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Old
Computer Tricks
Enhance Algebraic Thinking
By Louis Feicht
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Tried-and-true programming exercises help develop students’
ability to think abstractly and analytically about math.
These
programming examples show how students can use HyperTalk,
Visual
Basic, and Pascal for the Macintosh to complete the
activities described
in L&L.
Figure
1. A script from HyperTalk to draw a stick name.
Figure
2. A stick name done in Macintosh Pascal.
Figure
3. The HyperTalk script to draw a block name from rectangles.
Figure
4. A block name created with rectangles, circles, and lines on
a Macintosh
platform.
Figure
5. A very basic house and the HyperTalk and Visual Basic
scripts to
create it.
Figure
6. A HyperTalk handler to draw grass in front of the house.
Building
the grass the “hard way” through repetition is necessary for
students
to establish a firm grasp of what they are drawing on the screen.
Figure
7. Students’ first loop and introduction of a variable.
Figure
8. Using a single loop to draw all of the grass (for students
who have
had some experience with programming).
Figure
9. A movable house program, which allows the programmer to set
the initial
size of the frame. The other objects (door, window, chimney) must be
moved and
scaled relative to the house.
Figure
10. The handler (subroutine) to build the house.
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Louis Feicht (lfeicht@capnet.k12.or.us)
has 12 years’ teaching experience in
mathematics and
computer education. He works as a technology and
network specialist
in Silverton, Oregon, where he lives with his
family. He is
also interested in developing database applications
for the
Web.
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Margaret L. Niess (niessm@ucs.orst.edu),
L&L’s mathematics editor, is a
professor at
Oregon State University. In 1993, she received
OSU’s
Burlington Resources Foundation Faculty Achievement
Award
for Excellence in Teaching and Research. Contact her
at the
Dept. of Science and Mathematics Education, OSU,
Corvallis,
OR 97331; 541.737.1818; fax 541.737.1817.
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Copyright © 2000, ISTE (International Society for Technology
in Education).
All rights reserved.
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