Ask HN: Any experience teaching LOGO to children?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1982536

by carlos • 16 years ago

1 1 16 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I would like to start teaching LOGO to my 7 year old daughter. My only and last experience with LOGO was 25 years ago reading the "Apple LOGO" book from Harold Abelson.

Do you know any good LOGO interpreter for Windows?

Have you tried to teach programming to kids?.

Thanks.

retroafroman• 16 years ago

I don't know of a good LOGO interpreter for Windows, but I have had some experience teaching programming to kids. I interned with OLPC a few years ago, and they have a visual progamming application called Turtle Blocks which is very similar to LOGO. Unfortunately, it's only available in Sugar (the Fedora Linux based OS that they use on the XO-available as a live USB). Also, MIT's Scratch is another program that is available for Windows and Mac that is designed for visual programming for kids, but has many more features than LOGO or TurtleBlocks.

When I was working with OLPC, my boss Elana would make teachers and students try to understand the idea of giving and following exact directions before letting them jump onto the computer. Outside, they would have someone act as the "turtle" and they would receive directions like "walk forward 5 steps", "turn right 90 degrees", "take one step back", etc. This way, they were tasked with walking in a square and ending up in the same place they started. Before they could start though, they had to write out all the instructions they would give to walk the square, then a person would interpret them. Just like how a programmer writes a program and only after it's finished a computer interprets it.

I'd make starting off a game like this, just following directions. Have her give you the directions to walk from one room to another while avoiding obstacles. Having gone through this thought process, it makes understanding making the little cursor on the screen do something a much less abstract experience.

After getting the cursor moving around the screen and drawing boxes, I think that one of the best ways to get a kid excited about programming is just by showing cool examples of things drawn in LOGO. Then pick a simple, short script and step through it with them. From there, start changing parameters one at a time and point out that the output is different. Of course, at this point, a challenge is necessary and possible. Have them try to draw something that they like, or a stick figure of themselves. If she can do that, then try making a taller stick figure for you, or something like that.

Ask HN: Any experience teaching LOGO to children?

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