Third graders at Davis Elementary have been learning about different types of angles – acute, obtuse, and right (SOL3.15), so today students in Ms. Cousins’ class at Davis used computer code to create different angles. First we logged into Google classroom where I posted a link to Code.org. This website provides tutorials for elementary students to learn how to write simplified computer programming code. Students log in with their Google accounts and they can either create an app or a drawing. To make the angles, we chose the drawing option, but at the end of the lesson I gave them the opportunity to explore that apps part as well, which they loved because it is similar to coding games. First I showed them how to draw a straight line with code. Then we figured out the angle “drawing man” would have to turn to make a right angle (90º), and we added that part to our code. Next I asked if they could figure out how to draw an acute angle in another spot with a different color. Finally I challenged them to draw an obtuse angle. The students posted the links to their finished angles on Google classroom so they could see each others’ projects. That’s all we had time to do today, but once your students become familiar with the coding process, they can write all sorts of elaborate programs. Check out some of their work here.
