Project Notes

Ant Polly is a short tutorial on using variables in Scratch. When thinking algebraically, it is not necessary (but still highly desirable) to keep in mind the distinction between the name of a variable and its value. The algebraic manipulation of the variables in an algebraic equation takes place between the names of the variables. The value of each variable in an algebraic equation or expression becomes important when the equation or expression is evaluated. With Scratch (or any other programming language) algorithmic thinking kicks in and many students and teachers have trouble with how variables are treated and how they are used in an algorithm. The number of sides slider and the length of side slider pass the respective values to the variable names in the script. Core algorithm:Generalized Polygon = repeat [number of sides][move [length of side] turn [360/[number of Sides]]