[Edu-sig] Edu-sig Digest, Vol 31, Issue 16

[Jonah Bossewitch]

I want to throw out one idea that worked great for me in my initial
introduction to cs.

In our class our first programs generated simple postscript (ie - turtle
graphics) which we then sent to a printer (well, ghostscript first, to
save a few trees).

By week two we were generating mandlebrot sets, and recursive artwork
the week after.

http://www.cs.princeton.edu/courses/archive/spr01/cs126/assignments/mandel.html

best of both worlds?  At least we got to making art quickly.

Best,
/Jonah


Toby Donaldson wrote:
> On 3/1/06, kirby urner <kirby.urner at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 2/28/06, Toby Donaldson <tjd at sfu.ca> wrote:
>>
>>> As I pointed out in my message, the reason we use turtle graphics is
>>> to introduce the idea of functional decomposition and bottom-up
>>> development. I have little interest in graphics, personally.
>>
>>  Not sure what this means exactly, but I'm sure there're lots of ways to do
>> this.
>>
>> def g:...
>> def f:...
>> def h:...
>> h(g(f(x)))
>> f(h(g(x)))
>> h(h(g(f(h(g(x)))))
>>
>> whatever.
> 
> I mean cutting up large problems into smaller ones according function,
> and then creating the resulting program by first writing (and testing)
> small functions, and then combining those to make larger functions.
> 
> Your example shows the syntax of function calling, but the more
> interesting question is how do you get h, g, and f in the first place?
> 
>>> It worked very well for our students, and the fact that turtle
>>> graphics is a toy is important: there's less anxiety playing with
>>
>> By "toy" I meant something more like "broken toy" -- thinking specifically
>> of turtle.py on Windows.  One could argue that it's Window's that's the
>> broken toy in this picture.  I'd probably smile and nod.
> 
> Well, in this case, it's clearly turtle.py that's lacking.
> 
>> I'm not
>> anti-turtle and certainly not anti-Python.  I tolerate Windows because I
>> love .NET (so far anyway -- my goal is to be teaching IronPython someday
>> soon, on Linux boxes as well).  Maybe at some future SIGCSE (if they stop
>> meeting in Texas -- I'm boycotting that state for the forseeable future,
>> won't go to any events there (Texas has screwed up the Oregon electrical
>> power scene big time, adding to my bill, messing with my quality of
>> living)).
>>
>>> toys. I see many, many students who have zero experience with
>>> programming in high school, and exhibit more anxiety in the
>>> first-programming course than in a math course (which at they least
>>> have a decade of experience with, even if they dislike the topic).
>>>
>>> Toby
>>
>> The Shuttleworth Foundation in South Africa is looking at Logo | Squeak |
>> Python as a preferred pipeline.  The curriculum is designed for
>> self-teachers, home scholars, i.e. no cadre of "qualified teachers" need
>> apply.  In this model, we'll have gotten the turtle stuff out of the way (on
>> a first pass anyway) with Logo.  Python will be under no pressure to star as
>> a turtle graphics platform (it's not known for this now and it's an uphill
>> battle to win recognition for it in this niche).  Kids coming into Python
>> will already be highly familiar with turtle stuff, so we can allude to it
>> (in the curriculum, maybe a Moodle -- I've pointed them to two of mine), but
>> we don't introduce either programming or turtles using Python.
> 
> Logo is a non-starter. For my purposes, a practical language is a
> necessity, if only because some students need practical skills to get
> programming jobs on co-op terms. Personally, I far prefer turtle
> graphics in Python than Logo since Python is much more readable.
> 
> I've suggested Squeak to a few people, and there's been close to zero
> interest. It's not considered very practical, and the language syntax
> is generally considered a major problem. I'd guess it is less of a
> problem for complete novices, but it's just too esoteric and
> impractical to be a contender.
> 
>> I'm brainstorming towards the day when high schoolers with no previous
>> programming experience will be the exception more than the rule.  That's
>> already the case here in Portland, in some schools anyway.  I hope South
>> Africa will get there shortly (you might think they have a long way to go,
>> but actually South Africa is poised for a great leap forward, in the Chinese
>> sense, but we hope without the same stumbling).
> 
> That would be nice: "programming anxiety" is a bigger problem than
> "math anxiety" at my campus.
> 
> Toby
> --
> Dr. Toby Donaldson
> School of Computing Science
> Simon Fraser University (Surrey)
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