What is sensible thinking?

Why are rules important?

Have you ever wondered why we have rules at school?

We have to:

Rules are useful because they make sure everyone knows what they should be doing.

We need to follow rules when we do lots of things. We learn some of these rules as we grow-up, explore the world and try things out.

We learn that our feet stay dry when we wear our rain boots in wet weather.
We notice that some trees always lose their leaves in autumn.
We know that tapping or clicking the monster when playing a computer game makes it jump.

We use rules to help us think sensibly about what is happening.

Computers can only follow rules. They only work if the instructions we give it follow these rules.

Logical reasoning is just another way of saying sensible thinking.

Logical means sensible and reasoning means thinking.

Logical reasoning is very useful in lots of areas of our lives.

We can use rules and logical reasoning together to:

We can use logical thinking to explain why things happen and then decide what to do.

Oh no! My chocolate buttons have started to melt.

Rule: Chocolate buttons only melt if they get too warm.

Explanation: I must have left the chocolate buttons somewhere that was too warm. Move those chocolate buttons somewhere cooler!

Predicting is when we think carefully about what we will think will happen next. We can use logical reasoning to help make our predictions better.

This can be useful when we are working out what instructions to give a robot, to move it to a place on a map or grid.

This is the Bitesize Bot.

There are rules for this robot:

Jo has written a program for the Bitesize Bot to follow.

Can you use the rules and program steps to predict where the robot will end up?

Remember to think sensibly and use logical reasoning.