[squeakland] More than one input for a script?

[Steve Thomas]

When teaching "drawing polygons/40 mathematical shapes challenge" I usually
have kids draw a triangle, then a square, then a pentagon.  I then ask them
to look at the three scripts they used to draw these shapes and ask what
they notice about them, what is the same and what is different?

They usually pick up on the only difference is the turn value and length
values.  I then introduce them to variables and ask them to create "one
script to rule them all"  Which usually leads to an aha and cool moment.

I like the Etoys challenge method of introducing this where the scripting
tiles for "repeat", "turn by" and "forward by" are on the playfield.

An excellent introduction to this is to have the kids program themselves
before they program the computer.  I sometimes start off by having them
program me to "walk a square".  Then when the say "turn" or "turn right" I
turn by a non 90 degree amount or make a complete 360 degree turn, which
usually invites giggles and "No that's not what I meant" Then I talk about
the importance of using specific language. After they program me and have
that experience I ask them to program each other. You can use sidewalk chalk
as the pen as well.


The Scratch team had a great idea where they made "cards" (on 8.5 x 11
pieces of paper/card stock) with different scripting tiles the the kids
could use to create the "program".

Stephen

On Wed, Aug 31, 2011 at 12:09 PM, Harness, Kathleen
<kharness at illinois.edu>wrote:

>  Randy,
> Perhaps this project is a partial answer to your questions below:
> http://etoysillinois.org/library?sl=1630
> Kathleen
>  ------------------------------
> *From:* squeakland-bounces at squeakland.org [
> squeakland-bounces at squeakland.org] on behalf of R.D. Latimer [
> rdlatimer at gmail.com]
> *Sent:* Wednesday, August 31, 2011 11:01 AM
> *To:* squeakland at squeakland.org; Allard, Fred
> *Subject:* Re: [squeakland] More than one input for a script?
>
>  note that drawPolygon should be "turn 360/sides" (below)
>
>
> On Wed, Aug 31, 2011 at 11:41 AM, R.D. Latimer <rdlatimer at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> I'd like to make a simple drawPolygon script that needs two inputs, one of
>> length of each side and one for number of sides.
>>
>> The basic prototype is:
>>
>>  drawPolygon (length, sides):
>>     repeat sides
>>         forward length
>>         turn sides/360   <-- turn 360/sides
>>
>> With Etoys, It looks like the limit is one input parameter for a script,
>> so that the script would be limited to:
>>
>>  drawPolygon (sides):
>>    repeat sides
>>       forward 100         <-- the user would need to hard code the length
>> of the sides
>>       turn sides/360
>>
>> Can I use more than on numerical input in a script?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>  Randy Latimer
>>
>
>
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