Polygons in Micro:bit^®

* Upon power on, students’ Micro:bits display “AB” while teacher’s “T”.

* Suppose boy presses button A to choose role A (receiver),

girl presses button B to choose role B (sender).

* Teacher goes through the list of polygons by pressing button A and button B.

* Suppose teacher chooses a right triangle,

he then shakes his Micro:bit to transfer his choice to students’ Micro:bits.

* Micro:bit with role B (i.e. girl) will display teacher’s choice.

* Micro:bit with role A (i.e. boy) will display a dot showing the current location,

which can be controlled to navigate by pitching/rolling his Micro:bit.

* The students do not see each other’s Micro:bit.

* The girl starts telling the boy what the pattern is.

* Base on these verbal instructions, the boy re-constructs the pattern,

by pressing button A to toggle between on/off of the dot

while pitching/rolling his Micro:bit.

* The boy cannot ask any question.

If he is successful, his Micro:bit will display a flashing pattern.

* Students can inter-change their roles to repeat the activity.

What can possibly be learnt by the students?

â Think before scrolling down. â

What can possibly be learnt by the students?

The information gap between students and the specific roles played by them create the need to use precise language in order to convey messages correctly and efficiently.

The three basic levels are terminology, sentence and conjunction.

1. Terminology

Each body of knowledge consists of terms and definitions, with which participants use to communicate meanings without ambiguity. The mastering of this terminology is a pre-requisite of practicing in the body. For the case of triangles in mathematics, the list is right, acute … isosceles, equilateral … height, base … adjacent side, hypotenuse … Very often students are found using their own ways based on everyday words such as line, point, up, etc., even after classroom learning of the topic. This activity can help as a revision of the terminology, and more importantly reminding students the importance of using it in communication.

2. Sentence

Sentence structure can be simple, compound … There shouldn’t be assumption that students can handle it themselves. This activity can help to expose students’ weakness in using sentences for communication, and bringing out the opportunity of correcting it.

3. Conjunction

Sentences are seldom independent of each other. The use of appropriate conjunctions can make the meaning more complete. For example, “It is a right triangle. It is an isosceles triangle.” is less understood as “It is a right triangle. It is also an isosceles triangle.” Similar to the above, this activity can help to expose students’ weakness in using conjunctions, and bringing out the opportunity of correcting it.

hex file (student) can be downloaded here.

hex file (teacher) can be downloaded here.

If you want to implement these or other activities in your classroom, please contact us for assistance.

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