Aug
18
A Squeak discovery
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The other day, via blog Edumate Perú, I discovered the dy/dan blog. There I found a philosophy of teaching math similar to mine. As an example, I fell for the post What I Would Do With This: Glassware.
Reading the comments to the post I noticed #38:
I think that Alan Kay and Kim Rose’s car game is similar. I thought a rolling glass was a bit boring, but it is a surprisingly rich vein for investigation.
I highlighted the part in bold and landed at the book Powerful Ideas in the Classroom Using Squeak to Enhance Math and Science.
I read the preface, downloaded the free program called Squeak and have decided to include it in my elective Programming course this fall. Above is my code for leading the car to the goal following the blue trail.
I have used Logo in the past, and have stumbled upon Squeak before, but never tried it out. It looks quite appealing.
In my browsing I also found the site http://waveplace.com/ which gives away OLPC computers in the Caribbean and use the Squeak software.