Computing · Year 7

Active learning ideas

Selection: Making Decisions (If/Else)

Active learning builds students’ computational thinking by letting them experience how conditions control program flow. When Year 7 students physically act out decisions or debug live Scratch projects, they connect abstract logic to concrete outcomes faster than passive explanation alone.

• National Curriculum Attainment Targets
• KS3: Computing - Programming and Development

• 25–45 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 4 activities

Activity 01

• Collaborative Problem-Solving
• 35 min · Pairs

Pair Programming: Sprite Decisions

Pairs open Scratch and create a sprite that changes costume if touching the edge, else moves forward. Add a second condition for key presses to play sounds. Pairs swap roles every 10 minutes and test each other's code.

Explain how selection allows a program to make decisions.

Facilitation Tip

During Pair Programming, circulate and prompt pairs to verbalise their condition before coding to strengthen shared understanding.

What to look for

Present students with a simple Scratch script snippet containing an if-else block. Ask them to predict what the sprite will do if a specific condition is met (e.g., 'What happens if the sprite touches the blue color?').

• Apply
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Relationship Skills
• Decision-Making
• Self-Management

Activity 02

• Collaborative Problem-Solving
• 45 min · Small Groups

Small Groups: Game Condition Challenges

Groups receive prompt cards with scenarios like 'if score > 5, speed up else slow down.' They build and demo one script per card in Scratch. Groups vote on the clearest condition and suggest improvements.

Construct a Scratch script that uses an 'if-else' block to control sprite behavior.

Facilitation Tip

For Game Condition Challenges, provide a printed checklist of common Scratch conditions to reduce cognitive load and keep focus on decision logic.

What to look for

Ask students to write down one example of a condition they could use in a Scratch game to make a sprite react differently. Then, have them describe what the sprite should do if the condition is true and what it should do if it is false.

• Apply
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Relationship Skills
• Decision-Making
• Self-Management

Activity 03

• Collaborative Problem-Solving
• 30 min · Individual

Individual: Personal Choice Story

Each student builds a Scratch story where if-else directs paths based on clicks, like 'if choose left, show forest else show city.' Test paths and add nested conditions for branches.

Evaluate the importance of clear conditions in selection statements.

Facilitation Tip

In Personal Choice Story, remind students to draw their flowchart first so the if-else structure matches their narrative logic before translation into code.

What to look for

Pose the question: 'Why is it important for the condition in an if-else statement to be very clear and specific?' Facilitate a brief class discussion, guiding students to consider how vague conditions can lead to unexpected program behavior.

• Apply
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Relationship Skills
• Decision-Making
• Self-Management

Activity 04

• Collaborative Problem-Solving
• 25 min · Whole Class

Whole Class: Condition Relay

Project a base Scratch project. Students take turns adding one if-else condition shouted out by the class, like 'if y position < 0, bounce.' Run after each addition to check logic.

Explain how selection allows a program to make decisions.

Facilitation Tip

Run Condition Relay as a timed relay where each group adds only one block to the shared script before passing it on, reinforcing incremental decision-making.

What to look for

Present students with a simple Scratch script snippet containing an if-else block. Ask them to predict what the sprite will do if a specific condition is met (e.g., 'What happens if the sprite touches the blue color?').

• Apply
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Relationship Skills
• Decision-Making
• Self-Management

A few notes on teaching this unit

Teach this topic by moving from human actions to code: start with students making real-world choices based on clear conditions, then map those decisions to Scratch blocks. Avoid rushing to nested structures; instead, build confidence with flat if-else before introducing nesting. Research shows tracing code on paper before running it reduces off-by-one errors and builds debugging stamina for later topics.

Successful learning shows when students can write clear true/false conditions, trace which branch executes, and explain why one outcome happens instead of another. By the end of these activities, students should confidently use if-else blocks to create predictable sprite behavior in their games.

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Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• During Pair Programming, watch for students who assume both branches of an if-else block always execute.

  After the pair writes their condition, ask them to predict which block will run when the condition is true and which will run when it is false, then run the code to confirm. Use the 'think-pair-share' method with their printed code to correct the mental model.

• During Game Condition Challenges, watch for students who treat vague text like 'if spacebar is pressed' as a valid condition without specifying what happens next.

  Set up a debugging station with broken Scratch projects where the conditions use vague text. Students must rephrase each condition using Scratch’s true/false operators and test the corrected version to see why precision matters.

• During Condition Relay, watch for students who skip nesting because they believe it always complicates code.

  Before coding, have each group draw a flowchart on paper to show multiple decision paths. After relay, display the flowcharts publicly and discuss how nests organise logic clearly, reinforcing that nesting is helpful when multiple conditions must be checked in sequence.

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Methods used in this brief

• Collaborative Problem-Solving