[Help] Squeak in K-8

Treis, Ken KTreis at keyww.com
Wed Sep 20 21:47:17 UTC 2000


Jon Hylands wrote:

> Perhaps having the kids write a really simple game using the Alice engine
> would be motivational enough for them to make them really want to learn how to
> program...

My 13-year-old brother-in-law has recently gotten excited about those "Magic - the
Gathering" fantasy battle playing cards.  He and I talked about them, and about how
it'd be fun to make our own similar game.  We decided to do it on the computer in
Squeak.

I started out by making a CardMorph (just a BorderedMorph that rounds its corners by
default), and we then proceeded to make subclasses for each type of card, giving each
its own color, title, etc.  While we were doing this, I was narrating ("Now we need
to make a new type of card, let's call it a BlahCardMorph").  He was really excited;
I only wish I could code as quickly as his imagination was running.

For our next session, I think I'll have him drive the mouse (I'll still drive the
keyboard).  That'll help get him more involved.

--
Ken Treis / Software Engineer
Fravenic Skreiggser Software Collective
ktreis at keyww.com
---
There once was a girl named Irene
Who lived on distilled kerosene
        But she started absorbin'
        A new hydrocarbon
And since then has never benzene.





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