Related

• Computer Science Unplugged

Cross-Curricular Links

• Open Ended

Year Levels

• Y3-4 (Guided)

• Y5-6+

Duration

• 1+ lessons

Resources

• Activity Guide

Differentiation

Make the activity more kinaesthetic by recreating the sorting network on the floor of the classroom or outdoors, then assign items of data to different learners and have them move through the sorting network.

Extension

Organise fun data sets with the activity prompts related to these themes:

• Extension Theme: Twelve Days of Christmas

Challenge learners to consider how we can adjust the sorting network to accommodate data sets of more or less items. How would this change things? How would you manage the data into subsets?

About Activity

How simple is it to look at a set of numbers and arrange them in order? How about for a computer?

Computers are limited to following instructions exactly as they’re programmed. So unlike us, they can’t get creative beyond what’s written in their code. So how can we write an algorithm that a computer can follow to sort our data?

This activity introduces the concepts of computational thinking, sorting algorithms and specifically a process called merge sort that can be used to break down even sizeable sets of data and then systematically organise and recombine, or merge, them into a particular order.

Use the guide below as a template project that can be applied to any relevant topic and set of data. Checkout the extension links for some fun extension theme activity guides to help get started!

Activity Guide

Merge Sort - Kinaesthetic Resources

The resource below can be used to help facilitate this activity with movement, where the sorting network is mapped onto the floor of a room or outdoor area and learners can physically move through the network to work together and sort their data into sequential order.