Investigate designs of flags from around the world and look specifically at the features of these flags. What are common elements? What geometric shapes are used? How could you create a computer program to recreate a flag design?
Examine the Australian Flag, the Australian Aboriginal Flag and the Torres Strait Islander Flag, and discuss the significance of the symbols on all of them. Centre discussions around reconciliation. Ask students to design a new Australian flag that would foster inclusivity and togetherness and have relevance for future generations.
Note: You may decide to integrate this task with HAAS: Civics and Citizenship
Explain that students will:
NB: The Australian Aboriginal Flag is © Harold Thomas.
NOTE: In this task, Pencil Code is suggested as a relevant tool; however, you may decide to use a different turtle drawing program. Pro-Bot is also an option.
Programmers use iterations or loops to save time, repeat steps and simplify algorithms.
Using iterations or loops is a more efficient way of coding. Programmers use this approach to repeat a sequence of steps until a condition is met. Being able to repeat a process can help to simplify algorithms and remove unnecessary steps. Iterations give the user the ability to program a short sequence of actions rather than using longer code. Loops tell the program how many times to repeat a sequence and when to stop. They can have conditions with variables in the code that tell the output to change depending on the user input. This video CS Principles: Using Loops provides further detail about how it works.