Vern Ceder <vce...@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Brian,
On Wed, Nov 9, 2011 at 10:58 AM, Brian Wilkinson <brian.wilkin...@ssfs.org>
wrote:
Hello everyone,
Our upper school, looking to beef up their technology offerings, offered an
introductory programming course this year using Python. I am normally a
technology coordinator, supporting teachers and students, but was tapped to
teach this class (which I have thoroughly enjoyed so far). The purpose of this
course is to try and get kids excited about programming and so I would like to
teach them a bit about graphics and GUI’s. My initial thought was just to have
them work with tkinter, as that (to me) seems the easiest path. After doing
some reading, it looks as though wxPython and pyQt are popular options as well.
Great news! Every programming course (especially Python programming course) in
high school is win!
So finally to the questions:
1) Is teaching basic graphics too ambitious for an introductory course?
Not at all.
2) If the answer to #1 is no, do folks out there have suggestions for the best
tool to use with the students?
While there are many other tools, they all have the drawback of requiring extra
installation, etc. That may be okay for school machines, but it can then be a
bit of hassle for some kids if they want to install the same environment at
home. So personally, I always tried to keep things as simple as possible. So my
suggestion for an intro class would be to use the turtle library - it can do a
ton of things, even to the point of creating reasonably fun games. Once you
outgrow the turtle library, I'd suggest the next step is PyGame...
Good luck!! and keep us posted!
JMHO,
Vern
I have enjoyed reading this group this year. It has been a big help.
Brian Wilkinson
Sandy Spring Friends School
Technology Resource Coordinator
“When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable,
must be the truth.”
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--
Vern Ceder
vce...@gmail.com, vce...@dogsinmotion.com
The Quick Python Book, 2nd Ed - http://bit.ly/bRsWDW
Sounds like good advice! Are there any curricular materials for introducing the
turtle library that you can recommend?
Thanx,
A. Jorge Garcia
Applied Math and CompSci
http://shadowfaxrant.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/calcpage2009
Sent via DROID on Verizon Wireless
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