coding-activities

JavaScript Lesson

An activity to introduce JavaScript in 45-60m

NOTE: This lesson is designed for students who have an introductory knowledge of HTML and CSS, but no experience is required

Starting Point

Start by opening a web browser and navigating to the starter code: bit.ly/js-starter. Students should follow along and do the same thing in their browsers.

Update the Starter HTML

Wherever the word “blank” appears in the HTML section, update it to personalize your website! For example, where it says “I’m blank,” replace the “blank” with your name.

Update the Starter CSS

In the CSS section, change the background color, text color, and font!

TIP: Saving Work

Direct the students to click the “Fork” button in CodePen. They have to make an account in order to save. Students should make note of their pen’s URL so they can recover their code and share it!

Interactivity with JavaScript

Explain that JavaScript is the programming language of the web, that allows webpages to be interactive. Developers use JavaScript to trigger events, create animations, make games, and much more!

The next step for the CodePen site is to add functionality to the “Quiz Me” button. It should pop up a quiz that allows the user to answer some questions and receive a final score. This is possible with JavaScript!

Defining the Function

Developers use functions in JavaScript to trigger certain actions. In this example, clicking the “Quiz Me” button will call a JavaScript function. That means it triggers some actions! alert is the command that lets developers show messages to the user on a webpage.

  1. Expand the JS portion of the code in CodePen
  2. Create an empty function definition for the startQuiz function
    • This requires the function keyword, the function name, parentheses, and curly brackets
  3. In the body of the function, add an alert statement that welcomes the user
    • If desired, introduce the Windows emoji keyboard (Windows key + semi-colon key)
  4. On the webpage, click the button to make sure it is hooked up properly!
    • Note that this is possible because of the onclick attribute on the HTML button
function startQuiz() {
    alert("Welcome to my quiz 🙂");
}

Receiving Information from the User

prompt is a command that allows us to ask questions to the user. When the user answers, the computer stores that text in a variable. Developers can then reference that information in the future!

  1. Under the alert, above the }, create a couple new lines
  2. Declare a name variable. How can we ask the user for their name?
    • Use a prompt to ask for the user’s name
  3. On the next line, use an alert to say “Good luck” to the user (using their name!)
var name = prompt("What is your name?");
alert("Good luck " + name);

Setting up the Quiz Variables

  1. Under the previous alert, above the }, create a couple new lines
  2. Declare a points variable
    • This will be used to keep track of how many points the user has earned (i.e., how many questions they have answered correctly)
    • How many points should the user have at the beginning? (0)
  3. Declare a numberOfQuestions variable
    • To start, set this value to 2
var points = 0;
var numberOfQuestions = 2;

Asking a Question

if statements allow developers to change the program flow based on certain information. It works just like in English; for example, “if it is raining, I will wear a raincoat.” In code, the program will do different things based on what the user says! For the quiz, the points should go up every time the user answers correctly. So, “if the answer from the user is equal to the correct answer, increase the points!”

  1. Under the numberOfQuestions variable declaration, above the }, create a couple new lines
  2. Ask the user a question using prompt (e.g., “What is my name?”)
  3. Store the user’s answer in a variable called answer1
  4. Under the prompt, create an if statement
    • What should happen based on the user’s answer?
    • If the user is correct, they should get a point. Otherwise, they should not.
  5. Use if, parentheses, ===, and curly brackets to set up the if
  6. Within the curly brackets, use ++ to increment the value of the points variable
var answer1 = prompt("What is my name?");
if (answer1 === "Joseph") {
    points++;
}

NOTE: The students should check the answer against their own name

Asking another Question

  1. Repeat the steps above to ask another question underneath the first question
  2. The differences will be:
    • answer2 instead of answer1 for the variable
    • Ask a different question
    • Check a different answer
var answer2 = prompt("Where do I live?");
if (answer2 === "Lakewood") {
    points++;
}

NOTE: The students should check the answer against where they live

Calculating the Final Score

Finally, it is possible to use the points variable to determine an overall score. Do some math to calculate the percentage against the total questions!

NOTE: This section can be skipped and replaced with an alert that simply displays the number of points at the end

  1. Consider how to calculate the final score
    • The score will be the number of points the user has, divided by the total number of questions
    • Multiply this by 100 to show a percentage
  2. Under the final question, declare a finalScore variable
  3. Calculate the final score by dividing the points variable by the numberOfQuestions variable
    • Multiply this by 100 to show a percentage
  4. Use an alert to show the final score to the user
var finalScore = (points / numberOfQuestions) * 100;
alert("Final score: " + finalScore + "%");

Final CodePen Webpage

https://codepen.io/jmaxwell/pen/BaBVVrO

Challenges

If there is time remaining, students can attempt the challenges. They are available at bit.ly/JS-Workshop (case-sensitive). They can choose which challenges to attempt, and the JavaScript challenges are toward the end of the list.