Mailman 3 August 2009 - Edu-sig

xturtle online via processing.js !?
by Jurgis Pralgauskis 27 Sep '12

27 Sep '12

Hi, I am struggling around with interactive online py tutorials with https://launchpad.net/projects/intro-to-code (ith might become securely sandboxed soon, as pypy made it possible http://blog.sandbox.lt/en/WSGI%20and%20PyPy%20sandbox :) but one more thing is I'd like to let access xturtle functionality online - one possible way could be triggering tkinter to save its canvas to ps, and then convert them with imagemagic and show via web (animated gif or static) - but if pyjamas can render GUI for js (http://www.google.lt/search?&q=pyjamas+python ), mayby there is a way to **translate turtle commands to processing.js analogues** http://ejohn.org/blog/processingjs/ would it be difficult -- how do you think? -- Jurgis Pralgauskis tel: 8-616 77613; jabber: jurgis(a)akl.lt; skype: dz0rdzas; Don't worry, be happy and make things better ;) http://sagemath.visiems.lt

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turtle in education
by roberto 23 Dec '09

23 Dec '09

hello, i am looking for materials, experiences etc. about using turtle module in math, physics and related for middle or high school students i realized a lot of work is going on but is there any place where all or part of this material is gathered ? i am going through the talk of Gregor Lingl at PyCon; if you're aware of anything else just tell me thank you very much -- roberto

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Re: [Edu-sig] [Diversity] Unicode and Ed Initiatives
by Carl Trachte 06 Dec '09

06 Dec '09

2009/8/19 kirby urner <kirby.urner(a)gmail.com>: > كيربي Urner 's CP4E الموارد البرمجة بيثون دمج مواضيع في الرياضيات. > """ > More and more, Python is making inroads at all levels in education. > Python offers an interactive environment in which to explore > procedural, functional and object oriented approaches to problem > solving. أكثر وأكثر ، بيثون تحرز تقدما على جميع المستويات في مجال > التعليم. بيثون عروض تفاعلية البيئة التي لاستكشاف الإجرائية والفنية > وجوه النهج الموجهة نحو حل المشاكل. Its high level data structures and > clear syntax make it an ideal first language, while the large number > of existing libraries make it suitable to tackle almost any > programming tasks. ارتفاع البيانات على مستوى الهياكل وتركيب واضح جعله > مثاليا اللغة الأولى ، في حين أن عددا كبيرا من المكتبات الموجودة جعلها > مناسبة للتعامل مع أي برمجة المهام تقريبا. > > Edu-sig, through its mailing list , provides an informal venue for > comparing notes and discussing future possibilities for Python in > education. ايدو - سيج ، من خلال قائمة البريد الإلكتروني ، ويوفر مكانا > غير رسمي لمقارنة الملاحظات ومناقشة امكانيات بيثون في المستقبل في مجال > التعليم. Its origins trace to Guido van Rossum's pioneering Computer > Programming for Everybody (CP4E) , a grant proposal accepted by DARPA, > and which provided a modicum of funding in 1999. تتبع أصولها إلى غيدو > فان Rossum الرائد الكل لبرمجة الحاسوب (CP4E) ، ومنحة مقترح DARPA قبلها > ، والتي توفر حدا أدنى من التمويل في عام 1999. > > Membership includes, but is not limited to, educators using Python in > their courses, independent developers, and authors of educational > materials. Discussion focuses on Python use at all levels, from > beginning to advanced applications. تضم في عضويتها ، على سبيل المثال > لا الحصر ، والمربين باستخدام بيثون في مناهجها ، والمطورين المستقلين ، > والمؤلفين من المواد التعليمية. بيثون مناقشة تركز على استخدام على جميع > المستويات ، من اوله الى التطبيقات المتقدمة. > > كيربي Urner 'sCP4E الموارد البرمجة بيثون دمج مواضيع في الرياضيات. > """ > > My apologies to those not getting the right unicode translation. I'm > thinking on a diversity list, we should expect more stuff like this, > not less, over time. > > Kirby > _______________________________________________ > Diversity mailing list > Diversity(a)python.org > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/diversity > With the caveat that I don't understand Arabic script, it looks legit on my gmail on FreeBSD 7.2/KDE/Opera. May I make a suggestion? Can we change the topic to something like what I changed it to above and start a new thread? I got a bit confused as the previous thread has a long history. Apologies if I've misinterpreted the thread and the topic. Please feel free to change it to its true meaning. Thanks a ton. Carl T.

