Teaching article
Test the value on the boundary of the sorting rule
Try examples near the rule's boundary.
A rule saying greater than five behaves differently from one saying at least five. Include five itself in the test set so the distinction becomes observable instead of remaining hidden among easy examples.
To hand: Number cards and a greater-than-five rule.
- Test a typical value.
- Test five itself.
- Test a value below.
The boundary case is informative
Include an example exactly on the boundary. This is where otherwise similar rules such as greater-than and at-least produce different results.
Five does not satisfy 'greater than five'.
Greater than and at least differ. What happens at the boundary?
Use a number line.
Resources
- Human Robot Commands – Coding Without Screens Printable Game — Check the command conventions before using the sequence or debugging task.
Further reading
- CS Unplugged — Kidbots and algorithm activities
- Australian Curriculum Version 9 — Technologies overview
Read next
- A card machine connects an input, a rule and an output
- Debugging language should identify the mismatch
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