I'd like to say thanks to B.J. Allen-Conn & Kim Rose for the excellent book that is, "Using Squeak to Enhance Math and Science Learning." I was looking for material to get a first course in Squeak going locally with the science club students, and after fretting that I probably would never have enough time to create a proper class curriculum for experimenting with Squeak without significanly more time spent creating and exploring, I bought the book mentioned above. Wow, that was an answer to prayer. I ended up working with a group of students for 2 hours, and here is some of the feedback, just as an FYI and a big thank you to those responsible: - the university students and professors were wonderful class assistants, I basically used the first 4 to 5 projects unaltered - students registered ahead of time and had 2 hours to go through the first 4 or 5 projects which were instructor led - there were 13 students registered, 10 attended: ages: 8 years old - 1 10 years old - 1 12 years old - 4 13 years old - 2 14 years old - 2 - questions answered on survey filled out after course: "I learned about Squeak today" 10 agree, 0 disagree "I would like to learn more about Squeak" 10 agree, 0 disagree "The speed & pace was" 7 just right, 3 too fast "Squeak is fun" 10 agree, 0 disagree "Teachers & Assistants are helpful" 10 agree, 0 disagree - specific suggestions received: 1) longer session, wanted to do more 2) it was fun and you should do more presentations 3) make workshop 2 hours and 30 minutes, not 2 hours 4) it was cool 5) it was well presented and I learned enough to keep experimenting - I'm looking forward to attending SqueakFest 2006 this Summer and plan to have follow-up classes when school starts up again -- there certainly was interest in continuing to learn and do more
Thanks again to B.J. Allen-Conn & Kim Rose for making an excellent resource available.
Best regards,
-- DanG Daniel Green
squeakland@lists.squeakfoundation.org