Third graders in Ms. Leo’s class at Varina Elementary have been learning about solid shapes (SOL3.14). They had to be able to identify the number of angles, edges, vertices, and faces of each shape. Today I showed them how to create a program that would identify the shape based on its features. We started out, like most programmers do, by making a flowchart. I thought about using Gliffy because there is no sign in required to create one (although you can’t save it), and it has the ability to type on the connectors, so we could have typed “yes” or “no” like this example. However, I decided to go with Popplet since it was much easier to use and you can draw pictures in the shapes. Since we couldn’t write on the connectors like with Gliffy, we worked around it by making the shapes green for “yes” and red for “no”. Their flowchart was basically a decision tree for identifying the shape based on its faces (so it was limited to the cube, rectangular prism, and square pyramid). They created their flowchart, drew pictures of the 3-D shapes, and then took a screenshot. You can see a couple of student examples here: Lauryn and McKenzie. Next I showed them how a spreadsheet and a formula can be used to identify the shape in a similar way. You can download the Numbers spreadsheet I used by clicking here. After looking at the example, I wanted them to write a simple formula on their own for distinguishing a cone and a cylinder. They had to come up with one good “yes” or “no” question and then write the formula (which was something like this: “IF ANSWER=”YES” THEN “CONE,” IF NOT, THEN “CYLINDER”). There is a sample included with the template, if you download it, so you can see how it works.