Unplugged Coding Task Cards | 30 Debugging WarmUps Grades 6-8 |No Tech

Find the Bug: Python Debugging Warm-Ups | Grades 6–8

Python debugging task cards give middle school students meaningful practice finding, explaining, and fixing real coding errors. With 30 Python 3 debugging challenges, students learn to read output and tracebacks, compare actual results to the goal, test their thinking, and refine their code.

What’s Included

This resource includes six separate PDF files:

• Teacher Guide – 6 pages

  • How to use the resource

  • Teacher questioning script

  • Standards alignment

  • Scope and sequence

  • Two-week pacing option

• Student Reference – 2 pages

  • How to read a bug card

  • Debugging cycle

  • 8-step debugging checklist

• Recording Pages – 2 pages

  • Student response sheets

  • Bug type tracking

  • Debugging progress tracker

• 30 Python Bug Cards – 30 pages

  • 30 ready-to-use Python debugging challenges

  • 6 bug types

  • 3 difficulty levels

  • One card per page

• Answer Key – 10 pages

  • Correct fixes

  • Explanation of what went wrong

  • Misconception behind each bug

  • Alternate valid fixes where appropriate

Six Bug Types Covered

• Order and Flow — running lines before they can work

• Loops and range() — incorrect counting, starting, stopping, and stepping

• Loop Control — infinite loops, break, and continue

• Booleans and Logic — operators, conditions, elif, and, and or

• Variables and Types — initialization, assignment, casting, and data types

• Lists and Indexing — zero-based indexing, mutation, and aliasing

How It Works in the Classroom

Use these Python debugging task cards as flexible, low-prep practice throughout your middle school computer science or Python programming instruction.

⭐ Bell-Ringers

Project one card or hand out a printed copy as students enter.

• About 6 minutes to work independently or with a partner

• Follow with a short class discussion

• One card per day provides approximately six weeks of debugging practice

⭐ Stations

Print and laminate the cards and place them at a station with the response sheet.

• Students identify the bug

• Explain why it is wrong

• Write a corrected line

• Self-check when appropriate

Five cards make a comfortable 15-minute station rotation.

⭐ Sub Plans

This resource can also work as a ready-to-go substitute activity.

Students can complete the cards using the printed checklist and recording pages. No login, devices, or prior computer science knowledge are required.

⭐ Teach Debugging as a Process

Each card follows the same basic structure:

Goal → Code → What Really Happens → Find It → Explain It → Fix It → Test

Students are encouraged to compare expected and actual output rather than simply hunt for a line that "looks wrong."

Standards & Learning Goals

Students practice:

• Systematically testing and refining programs

• Decomposing problems into manageable parts

• Reading Python errors and tracebacks

• Comparing expected and actual output

• Tracing variables and loop behavior

• Testing boundary cases

• Working with conditions and Boolean logic

• Understanding Python data types

• Debugging lists, indexing, mutation, and aliasing

• Explaining why a fix works

This resource is aligned to CSTA 2-AP-17 and 2-AP-13, with additional connections to CSTA 2-AP-11, 2-AP-12, 2-AP-19, and 2-AP-16, plus CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP6 and MP8.

The student reference also provides an 8-step debugging checklist, including reading the full error, stating the goal, comparing output, checking starting values, counting loop passes, checking types, testing boundaries, and checking indentation.

Why Teachers Love It

⭐ Misconception-focused answer key

The answer key doesn't just give the correction—it identifies the misconception behind each bug, making it easier to conference with struggling students.

⭐ Real Python 3 practice

Every card shows what Python actually prints or reports when the broken code runs, including real tracebacks.

⭐ No guessing required

Students learn to use evidence from output, errors, and code behavior to locate bugs.

⭐ Three levels of difficulty

Cards progress from bugs visible on a careful first read to more subtle problems that require tracing or testing.

⭐ Built-in differentiation

Pull specific groups of cards for targeted reteaching by bug type.

⭐ Low-prep and flexible

Use it for bell-ringers, stations, sub plans, reteaching, or extra debugging practice.

⭐ Students track their own progress

The included debugging tracker lets students record which cards they've solved and identify the bug types they find most challenging.

⭐ Works with or without devices

The cards are complete on paper, while students who can run the snippets can use the experience to deepen their debugging practice.

Give your students repeated, structured practice with Python debugging—without having to create dozens of broken-code examples yourself!

Use these 30 task cards for warm-ups, stations, targeted reteaching, or substitute plans and help students develop the debugging habits that transfer to real programming.

Download Find the Bug and turn everyday Python errors into valuable learning opportunities! 🐍💻