2020 term 3 week 4: Loops

Programming class has finished writing a program that a hardware store could use as a project cost calculator for customers.  This allowed us to review our print statements, assignment statements for variables, user input for variables, and math order of operations.  We started at the end of the week learning if statements.  Next week, we will begin learning loops (for loops and while loops).  Below is a tutorial that shows some things we will be doing with loops in Python.

2020 term 3 week 3: Python Programming

Programming students have finished with their robotics section.  The final assessment involved students creating a "pong" or "breakout" style arcade game, where the robots were programmed to be used as motion controls for the game.  This helped students demonstrate an understanding of computational problems and abstraction.  Next week students will start learning about python programming.

Below is a tutorial that shows how to get Python and a text editor installed, so you can be ready for python programming.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqy5uD4_NuI

2020 term 3 week 2: abstractions and computational artifacts

Programming students have learned about career pathways and principles of computer science.  By the end of the week, we have used a development cycle to write a program for a game that allows the user to navigate an image sprite from start to finish.  Students had to add one change to the program to make it better.  Many students chose to have the image sprite start back at the beginning of the maze if the obstacles of the maze were touched.

Class will start learning about abstractions and computational artifacts, as they program Finch robots to utilize a variety of input and output devices.  Some of our first programs will involve programming movements with use of keyboard controls, timed movement of motors, and the use of motion sensors to program obstacle avoidance navigation.  It looks like the class is having a lot of fun, and doing a lot of learning at the same time!