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Students learn a structured approach to problem solving called the “Design Recipe”. They then use these functions to create images, and learn how to apply them to enhance their scatterplots.

Prerequisites

Relevant Standards

Select one or more standards from the menu on the left (⌘-click on Mac, Ctrl-click elsewhere).

CSTA Standards
2-AP-14

Create procedures with parameters to organize code and make it easier to reuse.

2-AP-17

Systematically test and refine programs using a range of test cases

2-AP-19

Document programs in order to make them easier to follow, test, and debug.

K-12CS Standards
6-8.Algorithms and Programming.Modularity

Programs use procedures to organize code, hide implementation details, and make code easier to reuse. Procedures can be repurposed in new programs. Defining parameters for procedures can generalize behavior and increase reusability.

6-8.Algorithms and Programming.Variables

Programmers create variables to store data values of selected types. A meaningful identifier is assigned to each variable to access and perform operations on the value by name. Variables enable the flexibility to represent different situations, process different sets of data, and produce varying outputs.

9-12.Algorithms and Programming.Modularity

Complex programs are designed as systems of interacting modules, each with a specific role, coordinating for a common overall purpose. These modules can be procedures within a program; combinations of data and procedures; or independent, but interrelated, programs. Modules allow for better management of complex tasks.

P4

Developing and Using Abstractions

Next-Gen Science Standards
HS-SEP5-3

Apply techniques of algebra and functions to represent and solve scientific and engineering problems.

Oklahoma Standards
OK.8.AP.PD.02

Incorporate existing code, media, and libraries into original programs of increasing complexity and give attribution.

OK.A1.A.1.1

Use knowledge of solving equations with rational values to represent and solve mathematical and real-world problems (e.g., angle measures, geometric formulas, science, or statistics) and interpret the solutions in the original context.

OK.A1.F.1.3

Write linear functions, using function notation, to model real-world and mathematical situations.

Lesson Goals

Students will be able to…​

  • define one-argument functions that consume a Number and produce an Image

  • define one-argument functions that consume a String and produce an Image

  • define one-argument functions that consume a Row and produce an Image

  • create custom scatter plots, using functions they have defined

  • define one-argument functions that make Images from Numbers, Strings, and even Rows

  • create custom scatter plots using those functions

Student-facing Lesson Goals

  • Let’s learn how to write our own functions in Pyret.

Materials

Preparation

  • Make sure all materials have been gathered

  • Decide how students will be grouped in pairs

  • Computer for each student (or pair), with access to the internet

  • Student workbook, and something to write with

  • All students should log into CPO and open the "Animals Starter File" they saved from the prior lesson. If they don’t have the file, they can open a new one

Supplemental Resources

In a more programming-focused course, or if appropriate for your learning goals, students learn to write more sophisticated functions by learning about conditionals in the If-Expressions lesson.

Language Table

Types

Functions

Values

Number

num-sqrt, num-sqr

4, -1.2, 2/3

String

string-repeat, string-contains

"hello", "91"

Boolean

==, <, <=, >=, string-equal

true, false

Image

triangle, circle, star, rectangle, ellipse, square, text, overlay, bar-chart, pie-chart, bar-chart-summarized, pie-chart-summarized

🔵🔺🔶

Table

count, .row-n, .order-by, .filter, .build-column

Glossary
design recipe

a sequence of steps that helps people document, test, and write functions

🔗Defining Functions over Numbers 20 minutes

Overview

Students have learned to define values (e.g. - name = "Maya", x = 5, etc). Students should have defined animalA and animalB to be the following two rows in the animals table.

animalA = animals-table.row-n(4)
animalB = animals-table.row-n(13)

If they haven’t, make sure they do this now.

Launch

Suppose we want to make a solid, green triangle of size 10. What would we type? What if we wanted to make one of size 20? 25? 1000?

triangle(10, "solid", "green")
triangle(20, "solid", "green")
triangle(25, "solid", "green")
triangle(1000, "solid", "green")

This is a lot of redundant typing, when the only thing changing is the size of the triangle! It would be convenient to define a shortcut, which only needs the size. Suppose we call it gt for short:

gt(10)
gt(20)
gt(25)
gt(1000)

We don’t need to tell gt whether the shape is "solid" or "outline", and we don’t need to tell it what color to use. We will define our shortcut so it already knows these things, and all it needs is the size. This is a lot like defining values, which we already know how to do. But values don’t change, so our triangles would always be the same size. Instead of defining values, we need to define functions.

To build our own functions, we’ll use a series of steps called the Design Recipe. The Design Recipe is a way to think through the behavior of a function, to make sure we don’t make any mistakes with the animals that depend on us! The Design Recipe has three steps, and we’ll go through them together for our first function.

Turn to The Design Recipe (Page 45) in your Student Workbook, and read the word problem at the top of the page.

