BC ADST curriculum: where coding appears, grade by grade

Source: the Kindergarten to Grade 9 core pages of the BC Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies curriculum, each fetched raw on 23 October 2026. The K, 1, 2 and 3 pages carry identical standards, as do the Grade 4 and 5 pages. Neither BC’s education ministry nor any district is connected with our classes.

1. Sub-problem 1: find the next bit. The remainder when a number is divided by 2 is its last binary digit. 13 divided by 2 is 6 remainder 1, so 13 ends in 1.
2. Sub-problem 2: build the answer in order. Each new remainder goes in front of the bits found so far, because remainders come out right to left.
3. Repeat until nothing is left. 13 gives remainders 1, 0, 1, 1, so 13 is 1101 in binary.
4. Handle the edge case. Zero would give an empty answer, so the function returns 0 straight away.
5. Check every answer. Python’s int(text, 2) reads binary back, so each result can be tested automatically.

# Whole number to binary, one sub-problem at a time (ours)
def to_binary(n):
    if n == 0:
        return "0"
    bits = ""
    while n > 0:
        bits = str(n % 2) + bits    # the remainder is the next bit, right to left
        n = n // 2
    return bits

for n in [0, 5, 13, 26, 255]:
    print(n, "->", to_binary(n), "check:", int(to_binary(n), 2))

0 -> 0 check: 0
5 -> 101 check: 5
13 -> 1101 check: 13
26 -> 11010 check: 26
255 -> 11111111 check: 255

Every number comes back unchanged, so both sub-problems work. If one did not, testing each sub-problem alone, as the Grade 8 debugging content describes, would find it. For a gentler introduction, our post on binary numbers explained starts from counting on fingers.

1. Top row, second square from the left, facing right. F F F climbs three squares to the top row, R turns it to face right, and one F moves it one square along.
2. Back at the start, facing left. It walks a small square path: up, right, down, left, and three right turns leave it facing left.
3. A square, ending where it started and facing up. Four forward moves and four quarter turns bring it all the way round.
4. For example: does the touch check ever become true (make the cat touch the fish and watch), and does the score block run when it does (add a sound to that block)? Testing one thing at a time tells you which part is broken.
5. DPEF. Each letter moves one place along: C to D, O to P, D to E, E to F.
6. 2, 3, 1, 4. 4 and 2 swap, then 4 and 3, then 4 and 1. The largest number has bubbled to the end; more passes sort the rest.
7. 10011. 16 + 2 + 1 = 19.
8. 22. 16 + 4 + 2 = 22.
9. It returns 1011, the bits in reverse. Sub-problem 2 broke: new bits now go on the end instead of the front. Sub-problem 1 still finds the right remainders.
10. The fourth reading, 18 cm. Pseudocode: for each reading, if reading < 20 then stop. The rule uses selection inside repetition, like the cypher.