Use of Transcript and Turtle Graphics in education

[erik hansen]

--- Jim Hurley <jhurley at infostations.com> wrote:
> Erik Hansen wrote:
> >
> >to get Turtle Graphics back on the map will
> >require standalone teacher-proof teaching
> >sequences that capable teachers can extend in
> >their own way. i still think TG is the most
> >intuitive way to learn geometry and
> programming
> >and look forward to the new release.

> Ah, a kindred spirit!
> 
> I have long had a special interest in using
> xTalk & TG as means to 
> teach programing to science students. In 1985 I
> wrote a short book 
> (Logo Physics, Holt Rinehart & Winston) hoping
> to kick start the 
> process.
> 
> It didn't fare very well. I don't think Logo is
> the right language. The primary appeal of Logo
> (a poor man's version of LISP) was TG.

i used your book from the Cal Poly SLO library
and got a lot out of it. the bouncing ball...
> I have translated/revamped that book into a
> text for High School students but it exists
> only as a Word document at the present time.
> 
> I am sure Erik is right about the serious
> roadblocks to putting 
> x-Talk and TG into the the school  curriculum.
> Most High Schools are 
> very rigidly institutions.

i was thinking more about the need for tutorials 
that would stand alone in case capable teachers
are absent.

> I have sent a Transcript/TG Demo stack to
> Heather to post on the Rev 
> web site. (I hope it goes into the Educators
> page. I don't think 
> this will have much appeal to developers. My
> apologies for taking up 
> this much space already.)

if students learn to program, they will get more
out of the developers' work!

> I can also include the Word ms. which might 
> serve as an open-source text for such a course.
> 
> As a physicist, you might imagine that the book
> is dominated by 
> physics, and you would be right, but there is
> some biology and a fair 
> bit of mathematics.
> 
> Jim Hurley
> Emeritus Prof. of  Physics, Univ. of Calif.
> -- 
> Jim Hurley

=====
erik at erikhansen.org    http://www.erikhansen.org

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