Developing Geometry Concepts Using Computer Programming Environments

This acitivity provides opportunities for creative problem solving while encouraging young students to estimate length and angle measure. Students are asked to enter a sequence of LOGO commands to help the turtle get to the pond. Children can write their own solutions using LOGO commands and input them into the computer. The turtle will then move and leave a trail or path according to the instructions given. Two possible solutions or paths that students might have produced can be seen. You can 'clear' any path and then create a new path that will get the turtle to the pond.

Can You Get the Turtle to the Pond?

In an activity like the one described above, once children have found paths to the pond, they can share their programs with other students. Discussing their programs and the turtle paths with other students helps children reflect on their own method of solving the problem and on the relationships between distance and turtle movement and angle and turtle movement. Teachers can prompt further discussion and investigation with the following questions:

 

Questions for Students How far does your turtle travel to get to the pond? Can you find a shorter path to the pond? How long is the shortest path to the pond?

In addition, teachers may consider the following questions for reflection, extension, and future planning:

Reflection Questions for Teachers Think about possible student solutions. What might students try and why? What can students learn while working on the task of getting the turtle to the pond? What questions might you ask the students to help them reflect on what they have learned? What can you learn about your students' understanding of distance and angles? How might you reframe the task to promote further learning?

LOGO is a programming language developed by Daniel Bobrow and Wallace Feurzeig (at Bolt, Beranek, & Newman, Inc.), and Seymour Papert (at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in the 1960s. LOGO borrows the techniques of symbolic computation from the LISP programming language used in artificial intelligence research. As an educational tool, Clements and Battista (1989) found that LOGO can be used to increase children's conceptual knowledge and to help them discriminate and classify shapes based on geometric properties. In addition, programming activities that students engage in while using LOGO involve process skills that are desired in good problem solvers (Van de Walle, 1998). Using simple keyboard commands to define procedures, students can construct simple to complex geometric shapes and figures (See Related Pre K - 2 Geometry Standard). In addition, LOGO or "turtle geometry" can be used to encourage young children to estimate length and angle measures.

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