Re: Programming languages for the very young

From: Yoyoma_2 (Yoyoma_2_at_[at-)
Date: 01/28/04 

Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 17:14:44 GMT

John Doty wrote:

I agree LOGO is a great language for the very, very young. But as soon
as they get in 7th or 8th grade they will get very bored of it quick. I
wonder why everyone discounts teaching VB. SIMPLE VB can be lots of
fun, its basically BASIC (you can still do print on a form you know :) )
and at least the students can work to a real windows application.

Its not as if kids can't understand to do VB since its so similar and
compatible to BASIC, which we know they understand. Plus at least it
will give them SOME work experience with a programming language.

I still say teaching VB is a good tool for pre-teens and teenagers. But
i also agree that C should be tought around 11th grade or so. to
"graduate" them to a real programming language.

My 0.02 $ CAD :)

> In article <cu1d6947h0c.fsf@nokia.com>, "Darin Johnson"
> <darin_@_usa_._net> wrote:
>
>
>>The turtle graphics part should be great, even for older learners of
>>programming.
>
>
> Indeed. The key thing is the primitives: turn, move, penup, pendown. This
> allows you to build an analytic geometry without a Cartesian grid, better
> connected to Euclid's concepts, non-Euclidean geometry, and relativity. Of
> course, you could do this in other programming languages as well. You
> don't even need a computer (although a computer is certainly useful).
>
> Abelson and DiSessa's "Turtle Geometry" was a wonderful high school
> analytic geometry text based on these ideas. By the end of the book, they
> had introduced differential geometry without using calculus, and had even
> covered a bit of General Relativity. I read it about 20 years ago. There
> was fundamentally nothing in there that someone (like me) who's plowed
> through Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler's tome wouldn't know, but the approach
> was refreshingly simple: I learned a new way to think about geometry from
> the book.
>
> Unfortunately, with the current emphasis on indoctrinating students to
> score on standardized tests, there is no way such a nonstandard
> presentation of geometry could be taught in most high schools.
>

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