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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Just to jump on the bandwagon, I use a similar first day lesson with both my Middle School Alice class, and my High School App Programming class. I pick a student who becomes our robot, and place him/her somewhere in the room. Then I challenge the students to write a program that gets our robot to the door. First, we have to create a syntax, which usually ends up being 2 commands: walk and turn. Then they realize they need parameters: direction and amount. Then they realize that they need arguments for the parameters: forward, backward, right, left etc. Within a very short time we’ve got syntax that looks something like this:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>[robotJames walkDirection: forward steps:2]<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>[robotJames turnDirection: right degrees:90]<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>[robotJames openDoor]<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Even at the Middle School age, within 2 days they have the syntax down, and they have no idea that I have secretly got them following Objective-C syntax—more importantly they’ve been effectively introduced to words like “object”, “method”, “parameter”, and “argument.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>At first, I let them give the robot commands in real time. But then, I challenge them to write the code in completion—they have to “de-bug” by getting up and testing one another’s programs—this naturally leads into decision structures, not to mention a lot of movement and bumping into one another—totally fun at the Middle School level!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Finally, I challenge them to write a program that gets the robot to the door from anywhere in the room—this leads into repetition structures.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>This has worked well for me so far, so feel free to steal away!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> alice-teachers-bounces+thomaswhite=mvcs.org@lists.andrew.cmu.edu [mailto:alice-teachers-bounces+thomaswhite=mvcs.org@lists.andrew.cmu.edu] <b>On Behalf Of </b>A. Jeff Goldstein<br><b>Sent:</b> Thursday, November 01, 2012 1:04 PM<br><b>To:</b> Alice educators<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: alice-teacher Beginner Assignment<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>I completely agree. Also, the pseudo coding relates well to the “storyboarding” techniques in our Alice textbook.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Sincerely,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Jeff Goldstein<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Computer Science Teacher<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Cox High School, Va Beach<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> alice-teachers-bounces+a.goldstein=vbschools.com@lists.andrew.cmu.edu [mailto:alice-teachers-bounces+a.goldstein=vbschools.com@lists.andrew.cmu.edu] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Prem Pathuri<br><b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, October 30, 2012 10:52 PM<br><b>To:</b> alice-teachers@lists.andrew.cmu.edu<br><b>Subject:</b> alice-teacher Beginner Assignment<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>To allow students to actually visualize what a computer does, on the first day, I like to teach them what psuedocode is. I allow them to write down directions to do a particular task, and I pretend as though I am a robot and do EXACTLY what they tell me to do. This allows them to see the importance of being very detailed in their programs. <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><BR />
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