Week 1 — Launch Day: How Does a Machine Know Anything?¶

At a glance


Date	Friday, August 14, 2026
Unit	1 — Think Like a Machine
Big idea	Computers don't "know" things. They store everything as numbers and follow instructions we give them.
Goal	Every student leaves having played a game they built, and wondering how Quick Draw guessed their drawing.
Student accounts needed	None. Zero logins today.
Prep time	5 minutes

Why this lesson looks the way it does¶

Most of these students coded with you last year. If Day 1 feels like a repeat, you lose them in the first ten minutes. So this lesson does three jobs at once:

Signals "this year is different" — it opens with AI, not with blocks.
Doubles as a tech check — the Quick Draw hook silently confirms every device can reach the internet, before anything important depends on it.
Gives you a diagnostic — the exit survey tells you who's confident and who's nervous, which is how you'll build pairs for Week 2.

CSTA 2026 standards¶

Concept area	Connection
Data & Analysis	Data can be represented in multiple ways; binary as the underlying representation
Programming	Programs are sequences of instructions that produce a specific outcome
Computing & Society	AI systems are built by people and learn from data that people collect

"I can…" objectives¶

By the end of today, students can say:

I can explain that a computer stores everything — numbers, words, pictures — as ones and zeros.
I can count in binary using five cards.
I can build and play a working game.
I can describe, in my own words, one way a computer might "learn."

Teacher prep — the 5-minute version¶

Print the handouts (see below). The binary cards are the only must-print item.
Open these two tabs on the projector before students arrive:
https://quickdraw.withgoogle.com
https://arcade.makecode.com
Write on the board:

Today: Draw → Discover → Build The one rule: Stuck is normal. Ask your partner first.
Have 20 index cards ready (or print the survey handout).

Handouts: Binary cards · Skills survey · Challenge card · Teacher run sheet

Minute-by-minute run sheet¶

0:00–0:04 — Welcome + the one rule¶

Don't do a name go-round; with 16+ students it eats a third of your mini-lesson. Learn names during work time instead.

Say roughly this:

"This year we're going to do something different. Last year you learned to give a computer instructions. This year you're going to figure out how computers think — and by May, every one of you will have something you built live on the internet, with a real web address you can send to your grandmother.

One rule in here: being stuck is normal. It's the actual job. When you're stuck, ask your partner first, then me."

Devices open now.

0:04–0:10 — Hook: Quick Draw¶

"Go to quickdraw.withgoogle.com. Play three rounds. Your job is to beat the computer."

Let the room get loud. This is intentional — it's the sound of a class that wants to be here.

This is your tech check

While they play, walk the room. Any device that can't load Quick Draw is a device that can't load MakeCode later. Fix it now, or pair that student up immediately. You've bought yourself 6 minutes of troubleshooting time without wasting a single instructional minute.

0:10–0:13 — Debrief: "How did it know?"¶

Screens down. Ask, and take 3–4 answers without correcting any of them:

"How did it know what you were drawing?"

You'll hear "it's smart," "it's AI," "it looked it up." Then land the point:

"It's not smart. It has never seen a shoe. What it has seen is about 50 million drawings that people like you made, each one labeled with what it was. It learned the pattern of what a bunch of humans agree a shoe looks like.

Which means: if everyone who ever played had drawn shoes badly — Quick Draw would be bad at shoes. It learned from us. Hold onto that. We're coming back to it in a few weeks."

Do not over-explain. Plant it and move on.

0:13–0:21 — Unplugged: The binary cards¶

Screens all the way down. This part is physical on purpose.

Hand five cards to five students at the front, dots facing the class, in this order:

[ 16 dots ] [ 8 dots ] [ 4 dots ] [ 2 dots ] [ 1 dot ]

Show 1. "Flip cards until exactly one dot is showing." (Only the 1-card faces out.)
Show 2. They'll flip the 1 away and the 2 forward.
Show 3. First real thinking moment — 2 + 1.
Show 4, then 5, then 7. Let the class direct the card-holders.
Ask: "What's the biggest number we can make?" (31 — all cards showing.)
Ask: "What's the smallest?" (0 — all hidden. Zero is a number too.)

Now write on the board next to each card: 1 0 1 1 1

"A card showing is a 1. A card hidden is a 0. That's it — that's binary. This is literally how every computer stores everything. Your name, that game you're about to build, the picture you drew thirty seconds ago — all of it is cards flipping.

Five cards gets us 32 different values. A computer has billions."

For your 9th–10th graders

Ask quietly as you circulate: "How many cards would you need to represent every letter in the alphabet?" (5 — since 32 > 26. This is essentially ASCII.) It's the same activity, harder question. That's the whole differentiation strategy in one move.

