson:

What are the main things you have to do for the Create PT?
What should you do first?

Discuss: Let students call out the things they remember. Make this a quick review just to remind them of what was covered in the previous lesson.

A few of the things you need to do:

Write a program
Individually write code for an algorithm and abstraction
Make a video of your code running
Answer written responses
Make a PDF of your code

What should you do first?

Pick and scope down your project!

Activity

Introduce The Create PT Survival Guide

Today you will use the Create PT Survival Guide to dig in a little deeper with the Create PT. The beginning of the packet has a number of quick activities that help get you in the right mindset for thinking about, and doing, the task, so you are ready to hit the ground running. The guide is intended to be useful throughout the entire process of completing the actual Create Task, as well.

Distribute: The Create PT Survival Guide and have students Read page 1 to get an overview of the task.

The information about the task itself should not be news if you've already reviewed the Create PT
Focus on the suggested process and timeline on page 1

Is It a Good Algorithm? (page 2)

Prompt: The Create PT requires you to write and describe an algorithm in your program. Based on what we learned yesterday looking at scored samples, and the criteria listed here, what are the characteristics of that algorithm?

Give students time to read
Allow students to chat with a neighbor
Highlight the evaluation criteria specifically listed in the Survival Guide
It is not necessary to do a whole group discussion here - this is just a kick off.

To get our brains moving we're going to look at some submissions for the algorithms and discuss whether they're good choices.

Activity: Does it Count? - Algorithm Edition (pages 2 - 4)

Prompt: Using what you just discussed about your algorithm choices and the scoring guideline provided, determine for each algorithm whether it would get the point and why. Discuss your choices with a partner.

Pro Tip: Focus on the following points from the Survival Guide:

The "parent and two children" model for a complex algorithm - (main + 2 sub-algorithms)
What counts as mathematical and logical concepts?

Is It a Good Abstraction? (page 5)

Prompt: The Create PT requires you to write and describe an abstraction in your program. Based on what we learned yesterday looking at scored samples, and the criteria listed here, what are the characteristics of that algorithm?

Give students time to read
Allow students to chat with a neighbor
Highlight the evaluation criteria specifically listed in the Survival Guide
It is not necessary to do a whole group discussion here - this is just a kick off.

To get our brains moving we're going to look at some submissions for the abstraction and discuss whether they're good choices.

Activity: Does It Count? - Abstraction Edition

Prompt: Using what you just discussed about your abstraction choices and the scoring guideline provided, determine for each abstraction whether it would get the point, why, and whether you can determine whether it manages complexity.

Give students individually 5-10 minutes to look at the list of abstraction selections and write down their judgements about whether it should earn the point, why, and if it manages complexity.

Pro Tip: Focus on the following points from the Survival Guide:

Any function/action you defined and wrote yourself can earn the point for row 7.
To justify that a function/action helps manage complexity, you must be able to demonstrate how/where you call that function/action from two different places in your code or, if it has a parameter, call it with different values.

Pro Tip: Both Activty 2 and 3 work to help you understand that in looking at the code, an AP reader is looking for very specific things - it's a checklist. Familiarity with that checklist helps when planning your own project.

Pro Tip: Don't worry or focus too much in the gray areas of some of the examples - they are intentionally borderline to show where the border is. Try to be safely over that border.

Narrow it Down (page 8)

Prompt: Read the Narrow it Down section, and be prepared to discuss your major takeaways, and any questions you have.

Discuss: Have students share their thoughts. The most important points to note:

The written responses are the most important part of the Create PT.
It's OK to submit an incomplete project so long as it has a working feature you can show in your video and contains an algorithm and an abstraction.
Most ideas can and should be narrowed down before you start.
You shouldn't be doing a lot of work making it look good/ on graphics.
You need to worry about the code that makes your program work, not making your initial screens perfectly lined up or attractive.

With a partner go through these three example project proposals. For each one, practice narrowing down the features of the project, and identifying the core algorithm.

Pro Tip: Major take-aways from Narrow It Down:

It doesn't need to be a big project.
Your job is to demonstrate that you know how to program something and identify certain aspects of it.
There are no points for "coolness" or "prettiness".
If you want to do something big, just get it started for the Create PT and come back to it afterward.
Many projects have sub parts, each of which could stand on its own as a PT.
You should be able to easily see an algorithm opportunity within at least one of the sub parts - if you can't, not a good choice.
For any project idea it should be relatively easy to scope it down to one or two things that will be totally acceptable for the Create PT.

Bring It All Together (page 10)

Prompt: Read the Bring It All Together section, be ready to discuss how you plan to go about selecting a project.

Discuss: Have students share their thoughts. The most important points to note:

You don't actually have that much time to work!
When you start, you should have an idea about what the algorithm will be.
Start with a narrowly scoped project, start working right away on the core parts of it.
Don't try to learn new programming skills during the PT - do something you know how to do now.
Get to the written responses as quickly as you can

Brainstorm Project Ideas

Come up with two example project ideas. List some simple information about each project so that a partner can give you some feedback on your idea. When deciding on a project the answer to these questions should all be "yes":

Do you know what your algorithm is probably going be?
Can you do all the programming for this in about 6 hours?
Can you get to the algorithm within the first 2 hours?
Do you feel like you know how to do most of the programming for this right now?

Wrap Up

Make Your Plan (pages 11-12)

Pages 11 and 12 are there to help you plan and manage your time. You will be allowed to check in with your plan as you work, so you can stay on track. If there are parts that are hard to fill in, these are the areas you should focus on.

Pro Tip: Final reminders and suggestions:

You probably want to maximize writing, video, and code PDF time.
Coding time that isn't focused on making your algorithm or abstraction is likely not well spent. It doesn't matter if your program "looks good" so long as it works!
Don't forget to allocate time to proofread for easy-to-make mistakes that will cost points, like forgetting to cite sources.
Use the response checklists in the survival guide to make sure you'll earn all the points.

Standards Alignment

Computer Science Principles: 1.2.1 (A, B, E)
Computer Science Principles: 1.2.4 (C, D, E, F)
Computer Science Principles: 7.5.1 (A, B, C)
Computer Science Principles: 7.5.2 (A, B)