This year I have been experimenting with introducing programming to Mathematics classes, especially for Grade 6, who do not have programming in Design (nor did they in primary school).
These are the tasks I have introduced so far, and some of the student responses.
Prime Number Checker
This is a starter program I explained in class, and set as a task to finish for homework: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/184630994/#editor
Simple prime number tester.
Can you improve the algorithm, to make it more efficient?
Can you change the program so you don't have to keep clicking the green flag?
Can you make sure it doesn't add a prime to the list more than once?
How many prime numbers can you find between 100 and 1000?
This was successfully completed by two thirds of the class.
Leap Years
This was an optional question I added in to the existing assessment task here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1D5s6gSlFkxGgB413xvYVIJrNUwS1TT4dcz8wUQLn2Mg/edit?usp=sharing
a. Write a program in Scratch to test whether a given year is a leap year or not.
b. Extend your program so that it will find all the leap years from 1900 to 2020. Check that it is working correctly.
c. Use your program to find interesting facts, (such as the final leap year of the millennium, or how many leap years there have been since the Gregorian calendar started. Use your imagination)
Three students opted to try this task. One didn't solve it, one had an incorrect implementation of the algorithm (the tricky 400, but not 100 rule), but the third student has the algorithm correct and concisely programmed, plus some nice useability scripting:
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/189135859/#editor
Electoral Systems
Again this is an addition to an existing assessment task, and one of the optional questions, here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1q2MVJaBsYWIfeg6h7b81GoFw-FwOAFZpDLx1ByeBwHo/edit?usp=sharing
5. Write a program in Scratch to calculate the outcome of an election from the preferences of voters, by both the elimination method and the plurality method. Run your program many times, comparing the fairness of the results by the two systems.
Extension: find out about the Borda count method, and add this into your program.
Students were provided with a starter program which creates random sets of voter preferences: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/197219936/#editor
Reflection
The tasks have been well-received by students, and motivating for high-achievers. However, students who are less strong in mathematics find it difficult to implement the algorithm, or to break down the problem in a way that can be implemented with Scratch blocks. This isn't surprising, as programming involves high order thinking. The election task is coming up soon, so lets see how it goes.
