The Use Of Logo Programming

Creating shapes using Logo Programming Year 6 pupil from Sekolah Rendah Tumpuan Telisai, Tutong was chosen to do the activity. The pupil is not familiar with the Logo Programming before and does not have a computer at home. However, it is easier for me since he was already learnt about different kinds of shapes and also angles. The aims are the pupil will be able to: ➢

use the basic logo commands correctly in order to move the turtle.

➢

draw a variety of shapes using the correct basic commands.

➢

explain the features of each shape; angles and the number of sides.

Procedure At first, I had to teach him the basic logo commands for moving the turtle. The commands that I taught to him were as follows: Basic Command FD BK RT LT

Function The forward command is used to move the turtle forward while drawing a line. The back command is used to move the turtle backward while drawing a line. Turns the turtle to its right through the specified number of degrees. Turns the turtle to its left through the specified number of degrees. CS command erases all the drawings on the screen and clears

CS



the Main screen or the Graphics screen, and also brings the turtle to the centre of screen. REPEAT command allows to repeat a set of commands many times without writing them again and again.

Then, I asked him to try out all the commands so that he will get familiar with it. After that, I asked him to draw the shape of a square. From his previous lesson and his own prior knowledge, he told me that the square has 4 equal sides and all the angles are 90°. He explained that each angle of a rectangle

is a right angle, which is 90°. At first, he found that it was difficult to draw the square, but as he drew the shape for several times, he finally managed to draw the shape. He also able to identify that 120 is represent the length and 90 is represent the number of degrees. Below are the steps that the pupil used to draw a square. fd 120 rt 90 fd 120 rt 90 fd 120 rt 90 fd 120 Before I asked him to draw the rectangle, I asked him how many side does the rectangle has. He was able to explain to me that the rectangle has both parallel sides equal in length and all the angles are 90°, just like the square. Below are the steps that the pupil used to draw a rectangle. fd 170 rt 90 fd 220 rt 90 fd 170 rt 90 fd 220

Next, I asked him to draw a triangle. He told me that triangle has 3 sides and there were different types of triangles that he had learnt at school. Therefore, he told me that he was going to do an equilateral triangle. Unfortunately, he has difficulties in doing the shape especially when turning

the turtle to the right with the appropriate number of degrees. Here, I helped him in doing the activity. Below are the steps that the pupil used to draw an equilateral triangle. fd 60 rt 120 fd 60 rt 120 fd 60

Then, I explained to him that when we sum up all the three angles of a triangle, it must be equal to 180°. He agreed with my explanation and said that he also learnt it at school and his teacher told him that the sum of all angles in a triangle is equal to 180°.

However, when I asked him to draw a circle, he was unable to do it and found that it was difficult to draw. Therefore, I asked him to make any shape that he wanted to try out. He said that he wanted to draw a hexagon. He explained that the hexagon has 6 equal sides so he was using fd 60 for its

length and 45° for the number of degrees. Below are the steps that the pupil used to draw the hexagon. rt 45 fd 60 rt 45 fd 60 rt 45 fd 60 rt 45 fd 60 rt 45 fd 60

Finally, I explained to him the use of REPEAT command so that he will not get confuse and type the command again and again. Here are the shapes that were done by the pupil.

1 2

INSTRUCTIONS

RESULTS

REPEAT 4 [FD 40 RT 90]

SQUARE

REPEAT 2 [FD 30 RT 90 FD 15 RT 90]

RECTANGLE

3

REPEAT 3 [FD 60 RT 120]

TRIANGLE

4

REPEAT 6 [FD 30 RT 60]

HEXAGON

During this activity, the pupils knew that the square has 4 equal sides. Therefore, by using the REPEAT command, she was able to typed ‘repeat 4’ which means 4 times followed by the command e.g. REPEAT 4 [FD 40 RT

90]. As for the rectangle, she knew that it has 2 opposite sides that were equal, so she typed REPEAT 2 [FD 30 RT 90 FD 15 RT 90], for triangle she typed REPEAT 3 [FD 60 RT 120] since triangle has 3 sides and for hexagon she typed REPEAT 6 [FD 30 RT 60] since it has 6 equal sides.

As a conclusion, the pupil told me that the activity was fun and challenging for him. He also said that it was easier to draw shapes using the REPEAT command where he doesn’t have to type all the long commands. He wished that he can learn more about it and try to draw other shapes next time. The logo programming can be more fun once the pupils are familiar with the program. Pupils can discover and make different kinds of shapes which interested them such as star or even drawing a house or buildings using different kinds of shapes. Moreover, they learnt about the features of each shape: how many sides and angles.