Teaching Unit- Introduction to Computer Programming

Originally Posted by Center for Visualization

Please look at the website www.aliceprogramming.org for assistance with lesson plans, etc. There is also The Alice Newsletter that is very helpful. Subscribe by emailing bconover@sju.edu, at the Center's office and for any questions.

Barbara

Great! Thanks Barbara, I've subscribed to the newsletter.

Originally Posted by DickBaldwin

Hello Richard,

I don't know if this will interest you and your six teachers or not, but if you are short of textbook material, it might.

I am in the process of publishing a set of free online Alice programming tutorials designed for students who have no programming background at the following URL:

http://www.dickbaldwin.com/tocalice.htm

All but two of the following lessons are complete, and those two lessons will be complete within a week or two.

100 Getting Started
105 Setting the Stage
110 Objects in 3D Space
115 Setting the Stage Manually, Part 1
120 Setting the Stage Manually, Part 2
125 Your First Alice Program
130 The Program Development Cycle
135 Functions that Return Values
140 Data Types and Variables
145 World-Level Methods
150 Class-Level Methods and Inheritance
155 Syntax, Runtime, and Logic Errors
160 Expressions and Operators
165 Sequence, Selection, and Loop Structures
170 Relational and Logical Operators
175 Counter Loops, Nested Loops, and Sentinel Loops
180 Arrays and Lists
185 Event Handling and Interactive Programming

900 Appendix A, Behavior of Primitive Methods
920 Appendix E, Restrictions and Limitations for Alice 2.0

Your teachers may be particularly interested in Appendix A. As far as I know, it is the only document available anywhere on the web that attempts to explain and to illustrate the behavior of all twenty of the primitive Alice methods.

Dick Baldwin

Those tutorials are fantastic! Do you mind if I reference them in my unit?

Hello Richard,

I will be delighted for you to reference them in your unit. That is exactly why I am writing them - to make them available to students on a worldwide basis at no cost.

Many students in different countries can't afford to purchase textbooks and they have been using my free online tutorials for the past eleven years as their primary source of study material on Java, C#, Python, XML, DSP, etc. This is my small contribution to a better world.

My only request is that you not copy and publish them in a format that someone must pay for, and if you do copy and distribute them for free you give me appropriate credit.

Best of luck on your new course, and if I can be of any assistance, please let me know.

Dick Baldwin

Fantastic, I will modify my unit to include links to your tutorials in the appropriate lessons. And I will also acknologe your ownership of the material and contribution to the unit.

No problem with your requests; the unit is licenced under a creative commons licence which dosn't allow commercial uses and forces derivative works to use the same licence.

Here is a link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

Thanks Dick, I'll upload the modified unit as soon as I'm done.

Cheers,
Richard

Hi All,

I've made a few updates to the unit plan. The main one is adding a resources section which includes the links you have supplied.

Here it is: http://tinyrock.com/resources/29714/Programming-Module

It is viewable on the site as iPaper or downloadable as PDF and DOC.

There are also a stack more of my teacher resources at http://tinyrock.com/resources

Thanks for all your help, I'm looking forward to running with it next term. Would love to hear if anyone else is using it and even some feedback.

Cheers,
Richard

Hi All,

I've moved my server over to a new domain name, so those old links may not work anymore.

So the new server address is http://tinyrock.com

And here is the Programming Unit: http://tinyrock.com/resources/29714/Programming-Module

It's viewable on the site as iPaper or downloadable as PDF and DOC.

There are also a stack more of my teacher resources at http://tinyrock.com/resources

I moved because I've finally got my act together and started releasing the software I've created over the last few years of teaching. Hopefully other teachers will find them useful, especially early career teachers.

Termites is the first release. Clever seating plan generator, keeps good relationships together and bad relationships apart. Super easy to use! http://tinyrock.com/termites

Anyway, thanks for the great response and feedback, I hope everyone who was using it with their student's intends to again this year. And I would love to recieve any improvements that you have made. Let's keep sharing!

Cheers,
Richard

http://tinyrock.com

Hi Everyone,

I've added a testimonials page to my new website.

I would really appreciate it if anyone who has used this unit of work (or any of my other resources or software for that matter) would consider writing a testimonial.

It doesn't have to be long, and it's up to you whether you supply your full name. It will insert a link back to your website if you like. It's all wonderfully automated, so it's super quick to write one.

Thanks in advance!

Cheers,
Richard

http://tinyrock.com

Hello all,

just got into the forum so will be providing feedback shortly. I teach a HS Intro to Programming class at a small private school in Florida and am wanting to have my kids create Alice animations for use by our Elementary School kids. Any input and/or help anyone has would be great.

Thanks

TG

Originally Posted by Slidetackle

Hello all,

just got into the forum so will be providing feedback shortly. I teach a HS Intro to Programming class at a small private school in Florida and am wanting to have my kids create Alice animations for use by our Elementary School kids. Any input and/or help anyone has would be great.

Thanks

TG

In case you are unaware of them, you and your students may find the free online Alice 2.0 tutorials at the following URL useful:

http://www.dickbaldwin.com/tocalice.htm

I may be wrong about this, but while there are numerous textbooks that students can purchase, I believe this is the only freely available comprehensive information on Alice programming.

Dick Baldwin
Free Alice tutorials: http://www.dickbaldwin.com/tocalice.htm
Free programming tutorials: http://www.dickbaldwin.com/toc.htm

I was in the market for just this sort of material... I'm mentoring a group of 9 students after school twice a week on a shoestring budget. We are also doing some robotics, so having a really useful free resources is a god send.

Thanks!