Debugging Program Errors is a Grade 6 Computer Science worksheet resource that teaches students how programmers identify, investigate, and correct bugs in code. Through practical programming scenarios, students examine instruction order, missing steps, incorrect values, and logic errors to discover why a program produces an unexpected result. The focus is on tracing program execution, making targeted corrections, and testing again to check whether the intended outcome has been achieved.

From Unexpected Results to Working Programs

Students explore how a program can run without stopping yet still produce an incorrect answer. They investigate why displaying a score before adding points shows an outdated value, how a missing instruction can interrupt a sequence, and why an incorrect decision rule can cause a logic error. These examples connect debugging vocabulary to the kinds of problems programmers encounter when building interactive programs.

The reading passage, How Programmers Find and Fix Bugs, explains bugs, debugging, tracing, testing, and retesting. It also highlights the importance of changing one relevant part of a program at a time and keeping notes about corrections. Students use these ideas to reason through programming problems rather than relying on guesswork.

What Students Practise

• Identify bugs involving instruction order, missing instructions, incorrect values, and faulty logic.
• Trace instructions step by step and track how values change during execution.
• Determine why a program's actual output differs from its expected result.
• Choose appropriate corrections for score calculations, user input, and other short program scenarios.
• Explain why testing and retesting are necessary after a code change.
• Describe a systematic debugging process using evidence from program behaviour.

Inside the Worksheet

The resource combines a debugging dialogue, a matching activity, a cloze passage, a labelled diagram, and a focused reading passage with comprehension questions. Students then complete multiple-choice questions, true-or-false statements, short-answer responses, and an extended written response. The activities move from recognising key terminology to applying debugging strategies and explaining decisions in greater detail.

The extended response presents a school quiz program that displays a score too early and sometimes increases the score after an incorrect answer. Students must explain how they would trace the instructions, locate both problems, correct the code, and test the results. This task provides an opportunity to assess whether they can apply several debugging concepts to one connected scenario.

Teacher Support Included

A separate Teacher Guide PDF accompanies the worksheet. It includes learning objectives, teaching tips, discussion questions, and common mistakes. Use the guide to prepare instruction, support class discussion, and anticipate misconceptions while students work through the programming examples.

Practical Classroom Uses

Use this Grade 6 programming fundamentals practice during a lesson on debugging, as independent classwork, for a review of introductory programming concepts, or as a follow-up activity after students have encountered instruction sequences and decision logic. The reading and vocabulary activities establish key ideas, while the scenario-based questions and extended response let students demonstrate how they would investigate and resolve errors.

Designed for general Computer Science instruction, this resource gives students structured practice with the reasoning behind debugging: observe the result, trace the instructions, identify a likely cause, make a focused correction, and test again.