Samuel Chen

About Me

Name: Samuel Chen

Site: Alhambra High School

Grade(s): 9th-11th

Technology I Recommend

The "Hour of Code" tutorials are a great self-guided tour of the world of coding. It helps to discipline the mind to work through problems step-by-step. This is also perfect to get students in the right mindset for Geometric proofs.

Technology ability: In between proficient and advanced

A little about me:

This is my 8th year teaching at Alhambra (my 20th year teaching.) I have a BS in Mechanical Engineering and my teaching credential is for Math, Physics, and Music so I pretty much have STEAM covered. My credentialed areas are SAM, by the way. I grew up in the Apple ][ era where essentially the only way to interface with your computer was through the terminal and through programming.

Lesson

More Coding with Elsa

Technology used: hourofcode.com/frzn

Subject: Accelerated Integrated Mathematics 2

Common Core Standard(s):

9-12.HSG-CO.C Prove geometric theorems

Proofs involving angles (G-C.8)

I expanded the "hourofcode.com/frzn" tutorial and created more puzzles for the students to solve.

They had previously gone to the computer lab to do the tutorial, learning the basics of coding so they could get "Elsa" to draw certain geometric figures. I created a worksheet of 9 more geometric figures for the students to code. The students used their knowledge of internal and external angles to analyze these polygons and their angles. Then they had to write instructions in the correct order to make Elsa draw the figures correctly. And then they had to use the of the basics of coding in order to efficiently execute these commands.

Technology Insight & Tips

This takes some time. I suggest 2 days in the lab. The first day to go through the tutorial, and the second to go through the extension. You also need to be open to alternate ways to solve the puzzles. Students will surprise you.

However, encourage the students to calculate the angles rather than blindly using the "guess and check" strategy.