---
title: Coding fundamentals
description: Learn digital citizenship with Roblox. A full course created for middle to high school students. This session has students learning coding.
next: /education/lesson-plans/digital-citizenship/animating-characters
prev: /education/lesson-plans/digital-citizenship/lights-and-polish
---

**Lesson Description**: Explore the coding concepts of functions, loops, and if/then statements with mini-projects that can be added to Roblox experiences like color changing platforms and traps.

<table>
<tbody>
   <tr>
    <td><b>Lesson Objectives</b></td>
    <td>
      <ul>
        <li>Demonstrate the logic of if/then statements by modifying a part's properties.</li>
        <li>Practice troubleshooting by independently fixing issues in scripts as encountered.</li>
        </ul>
      </td>
   </tr>
   <tr>
    <td><b>Skills and Concepts</b></td>
    <td>
    <ul>
    <li><b>Property</b> - Something that controls how an object looks or behaves, like color or if players can walk through it.</li>
    <li><b>Loop</b> - A set of code that repeats until told otherwise.</li>
    <li><b>Function</b> - A set of instructions can be e re-used in different parts of a script.</li>
    </ul>
    </td>
   </tr>
</tbody>
</table>

### Overview

<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th>Duration</th>
      <th>Activity</th>
      <th>Description </th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>5 min</td>
      <td>Introduction</td>
      <td>Introduce the session.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>20 min</td>
      <td>Guided Tutorial: Working with Properties</td>
      <td>Modify the color properties of parts using scripts.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>35 min</td>
      <td>Guided Tutorial: Coding a Trap</td>
      <td>Code a trap using functions and if/then statements.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5 min</td>
      <td>Wrap-up</td>
      <td>Reflect on project and recap concepts learned.</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

### Lesson Plan

#### Introduction

1. Explain today's session will be different mini-projects to develop skills in scripting.

#### Guided tutorial - Work with properties

1. Lead students through the following tutorials:

   - [Object Properties](../../../tutorials/fundamentals/coding-1/object-properties.md)
   - [Parents and Children](../../../tutorials/fundamentals/coding-1/parents-and-children.md)

2. Encourage students to troubleshoot independently if they have an error. To help, have them try:
   - Redoing their last few steps.
   - Asking a peer for help.
3. As students write code, check that students write comments that accurately describe the code.
   - Not Specific: Runs code
   - Improved: Changes color of PracticePart

#### Guided tutorial - Code a trap

1. Lead students through the following tutorials:

   - [Code a function](../../../tutorials/fundamentals/coding-2/code-a-function.md)
   - [Intro to if statements](../../../tutorials/fundamentals/coding-3/intro-to-if-statements.md)
   - [Traps with if statements](../../../tutorials/fundamentals/coding-3/traps-with-if-statements.md)

2. When working with if statements, check that students indent code to look like code samples. This helps make the code more readable, which becomes important as scripts grow larger.

#### Wrap-up

1. Recap what students have created and vocabulary: **property**, **loop**, and **function**.

### Appendix

### Troubleshooting and classroom tips

- While coding, remind students to double-check their capitalization or ask a peer to check their work. Even one incorrect letter can cause an error in longer words like `FindFirstChildWhichIsA`.
- Try the following below to help students develop troubleshooting skills.
  - Purposely make a mistake in your code and ask students to identify the error. This can be easily turned into a game with students as you challenge them to find the error in a limited amount of time.
  - Write a partial line of code and ask students to complete it.
  - Utilize 'Ask 3 Before Me' where students ask three peers before asking the teacher for help. It's important for students to become comfortable independently troubleshooting as they advance to more complex projects.