So I'm thinking the way to do worksheets is to think of a scrolling web
page, with embedded applets, and with reader challenges built in, with
some kind of automatic scoring (useful feedback).<br>
<br>
The style of the worksheet would of course reflect the artistic
sensibilities (or lack thereof) of the author. I've been
influenced by the O'Reilly 'head first' series:
<a href="http://headfirst.oreilly.com/">http://headfirst.oreilly.com/</a><br>
<br>
Somewhere in a sidebar, or maybe even front and center, Python learners should see:<br>
<br>
mytuple = ( element, )<br>
listcopy = [ comma, separated, elements ][:]<br>
{dictionary}[lookup] = newelement<br>
<br>
and variations on that theme. The point is to reinforce a lot of
related concepts using nifty mnemonics. For example, it's not
just that tuples are parenthesis-defined, but that a single element
requires a comma. With lists, we address the need for a slice, if
we want to avoid a double-naming the same referent in memory.
With the last line, we illustrate adding to a dictionary using the
assignment operator.<br>
<br>
This is but one example. Another would be:<br>
<br>
noun.verb(args)<br>
noun.state<br>
<br>
where noun = object; verb is for method (args = eatables); state could
be an adjective (green), or even a property, with getter / setter verbs
behind the scenes.<br>
<br>
For more on properties:<br>
<a href="http://mail.python.org/pipermail/edu-sig/2005-August/005059.html">http://mail.python.org/pipermail/edu-sig/2005-August/005059.html</a> (ff. thread)<br>
<br>
An inheritance path might be <br>
<br>
Class0 (object) -> Class1 (Class 0) -> Class2 (Class1) -> Class3 (Class2)<br>
<br>
where these nouns are class objects, superclasses going left, subclasses going right.<br>
<br>
These little alphanumeric mnemonics need to be abetted with multiple
pictures. For example, a complex number sequence, generated from
some arbitrary point on the complex plane, per Mandelbrot or Julia,
should loop through Python stepwise, while doing something graphical
directly adjacent (a pixel attains some color value, vectors swing
around -- many options).<br>
<br>
I'm influenced here by J Language pedagogy, which goes to great lengths
to tie up with "parts of speech", thereby making "grammar" the right
word to apply when studying J's structure and syntax.
<a href="http://www.4dsolutions.net/ocn/Jlang.html">http://www.4dsolutions.net/ocn/Jlang.html</a> (Kenneth Iverson
himself helped me squish some typos before he died -- I think there're
still one or two).<br>
<br>
These "Prosperos Books" (some from O'Reilly?), could be used in a
community college setting, sometimes in testing situations i.e. under
controlled conditions that measure student performance in some
pre-agreed-upon way.<br>
<br>
Related reading:<br>
<a href="http://mybizmo.blogspot.com/2005/12/another-interesting-day.html">http://mybizmo.blogspot.com/2005/12/another-interesting-day.html</a> (click in MER in "After dark, I wrote an essay on <a href="http://mathforum.org/kb/thread.jspa?threadID=1310716&tstart=0">
MER</a> for our <a href="http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2005/10/saturday-academy.html">KBE</a>,...")<br>
<br>
Kirby<br>
<br>