Comparing Algorithms

The purpose this lesson is to help students understand that there are many ways to solve a problem. We can analyze the tradeoffs between different solutions. This lesson uses problems and solutions from daily lives.

Learning outcomes:

Activity

We want to show this concept by having students first notice that the way things are done at their friends' houses might be different from the way things are done in their own houses. For example, the toys might be in a different room, the kitchens might be organized differently, or the toys might be organized differently. For example, in our house, we have our toys split between two rooms. This is because the living room is the nicest for playing - it has a large window that brings in a lot of light, and it is close to the kitchen, bathroom, and bedrooms. The family room, however, is farther from the bedrooms, so if kids are playing there early in the morning, it won't disturb the sleepers. Therefore, the loud toys are kept in the family room. You could look at the library in the classroom. What are all the different ways you could think of to organize the books in our class library?
Color of the cover
Thickness of the book
Subject
Author name
Title name Tradeoffs:
Color looks the best, but it is hard to find anything
Author name or title are the fastest if you already know what book you want, but it is not as good for browsing
Subject is good if you know what type of books you like, but you do not know which book you want to read right now. It is good for choosing a book / browsing.

Exercise for the students (pre-, post- survey):

Give the students a list of toys and a set of toy bins. Ask them to identify two different ways of placing the toys in toy bins and give the tradeoffs between the two. Which would they choose? OR Ask them to organize their desks and describe why they chose that particular organization.