Teaching LOGO Programming—An Introduction
Introduction
- Why Programming?
- What is programming?
- participant responses: [provide opportunity for comments]
- leaders' ideas
- involves giving the computer instructions
- instructions are recorded and can be executed on command
- resulting "program" (set of instructions) can be examined
and modified
- "programmer" is aware that programming is occurring
- "programmer" explicitly selects and organizes instructions
- discussion ... [provide opportunity for comments]
- why might/do/should we teach programming?
- participant responses: [provide opportunity for comments]
- leaders' ideas
- programming demystifies the computer. It provides both
programmers and non programmers with insight into how
computers work, why they do stupid things, etc.
- career exploration
- can provide an opportunity for students to exercise their
creative and intellectual facilities
- provides practice in one kind of problem solving —
procedural thinking, attention to detail
- may enhance general problem solving skills
- discussion ... [provide opportunity for comments]
- Why LOGO?
- what is LOGO? [provide opportunity for comments]
- leaders' ideas
- turtle graphics
- simple and fun
- a full-fledged programming language
- discussion ... [provide opportunity for comments]
- why might/do/should we teach LOGO? [provide opportunity for comments]
- leaders' ideas
- powerful ideas (proclaimed by Papert and other supporters
— research has not shown these results to be very
powerful)
- microworlds and "natural" learning
- procedural thinking
- control exercised by student (not computer)
- advances thinking and problem solving
- can be used with relatively young children (middle school,
maybe earlier)
- programming context is simple and direct
- instructions manipulate a turtle on the screen and
feedback is immediate
- can work on controlling actions without overhead of
data storage/representation
- can also be used as a CS language (if desired), i.e., can
use programs involving traditional programming problems
with numerical & textual data, files, etc.
- can be extended to other microworlds — simulation &
emergent complexity/intelligence, robotics, ...
- is programming, i.e., if programming is valuable then
programming in LOGO is also
- discussion ... [provide opportunity for comments]
Discussion Question — Should we discuss rationale with students?
System Introduction
- We will be using Terrapin LOGO. It can be run on either PCs or
Macs—we'll mostly be using PCs but may use the Macs so the math
folks can use the lab).
- Our system administrators have established a single account for us
all to use. That means you'll need to be a little careful about
where you save your files, etc.
- Use your System Introduction handouts
to start your machine, log in, and create a folder/directory to
store your files.
- [ensure that all participants get logged on. Early finishers should
continue on to starting LOGO]
The LOGO Environment
Most LOGO environments should be fairly similar. When starting, two
separate windows appear on the screen. (In Terrapin LOGO, they are
called the graphics window and the listener window. The listener
window is like a command window.) The graphics window will have some
representation of a "turtle". It displays the results of executing
your turtle-graphics instructions. The other window
(listener/command) allows you to enter the instructions you wish to
be executed and displays "error" messages and results (if any) of
non-turtle-graphics instructions.
Not all LOGO instructions are turtle graphics instructions.
However, we'll mostly be doing tutle graphics — at least for
now.
Getting the LOGO environment running is relatively straightforward.
- Log on to a computer
See the system introduction
handout for details.
- Access LOGO
Click the Start button and use the Programs
>> Programming Languages >> Logo
menu combination to start Terrapin Logo. A menu bar, a bar
of buttons and two Windows (Graphics and Listener) should appear.
[ensure that all participants get logged on and get LOGO running.
early finishers should explore the LOGO environment.]
Some Initial LOGO Instructions
As we noted earlier, programming involves giving instructions to
computers. Like children (and other humans), in order to follow (or
carry out or execute) instructions, a computer must understand the
instructions we want it to follow. Programming
languages/environments include all the instructions the
computer knows how to follow (in that language). Programming
consists of deciding which of the instructions to use and putting
them together in a way that accomplishes the desired task. (We
can also define new instructions in terms of previously defined
instructions and we can also program using those new instructions.)
The
initial instructions handout
will guide exploration of elementary features of the LOGO language
which should provide sufficient knowledge and skill for relatively
complex programming.
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