0:21–0:38 — Build: your first Arcade game¶

"Go to arcade.makecode.com. No login, no password, nothing to sign up for. Click Chase the Pizza and follow the tutorial."

MakeCode walks them through it step by step. Your job is not to teach — it's to circulate, learn names, and ask questions.

Questions to ask while circulating (never fix it for them):

"What did you expect to happen?"
"Show me the block that makes it move."
"What happens if you change that 100 to a 500? Try it."

The differentiation move

When a student finishes early — and 2–3 will — do not give them a second tutorial. Say:

"See that dropdown at the top that says Blocks? Switch it to JavaScript. That's the exact same game you just made, written the way professionals write it. Find the line that controls your speed and change it there instead."

Same project. Same room. Suddenly a 10th grader is reading real JavaScript while a 5th grader is dragging blocks — and neither one feels singled out. See the challenge card for all three tiers.

Pick one student whose game broke in an interesting way — not the most polished one. Put it on the projector.

"This is the best thing that happened all class. Tell us what it's doing wrong."

This sets the tone for the entire year: broken is interesting, broken is normal, broken is where the learning is.

Then hand out the skills survey. Two minutes, index card, no names required if they'd rather not.

Don't skip this

This survey is how you build Week 2's cross-age pairs. Without it you're guessing.

0:42–0:45 — Teaser + Think About This¶

"Next Friday we start building a game that's actually yours — not a tutorial. Think about what kind of game you'd want to make.

And one thing to notice this week, no writing, nothing to turn in:"

🤔 Think About This¶

Somewhere this week, a computer is going to guess what you want before you ask for it. A video it recommends. A word your phone finishes for you. A song it plays next.

When it happens — stop for two seconds and ask: what did it have to already know about me to make that guess?

Bring one example next Friday.

🔌 Unplugged Plan B — if the internet is down¶

You lose Quick Draw and MakeCode. You do not lose the lesson. Run this instead:

Time	Activity
0:00–0:04	Same welcome and rule
0:04–0:16	Binary cards, extended — after reaching 31, have students write their initials in binary using A=1, B=2, C=3…
0:16–0:32	"My Robotic Friends." One student is the robot. The class gives instructions to stack 6 cups into a pyramid using only four commands: `FORWARD`, `TURN LEFT`, `PICK UP`, `PUT DOWN`. The robot must follow instructions exactly and literally — this is the whole point, and it will get very funny. Then: "What went wrong? The robot did exactly what you said." That's programming.
0:32–0:40	Groups write their cup-stacking algorithm on paper, then trade with another group and execute it
0:40–0:45	Same survey, same teaser, same Think About This

Everything you need for Plan B is paper, cups, and the printed binary cards. Keep those cups in the closet all year.

Common problems & fixes¶

Problem	Fix
Quick Draw won't load	Confirm with school IT that `withgoogle.com` is whitelisted — see the IT whitelist sheet. Skip to binary cards; do the hook next week.
MakeCode asks a student to sign in	It shouldn't — projects save to the browser automatically. Have them click past it. Nothing today needs to be saved.
A student finishes Chase the Pizza in 6 minutes	Switch them to the JavaScript view (see above), then have them help a neighbor. Do not hand them more tutorials.
A student refuses to start / says "I'm bad at this"	Sit down, take the mouse, and make one deliberate mistake yourself. "Watch, I break this all the time." Then hand it back.
Class runs long, no time for the survey	Cut the share-out, never the survey. You need the survey.
Device won't load anything	Pair them immediately. Two students on one machine is the good outcome, not the fallback.

Vocabulary¶

Binary — a way of writing numbers using only 1 and 0
Bit — one single 1 or 0 (one card)
Algorithm — a set of steps precise enough that a machine can follow it
Training data — the examples an AI system learns patterns from
Sprite — a character or object in a game that the program can move

Reflection — fill in after class¶

Taught — Friday, August 14, 2026

Everything landed. Every student built and played Chase the Pizza, and the skills survey came back complete.

The finding that matters for the rest of Unit 1: this class is already fluent in block coding. The MakeCode build was a warm-up for them, not a challenge. Plan Weeks 2–8 for a room that already knows blocks — push the JavaScript toggle earlier and to more students, and treat 🟢 Starter as a scaffold for whoever needs it rather than the target for everyone.

Which students finished the tutorial early? → Week 2 Extenders and peer helpers
Which students needed the most support? → pair with a patient older student, not the fastest one
Did the binary activity land, or rush past?
Anything the school network blocked?

Next week: Week 2 — Sequence, Events, and Making Things Move