Task Teacher Guide

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Students will continue exploring how and when to use Repeat Loops and Nested Loops. Students will then use their knowledge and understanding to code their very own original spirograph.

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Spark

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Students will compare 2 different patterns and then predict what code is being used to produce the spirograph patterns. They will then work to reproduce the same effects, and then use creativity to add their own spin on to the project.

Show students the “Spirograph Comparison” project, but do not “See Inside”:

Then ask students:

What do you notice?

What do you wonder?

What are the differences between the Spirograph and the Hexagon?

Which blocks are being used to produce both of these effects?

What patterns do you notice and how could they be made with repeat loops?

Bring students’ attention to the differences between the Spirograph and the Hexagon. What could account for those differences? What blocks are being used to create both effects. Which characteristics are being changed to account for the differences? Have students scroll through the different categories of coding blocks in Scratch to see which blocks may produce similar effects, focusing especially on Motion and Control blocks.

Estimation: Prompt

Ask the following question:

What Motion and Control blocks do you think are being used?

We can now ask students to make predictions (not guesses) as we want them to be as strategic as they can possibly be. This will force them to use reasoning to try and come up with reasonable choices.

While Students Are Estimating…

Allow students to look through the coding blocks available to them (on the left hand side of Scratch) and write down which blocks might be useful. If you do this as a whole class, as students share their estimates, consider writing down the reasonable ones, so they have options to start with.  

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Sense Making

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During Moves

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[accordion-item title=”Student Challenge #1: Getting the angles”]

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[accordion-item title=”Student Challenge #2: Sequencing”]

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[accordion-item title=”Student Challenge #3: Repeat Blocks”]

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[accordion-item title=”Student Challenge #4: Nested Loops”]

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Next Moves

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Show students the “Spirograph Comparison” project and “See Inside” to show one way of completing this project:

Project Reveal:

Compare the 2 sets of blocks used for the Spirograph and the Hexagon. Notice the number of times they repeat and how many degrees they turn. Which numbers did you use in your project and why did you choose them?

Go over the coding script in Scratch, or show the following image with students which shows the full coding script that students would ideally have created.

Discuss how they determined which angles to use and how many times to repeat. Discuss the connections between the angles used and the 360 degrees of a circle and how not using an angle to make a perfect hexagon resulted in the pattern it did. 

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Provide students an opportunity to reflect on their learning by offering these consolidation prompts to be completed independently.

Consolidation Prompt #1:

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Consolidation Prompt #2:

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We suggest collecting this reflection as an additional opportunity to engage in the formative assessment process to inform next steps for individual students as well as how the whole class will proceed.

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Resources and Downloads

Explore The Entire Unit of Study

This Make Math Moments Task was designed to spark curiosity for a multi-day unit of study with built in purposeful practice, and extensions to elicit and emerge mathematical models and strategies.

Click the links at the top of this task to head to the other related lessons created for this unit of study.