The Code 12/9b Asynchronous School

Show Transcript December 9, 2020

Good morning students,
Let’s talk about code. What is code? Code is really another word for language.
This week is something called “Hour of Code” It’s the idea of taking at least one hour to learn a bit about computer science. How is it that things on your device work the way they do?
The answer is that someone has written code for them. They have written instructions, in a programming language, that tells a computer what to do. What shapes to make, sounds, motions, etc. It is learning a different language.
Whether you are learning a spoken language like English, Spanish, Mandarin, or Swedish, a computer language like Python or Javascript, or a computational language like math, you are learning a new way to communicate. This makes it easier for you to get your needs met and for you to understand the needs of others.
I’d like you to try learning a little bit about code, because it will help you understand how part of the natural world works. Lets take a step back and build up to it. And here are some principles you need to know.
living things are made of cells. The basic unit of life is the cell.
Inside cells are the code to make more cells.
This code is DNA
DNA is a macromolecule
The basic unit of matter is atoms.
Two or more atoms is a molecule.
A big, complex molecule is called a macromolecule. DNA is a macromolecule.
***
In this microscope I’m looking at a slide of a piece of ___ and I can see the cells from that part of the plant. The cells in the plant know what they are supposed to be and do and look like, because they read the DNA code.
They tell it whether it needs to be a cell that does one thing or something that does another thing.
living things are made of cells. The basic unit of life is the cell.
Inside cells are the code to make more cells.
This code is DNA
DNA is a macromolecule
The basic unit of matter is atoms.
Two or more atoms is a molecule.
A big, complex molecule is called a macromolecule. DNA is a macromolecule.
***
Molecules are puzzles. We’ve talked about water molecules, which are pretty simple. Three atoms. Done.
The human DNA uses 4 types of puzzle piece molecules:
A
G
C
T
Each one of these molecules has about 30 atoms and your entire DNA would have billions of atoms.
We put these together in a code that forms instructions for our bodies.
Each time a cell or an organism reproduces it makes a copy of the DNA, so it knows what to do in the future.
Think of DNA like a sentence.
Feed the cat.
It’s an instruction, and now I know what to do. I will feed the cat.
But something happens each time the cell or the organism reproduces that code. Mistakes happen. And because the copy is made from the copy, those mistakes don’t go away. Watch what happens.
Feed the cat. (ok I will feed the cat)
Feed tha cat. (most mistakes wont change the meaning and the results are the same. I’m still going to feed the cat.)
Fee the cat. Some mistakes turn the instructions to nonsense, so nothing happens. I wont feed the cat, but I wont try anything different. I just sit here confused.
Feed the hat. Some mistakes might have damaging consequences. Here I am wasting resources, trying to feed my hat.
Feel the hat. Copies of Copies lead to complete changes to the meaning. Here I started feeding the cat, and now I am feeling my hat.

We call changes like this: Mutations.

A mutation in your DNA can affect your ability to survive and reproduce, passing on that code to your offspring. If it helps you, then it is more likely to be passed on in the next round of copies.
If it harms you or kills you, then when you die, that mutation dies with you and doesn’t get copied again.


Have a great day guys.

https://code.org/dance
https://hourofcode.com/us/learn