Education Technology


Year 9: Rover Geometry

by Texas Instruments

Objectives

Students use their knowledge of geometry and learn basic coding to instruct Rover to draw common shapes such as regular polygons, stars and houses. Students are able to make mistakes in this environment, they can use what they know to be the 'answer' and try again until they get the problem solved. So, in addition to acquiring some basic STEM skills, students also learn to be persistent and resilient problem solvers. 

Vocabulary

  • Forward
  • Right Turn
  • Left Turn
  • For - EndFor
  • Request
  • Equilateral
  • Regular Polygon
  • External Angles

About the Lesson

The TI-Rover can follow simple commands such as Forward, Backward, Right Turn and Left Turn. Students use these basic commands to instruct Rover to draw shapes on a piece of paper. Students modify their program so that they can draw regular polygons of virtually any number of sides. Students then progress to drawing more complicated shapes such as 5 and 6 pointed stars.