Programming

Turtle Programming

In our school at KS3 we found that teaching some of the fundamentals of Python and programming worked really well if the students felt that they were getting a result. I copied this approach at KS4 by using Turtle extensively. I started small teaching basic concepts such as how to import the turtle module and hwo to draw basic shapes. we then up'ed the anti by asking students to complete tasks as efficently as possible. Soon we were introducing FOR loops for shapes and WHILE loops to complete more complete patterns. We rounded the project off by asking users for input, this like "How long should your shape be?" or "Please enter and angle".

We found that by taking this approach students really engaged with Python. Students were so intent on getting their Turtle output looking awesome that they frequently started asking questions about more complex tasks and actually researching solutions on their own. Some of the help sheets which I wrote for this are available here.

First look at the BBC micro:bit

Most recently I have been having my first look at the BBC micro:bit. We have had a couple in school now for a little while but last Friday I found the time to actually have a bit of play with one. I was discussing, with a colleague during the week, how good the bit will be once Python was available via the online interface. As it turns out Python already was available.

With that in bag I jumped on Twitter and had a hunt about for some resources and stumbled onto this. It is a rather snazzy little piece of code which tests out the bits abilities a bit (see what I did there) and is really easy to understand. A lot of what you will need can be found in the science technicians cupboard.

Once you have nabbed the code and copied it to the online interface there is lots of different things that you can do using some of the prebuilt modules. This would be a really good introduction task for any class just starting out with the bit.

All credit to this pioneer from which I found the idea.

@blogmywiki followed one of your ideas for the bit and it worked really well. #BBCMicroBit pic.twitter.com/weHCkx1fAh

— Martyn Walker (@Mwalk3r) March 11, 2016