[IAEP] Walter's visit

[Edward Cherlin]

On Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 03:49, Gerald Ardito <gerald.ardito at gmail.com> wrote:
> Rita and Edward,
>
> I am very interested in EToys and Scratch.
> Last year, one of our 5th grade classes used EToys to create lab reports
> after science fair projects. We were really just beginning with the XOs and
> EToys, but they were really fascinated with the scripting/programming piece.
> And I have used Scratch with my 7th graders, which they loved (me, too).
> I have not yet played much with Pippy, and have as a goal for myself
> learning Python.

The place for the children to start learning Python is the
programmable tiles in Turtle Art. One takes an expression, and one
reads code from an external file, which you can edit in Pippy. Pippy
gives children a simple IDE for writing, testing, debugging, and
running Python code, with tutorial examples. I have recently done a
presentation on Learning Python in Elementary School, and need to
write it up and make it available. Students can go on from there to
the Turtle Graphics in Smalltalk (Etoys) and Logo. Turtle Art also
makes it easy to present a variety of Computer Science ideas, and to
learn about other languages.

> Thanks for your support. If you have tutorials, videos, etc. to share or

Gravity lesson for third grade:

http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/File:Gravity.odt

Issues in teaching Sugar:

http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/The_Undiscoverable

> would be available for some conversations about utilizing these tools,
> please let me know.

Yes, definitely. Feedback from the field is what we most lack.

> Best,
> Gerald
>
> On Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 6:12 AM, Edward Cherlin <echerlin at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Second Rita's suggestion. The transition from tile-based programming
>> in Turtle Art to Etoys projects can be made very easy. The same for
>> Scratch. Since Turtle Art can save programs in Logo, it also gives a
>> good start to learning the UCBLogo Activity.
>>
>> This last Saturday I gave a presentation on Learning Python in
>> Elementary School at Silicon Valley Code Camp. You use the
>> programmable tiles to get students started, including editing in
>> Pippy. When students have a good grasp of creating tiles inside TA,
>> you can give them the TA code for the tile functions in Python to
>> learn from.
>>
>> Turtle Art also has stack functions, usable for teaching a number of
>> Computer Science ideas, or for getting a toe in the water for the
>> FORTH provided in Open FirmWare.
>>
>> Some of us are working on yet other programming languages for the
>> children.
>>
>> Thanks for the video.
>>
>> On Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 12:15 AM, Rita Freudenberg
>> <rita at isg.cs.uni-magdeburg.de> wrote:
>> > Gerald Ardito wrote:
>> >> As some of you know, I am a middle school teacher and doctoral student
>> >> working with 150 XO laptops in a set of 5th grade classrooms. My
>> >> research interest is to see how those devices and the Sugar software
>> >> impact the learning environment of the classroom.
>> >>
>> >> We were fortunate enough to have Walter spend a day with us yesterday.
>> >> He spent a session with each our 6 5th grade classrooms, teaching the
>> >> children some basics of Turtle Art. He also then spent time with the
>> >> teachers and our superintendent. The day was incredibly powerful and
>> >> valuable to all of us. At one point, he was even mobbed by students
>> >> for his autograph!
>> >>
>> >> I created a short video of the visit, which you can see here:
>> >> http://animoto.com/play/2hVwpobfxD4cs1OMSBlDVg
>> >
>> > That looks like an amazing day!
>> >
>> > Gerald, did you ever try Etoys? Please let me know if you are
>> > interested, we have teachers who did great things with Etoys in their
>> > classroom!
>> >
>> > http://www.squeakland.org/
>> >
>> > Greetings,
>> > Rita
>> >>
>> >> Enjoy! Thanks, Walter.
>> >>
>> >> Gerald
>> >>
>> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >>
>> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>> >> IAEP at lists.sugarlabs.org
>> >> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>> > --
>> >
>> > Rita Freudenberg
>> > Squeakland Foundation
>> > http://www.squeakland.org/
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>> > IAEP at lists.sugarlabs.org
>> > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Edward Mokurai (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) Cherlin
>> Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
>> The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
>> http://earthtreasury.org/
>
>



-- 
Edward Mokurai (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://earthtreasury.org/