Step 1: Contract and Purpose

The first thing we do is write a Contract for this function. You already know a lot about contracts: they tell us the Name, Domain and Range of the function. Our function is named gt, and it consumes a Number. It makes triangles, so the output will be an Image. A Purpose Statement is just a description of what the function does:

# gt :: (size :: Number) -> Image
# Consumes a size, and produces a solid green triangle of that size.

Since the contract and purpose statement are notes for humans, we add the # symbol at the front of the line to turn them into comments.

Be sure to check students’ contracts and purpose statements before having them move on!

Step 2: Write Examples

Examples are a way for us to tell the computer how our function should behave for a specific input. We can write as many examples as we want, but they must all be wrapped in an examples: block and an end statement. Examples start with the name of the function we’re writing, followed by an example input. Suppose we write gt(10). What work do we have to do, in order to produce the right shape as a result? What if we write gt(20)?

# gt :: (size :: Number) -> Image
# Consumes a size, and produces a solid green triangle of that size.
examples:
  gt(100) is triangle(100, "solid", "green")
  gt(30) is triangle(30, "solid", "green")
end

Step 3: Define the Function

We start with the fun keyword (short for “function”), followed by the name of our function and a set of parentheses. This is exactly how all of our examples started, too. But instead of writing 10 or 20, we’ll use the label from our Domain. Then we add a colon (:) in place of is, and write out the work we did to get the answers for our examples. Finally, we finish with the end keyword.

# gt :: (size :: Number) -> Image
# Consumes a size, and produces a solid green triangle of that size.
examples:
  gt(100) is triangle(100, "solid", "green")
  gt(30) is triangle(30, "solid", "green")
end
fun gt(size):
  triangle(size, "solid", "green")
end

Investigate

Type your function definition into the Definitions Area. Be sure to include the Contract, Purpose Statement, Examples and your Definition! Once you have typed everything in, click "Run" and evaluate gt(10) in the Interactions Area. What did you get back?

Once we have defined a function, we can use it as our shortcut! This makes it easy to write simpler code, by moving the complexity into a function that can be tested and re-used whenever we like.

  • Use the Design Recipe to solve the word problem at the bottom of The Design Recipe (Page 45).

  • Type in the Contract, Purpose Statement, Examples and Definition into the Definitions Area.

  • Click “Run”, and make sure all your examples pass!

  • Type bc(20) into the Interactions Area. What happens?

Synthesize

Ask students what happens if they change one of the examples to be incorrect: gt(10) is triangle(99, "solid", "green")

🔗Defining Functions over Other Datatypes 20 minutes

Overview

Students deepen their understanding of function definition and the Design Recipe, by solving different kinds of problems.

Launch

Functions can consume values besides Numbers. For example, we might want to define a function called sticker that consumes a Color, and draws a star of that color:

sticker("blue") is star(50, "solid", "blue")
sticker("yellow") is star(50, "solid", "yellow")

Or a function called nametag that consumes a Row from the animals table, and draws that animal’s name in purple letters.

nametag(animalA) is text(animalA["name"], 10, "purple")
nametag(animalB) is text(animalB["name"], 10, "purple")

Investigate

Turn to The Design Recipe (Page 46), and use the Design Recipe to write both of these functions.

🔗Custom Scatter Plot Images 15 minutes

Overview

Students discover functions that consume other functions, and compose a scatter plot function with one of the functions they’ve already defined.

Launch

Students have used Pyret functions that use Numbers, Strings, Images, and even Tables and Rows. Now they’ve written functions of their own that work with these datatypes. However, Pyret functions can even use other functions! Have students look at the Contract for image-scatter-plot:

 image-scatter-plot :: (t :: Table, xs :: String, ys :: String, f :: (Row -> Image)) -> Image

This function looks a lot like the regular scatter-plot function. It takes in a table, and the names of columns to use for x- and y-values. Take a closer look at the third input…​

...f :: (Row -> Image)...

That looks like the contract for a function! Indeed, the third input to image-scatter-plot is named f, which itself is a function that consumes Rows and produces Images. In fact, students have just defined a function that does exactly that!

Investigate

  • Type image-scatter-plot(animals-table, "pounds", "weeks", nametag) into the Interactions Area.

  • What did you get?

  • What other scatter plots could we create?

Note: the optional lesson If Expressions goes deeper into basic programming constructs, using image-scatter-plot to motivate more complex (and exciting!) plots.

Synthesize

Functions are powerful tools, for both mathematics and programming. They allow us to create reusable chunks of logic that can be tested to ensure correctness, and can be used over and over to solve different kinds of problems. A little later on, you’ll learn how to combine, or compose functions together, in order to handle more complex problems.

🔗Additional Exercises:

These materials were developed partly through support of the National Science Foundation, (awards 1042210, 1535276, 1648684, and 1738598). CCbadge Bootstrap:Integrated Oklahoma by Jen Poole is licensed under a Creative Commons 4.0 Unported License. Based on a work at www.BootstrapWorld.org. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available by contacting schanzer@BootstrapWorld.org.