Hi Steve, On 6 Jul 2012, at 22:22, Steve Thomas wrote:
> I got I asked my class to play LightBot and then asked them: > "How this is like and not like "programming" > > This lead into one kids responding its like "mabey small motors and gears" > (wish I knew what was going on in her mind, I'll ask in the next class) > > So I responded: > I was on the Battleship NJ (commissioned in 1943). They had a "computer" on > board to calculate the angle and direction of the big guns and could hit a > target miles away within a few yards!!! Pretty impressive when you have to > consider they had to take into account the ships speed and direction, wind > speed, waves and the recoil from the guns firing. The whole "computer" was > built using gears which controlled BIG motors to move the gun. > > > Here's a pop quiz (you will be graded on this and it will go on your > PERMANENT record :) > What is the oldest computer we know about? > > I then asked them to think about and email me an answer to: > What is a computer? > I then added the caveat, non-biological computer, as a bunch came back with > the answer "the brain". > > I found a nice video on a Lego version of the oldest know computer here. > > So I want to get them to try and build some adding machines (and I will see > if we can find enough lego parts amonst us to do that as it would be best), > but in case I can't, and just for fun. > > Has anyone build a set of gears in Etoys or any other freely available > program? I'm planning to add a set of built in gear templates to the Physics [1] activity, but in the mean time it is possible (but difficult) to create them by hand, or more ideally use the plugin for TurtleArt [2] that allows you to generate scenes procedurally/accurately in LOGO for the Physics activity to then simulate. Regards, --Gary [1] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Physics [2] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/TurtleArt#Physics > Thanks, > Stephen > _______________________________________________ > IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) > [email protected] > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep _______________________________________________ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) [email protected] http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
