On Saturday 23 Jul 2011 10:06:05 AM Steve Thomas wrote:
Thanks this is a lot of fun and useful. So I tried to use it for fractions (although I really like your art work project at Ofset http://community.ofset.org/index.php/Grab_area_buttonbetter, but I am thinking about fractions lately)
Art and Math are not treated differently (at least in ancient India). Art is just high level maths. I wrote the patch to help Susanne Guyader, an 80+ year old artist who used Squeak/Etoys to guide art teachers in France. She deserves all the credit for the Art and Squeak project.
I used the "do menu item | stencil a sketch" scripting tile in a "Mouse Down" script. The rectangle then moves forward by its width. So with a series of successive clicks you can make a fraction.
Exactly! Stencils allow children to explore the math behind the patterns. It is difficult for them to perceive the difference between 1/8 and 3/8 without visual aids in the beginning. Unlike charts, Etoys is interactive. Unlike paper or cardboard, it allows children to repeat any number of times without waste.
Subbu