Thanks Tony,<br><br>Background info is here: <a href="http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Gardner_Pilot_Academy">http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Gardner_Pilot_Academy</a><br>Click on the link for the GPA school for demographics.<br> <br>Yesterday was 2nd going into 3rd Graders. Today 3rd going into 4th.<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 12:19 AM, <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:forster@ozonline.com.au">forster@ozonline.com.au</a>></span> wrote:<br> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">Thanks Caroline/Mel/Walter for documenting this<br> <br> They are useful observations<br> <br> It may help to give some background:<br> year level<br> socio-economics<br> in school/lunchtime/holiday program?<br> prior experience (including Logo etc)<br> <br> Should you introduce standard terminology and what about concepts which they have yet to be introduced to? Kids seem to have no problems with maths concepts which they will not be introduced to till much later, you mention angle. I find them quite comfortable with rate (pixels per step), Cartesian coordinates, vector addition. The difficult question is that of transfer. Will the later formal learning of these concepts be advantaged by their informal introduction with TurtleArt? Using a common language should help. Is transfer the goal? Is there a skill of 'thinking mathematically' which is the real goal of formal maths and is advanced by problem solving in TA similarly as it is advanced by more formal maths?</blockquote> <div> <br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><br> <br> I think there is. Ultimately the goal is skills for solving real world problems, which are typically ill defined and multidisciplinary. That requires a good repertoire of basic skills. Also importantly the ability to problem solve. Thats where TA and Sugar come in. Part of problem solving and 'thinking mathematically' is building good mental models of the problem space. Good mental models are internally consistent, consistent with the external problem and can be 'run' in various 'what if' conditions. To what extent does TA develop the ability to build mental models and is this skill transferable to real world problem solving?</blockquote> <div><br><br> Thanks this is a good write up. What we are doing is evolving but it looks like its going to be a combination of Social Studies and Math and I do agree that transfer is the goal. We will be introducing cartesian coordinates on Thursday.<br><br>One of the things we are trying to do this summer is tie the Sugar work in as closely as possible to the classroom work. Again I think one of the goals is to improve transfer. <br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> <br> <br> In running similar classes with GameMaker, at the start I give 30-45 minutes instruction with the data projector then leave them free to do whatever<br> <br> Initial instruction, GameMaker for years 5-6 at<br> <a href="http://online.haileybury.vic.edu.au/sites/edrington/computerclub/Gamemaker%20Lesson%20Plan.doc" target="_blank">http://online.haileybury.vic.edu.au/sites/edrington/computerclub/Gamemaker%20Lesson%20Plan.doc</a><br> <br> TurtleArt is a different product, it needs a different intro, I wouldn't demo keyboard input, I might cover:<br> move<br> turn<br> docking blocks<br> deleting blocks<br> repeat<br> pen up/down<br> <br> but then I would just let them loose, just respond to individual questions, try to encourage sharing and peer tutoring.</blockquote><div><br>We had 30 minutes total scheduled (though they stayed more like 45 minutes) and did about 5 minutes of instruction. We had 4 adult tutors so this was not a problem. At one point there was this look of amazement on a girl's face when she said I want to do what she is doing and I told her she could look at her screen and copy what the other girl had done. In other cases we clearly had pairs of students making the same shape. One of the teachers also made something cool and you could see it travel down the row of computers.<br> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><br> <br> Thanks for sharing this information.<br> <br> Tony<br> <div><div></div><div class="h5"><br><br> </div></div></blockquote></div><br>