Computational Thinking Adventure

Think Like a Computer Scientist. Play. Solve. Level Up!

World 1: Decomposition. Break It Down!

Break a big problem into smaller problems you can solve one at a time.

Build a Sandwich (Beginner): Split one job into smaller sub-problems.
Organise My Morning (Beginner): Order sub-tasks so each one comes after the tasks it depends on.
Fix the Robot (Beginner): Split a broken system into sub-systems you can fix one at a time.
Build a Dream House (Intermediate): Draw a structure diagram: stages in order, with tasks under each.
School Trip Planner (Intermediate): Split a project so that a team can work on its parts at the same time.
Car Factory Challenge (Intermediate): Decompose a process into ordered stations, each with its own jobs.
Rescue the Cat (Advanced): Plan a mission as sub-goals, then solve them one at a time.
Game Developer Studio (Advanced): Decompose a software project into parts and match each part to a specialist.
Space Mission (Expert): Decompose a complex mission into ordered sub-problems with their own tasks.
Ultimate Decomposition Challenge (Expert): Decompose a real-world project into a full structure diagram on your own.

Keep the details that matter for the problem and leave out the rest.

What's Important? (Beginner): Keep only the details a job needs.
Lost Teddy Bear (Beginner): Choose the few details that pick out one thing from many similar things.
Create a Map (Beginner): Turn a real place into a map that keeps only what a walker needs.
Design an App Icon (Intermediate): Abstract a detailed picture into a simple icon.
Robot Detective (Intermediate): Choose the features a computer needs to tell things apart.
Car Navigation Game (Intermediate): Use a graph, an abstraction of a road map, to find the quickest route.
Weather Forecaster (Advanced): Hide the data a decision does not need, then use what is left.
Smartphone Designer (Advanced): Design a model around real user needs and leave out the rest.
Escape the Data Maze (Expert): Use only the fields a question mentions to find one record.
Master of Abstraction (Expert): Build a model, use it, and test where else it works.

Find what repeats or stays the same, and use the rule to predict and to save work.

Finish the Sequence (Beginner): Find the part of a pattern that repeats and use it to predict what comes next.
Colour Code Challenge (Beginner): Use the length of a repeating pattern to work out any position.
Number Detective (Beginner): Find the rule behind a number pattern and use it.
Animal Patterns (Intermediate): Group things by the key features they share, then use the pattern on something new.
Robot Dance (Intermediate): Spot a repeating pattern of moves and write it as a loop.
Snake Pattern Game (Intermediate): Continue a pattern by choosing the right next item every time.
Traffic Light Detective (Advanced): Use a repeating cycle to fill gaps, predict the future and spot a fault.
Find the Bug (Advanced): Find where output breaks its pattern, then fix the line that caused it.
Code Pattern Detective (Expert): Replace repeated code with a loop.
Pattern Master (Expert): Recognise patterns in shapes, numbers and code, and use each rule to predict.

Design precise steps, as flowcharts and pseudocode, then test and fix them.

Put It in Order (Beginner): Put the steps of an algorithm in an order that works.
Help the Cat Get Home (Beginner): Plan a sequence of moves as a program, then run it.
Robot Commands (Beginner): Program a robot with forward and turn commands, and use repeat loops.
Flowchart Builder (Intermediate): Build flowcharts with the standard symbols, then run them with test data.
Traffic Light Simulator (Intermediate): Complete a control algorithm and test it in a simulation.
Car Driving Challenge (Intermediate): Use selection inside a loop so one algorithm drives every track.
Fix the Broken Flowchart (Advanced): Use test data to find and fix the step that makes a flowchart go wrong.
Pseudocode Detective (Advanced): Order, debug and trace pseudocode.
Snake Algorithm Challenge (Expert): Write one algorithm, in pseudocode, that solves several different boards.
Algorithm Grand Master (Expert): Test, trace and debug algorithms in flowcharts and pseudocode.