Fact Triangles are similar in some ways to flashcards although they are a better way of showing and practicing fact families. Fact Families are sets of three numbers that can be divided or multiplied together and they help develop the understanding of the relationship between multiplication and division. Below are two examples:

Source: https://www.helpingwithmath.com/resources/oth_fact_triangles.htm

A teacher friend reached out and asked if I could write a Scratch program to create random Fact triangles.

Practice Math Facts by Coding! -> Coding Fact Triangles #CodeBreaker #CSForAll #mtbos #iteachmath Click To Tweet

Put on your computational thinking caps!

I created a few different solutions in my head, most of which used the mod operator to look for remainders when dividing. I kept going back to my former Factors of Composites app but somehow couldn’t quite get it right.

A big strategy in computational thinking – decomposition – proved incredibly useful here. Rather than me finding composite numbers and looking for remainders, I simply choose two random numbers, multiplied them and hid the first number. In the final version of my app, students can practice multiplication and division in an interactive space. Perhaps your students can write a program like this too. Not only do they get to practice math facts, they will have to have a sound understanding of their relationships in order to successfully make this program. Every time you click the flag a new, random set of numbers will be chosen. Have fun!

If you’d like to see how it was made, check out the project page.

For more lessons, activities and ideas, grab a copy of my book, Code Breaker, on Amazon here!