I LOVE having a great activity to rope kids into my subject on Day 1. This is their first impression of the class, and I always want a low stress, unplugged, introductive activity.
While I enjoy icebreaker games, I know that puts so much stress on students for a Day 1 activity, so I try to come up with something that is loosely related to computer science but nothing that is scary. You also don’t know what the technology capacities are on Day 1 either. We are one to one in our school, but some years not everyone has their Chromebook ready to go. So having an “unplugged” activity ready to go is the best!
The Polar Bear Game
To play The Polar Bear Game, I roll 5 dice. Looking at the values of the 5 dice, it will tell me how many polar bears, fish, and plankton are present on the dice. The students’ goal is to figure out how I am getting the number of polar bears, fish, and plankton (there is a method to my madness!). I will give them 3 riddles to help them start thinking about the rules of the game. Then, we will go through 5 sample rolls and see how many polar bears, fish, and plankton there are in each roll.
After that, they will brainstorm with their groups what the rules could be. They will use dice to set up certain scenarios, they will hypothesize how many of each there are, and then I will tell them if they are correct or not for each of them. Towards the end of class, we will discuss how this relates to computer science and then I will give each group a small “quiz” to see if they have solved the puzzle!
Game Setup
First, the riddles. I can’t take credit for the polar bear riddle (just a quick Google search and there are a few results) but I am pretty proud to say that I came up with the fish and plankton riddles. I’m no English teacher, but I have to think these would have earned top marks. 
The riddles were designed to give a little hint to the rules of the game. Here they are:
Okay yes, extra nerdy, but I like them!!
So to get students set up, when they walk in the room, I have them sit in groups of 3-4. Some years I have them choose and some years I have them randomly assigned. I use this in both my AP CSP and AP CSA classes, and I have found those students work well with either option! Next, I hand out the “Polar Bear Worksheet” included in my resource. This allows students to copy down the examples to start figuring out the rules to the game.
We go through the 5 examples together, and then after that, I set them out to work in their groups. While they are working in groups, I make myself available to tell them if their guesses are correct. The rules to the game are in the resource linked below, and I carry around the rules and refer to them when answering the students.
The Rules
Well I can’t tell you them here! I don’t want to make the rules easily accessible to the students (sorry kids!). But rest assured, I explain them clearly in my FREE resource (link below). Some students are able to get all three rules for each animal, while others might only get the rules for 2 or even only 1 animal.
In the resource, I also have a “quiz” that I give each group at the end. This lets them work through some examples and try and apply the rules they “think” they figured out. I compile the results of the quiz and report them back to the class on the next day of school, before I go over the syllabus. I do not tell them what the rules are until the next day either, just so it doesn’t get around to the other classes.
How Is This Computer Science?
You could apply this first day activity really to any math or science class, because it does do a great job of involving students in the problem solving process. In terms of how it relates directly to computer science, I have a slide in the activity to explain it to students:
- You will feel frustrated as you try to figure out “the rules”, much like you will feel when programming.
- Once you know “the rules”, it can then seem very easy!
- When you discover the rules without someone telling you, you are excited. This is why some people have an addiction to programming, it is an exciting problem to solve.
- Learning to think critically and problem solve is what programming is all about.
- Trying and testing different inputs to see what the outputs are is part of the problem solving (and programming) process!
I admit, I have a cheesy smile on my face as I go over all these points with them towards the end of the class. I always hope that excitement rolls off onto them too!
What Now?
Get this FREE RESOURCE of course! Follow the link, or click on the image below to be taken to Teachers Pay Teachers and you can download the free presentation used with Google Slides. If you are interested, I also have a full curriculum for AP Computer Science A available, as well as the guided notes I use in AP Computer Science Principles. Let me know if you have any questions 🙂 Thank you for visiting!!!
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