PS2206 INFO & COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY IN SCIENCE & MATHS

THE USE OF PC LOGO WITH UPPER PRIMARY PUPIL

Aims:
 Pupils should be able to use the basic commands for examples: fd, rt and
lt correctly.
 Pupils should be able to draw shapes by using logo programming
correctly.

In order to try out this program, I chose one year 5 pupil in my previous school,
Sekolah Rendah Hj Tarif, Kg Tamoi Tengah. She only has basic knowledge
about computer and does not have computer at home.

First, I introduced the program by showing her of how to draw rectangle. I asked
her to observe the basic commands used to draw the rectangle. She noticed the
term fd, rt and lt and was able to explain at me the meaning and uses of the term.

When the pupil gets familiar with the program, I asked her to draw a square. She
realized that square have 4 equal sides and the following are the steps used by
the pupil to draw a square by using pc logo.

fd 180
rt 90
fd 180
rt 90
fd 180
rt 90
fd 180
Next, I asked her to draw a rectangle. Even though, I have showed her the
example of rectangle before but she has difficulties in this task. She was not
confident with the steps taken to draw a rectangle because it has different sides.
In this part, I gave her some hints by helping her reviewing previous lesson on
shapes i.e. rectangle. She managed to answer me that rectangle has 2 lengths
and 2 breadths which mean that she have to use 2 different numbers to draw
rectangle. The following are the steps used by the pupil to draw rectangle.

fd 100
rt 90
fd 200
rt 90
fd 100
rt 90
fd 200

Finally, I introduced the term repeat to the pupil. By showing her an example on
square (repeat 4 [fd 80 rt 90]), I let her to explore any shapes she likes and at the
end she was able to give me square, rectangle, octagon and decagon. Here are
the shapes which were done by the pupil.

repeat 4 [fd 150 lt 90]

repeat 4 [fd 80 lt 90 fd 190 lt 90]

repeat 8 [fd 100 lt 45]

repeat 10 [fd 130 lt 45]

As a conclusion, at the beginning, pupil tends to have difficulties in using this

program. Therefore, I have to give hints of how to use the term fd, rt, lt and
repeat in using the logo programming. However, when the pupil gets familiar
with the use of the commands, she was able to draw the shapes of different
sizes.

From the interview, the pupil told me that it was difficult to use the commands at
first. But by doing a lot of practice, it is easy to run the program. She also found
out that the use of repeat is easier compare to the long steps taken to draw the
shapes.