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Elevator Demo for Python
by Phil Wagner 05 Oct '09

05 Oct '09

Often I am asked for a quick demonstration about the power of Python, sometimes for people with no computer science background. . What can I show them that doesn't take too much time but gets the point across that Python is a good fit for math/education? Phil

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Crunchy and Sphinx?
by Jeff Elkner 05 Oct '09

05 Oct '09

Hi André! I've spent the last month converting python educational materials from lore to sphinx. For the results, see: http://openbookproject.net/thinkcs/python/english2e and http://www.openbookproject.net/pybiblio/gasp/course The only missing feature at this point (sphinx rocks!) is support for crunchy. Any thoughts on that? I didn't see any reference to reStructuredText or Sphinx on the crunchy site. Thanks! jeff elkenr

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poking some dying logs...
by kirby urner 05 Oct '09

05 Oct '09

I'd like to make another plug for including this title on the edu-sig home page: http://www.skylit.com/mathandpython.html Ian thought it was too much a hybrid of CS and math, not an elegant amalgamation, though I don't have has remarks in front of me at the moment. Steve was gonna get back to us. Andre thought he might work it onto the page... That was all months ago by now, so it make sense to raise the issue again, as the title does break new ground in some ways, has claim to being a math teaching book, yet uses a computer language (one most of us know). 'Concrete Mathematics' and 'The Art of Computer Programming' are both math books of course, amenable to a "through programming" approach. Jsoftware folks implemented the former in J, whereas the latter is in MMX already. Another hot button issue in Portland these days is whether families have the right to demand a PDF version of any assigned textbook, versus a hardcopy edition. We have lots of tree huggers around here, worried about "green" and unsustainability. To quote one of my colleagues (from her blog): "We need the text book companies to print thousands of copies of new textbooks every year, not so the authors can make money, though they make a little, but so the companies can make money... Do some central planning, and if the government can't do that without going through corporations, then it is time to [do it ourselves]". Anyway, just wanted to re-raise that as well. I mostly do my computer / technical reading on Safari, have no problem with recycling already printed books, have no problem with small press runs. But I can see where truck loads of spanking new 400 page math books, hot off the press, none containing any computer programming to speak of, let alone Mites, Sytes or Kites (honeycomb stuff, important to gnu-bees), would provoke a crisis in conscience for our more ethical. This is the kind of thing 15 year olds talk about. They're suspicious of adults who can't follow their logic (about saving trees), undermines adult authority to not have a response. So do we all favor an "opt out" option for hard copy textbooks? Say aye? Say nay? Kirby

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Slope Art
by Phil Wagner 05 Oct '09

05 Oct '09

Here is a protect located for my algebra students involving Python Python I would appreciate your feedback. http://staff.hthcv.hightechhigh.org/~pwagner/Files/Project Files/Slope Art/SlopeArtProject.html<http://staff.hthcv.hightechhigh.org/%7Epwagner/Files/Project%20Files/Slope%…> Phil

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Another idea of Conway
by Gregor Lingl 13 Sep '09

13 Sep '09

Hi all, on vacation in the Tyrolean Alps one evening I've found the time to implement another (I assume less well known) idea of John Conway. Just for fun. from fractions import Fraction fracs = [Fraction(f) for f in "17/91 78/85 19/51 23/38 29/33 77/29 95/23 77/19 1/17 11/13 13/11 15/14 15/2 55/1".split()] def fracgame(): z = Fraction(2,1) while True: for f in fracs: n = z * f if n.denominator == 1: break yield int(n) z = n def pow2(z): n = 0 while z % 2 == 0: n += 1 z //= 2 return (z == 1) * n def what(): fg = fracgame() while True: z = next(fg) n = pow2(z) if n != 0: yield n what = what() print(next(what)) print(next(what)) # the following will take 1 or 2 minutes ##w = 0 ##while w < 100: ## w = next(what) ## print(w) Comments or discussion may follow when I'm back to Vienna. All the best, Gregor

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Significant drop in CS interest in high schools
by wesley chun 30 Aug '09

30 Aug '09

AP CS Courses (and Students) on the Decline, CSTA Survey Finds This spring, the 2009 CSTA National Secondary Computer Science Survey collected responses from some 1,100 high school Computer Science teachers. The results: only 65 percent reported that their schools offer introductory or pre-AP Computer Science classes, as compared with 73 percent in 2007 and 78 percent in 2005. Only 27 percent reported that their schools offer AP CS, as compared with 32 percent in 2007 and 40 percent in 2005. And 74 percent offer CS content in courses other than introductory or AP CS, down from 85 percent in 2007. "The continuing drop in students taking AP CS is a serious warning sign about the state of computing in this country, as a student taking AP typically indicates his or her interest in majoring in that field in college or pursuing a career in that area," said Chris Stephenson, executive director of the Computer Science Teachers Association. article (also see PDFcomparing 2005 vs. 2007 vs. 2009 results): http://www.csta.acm.org/Research/sub/CSTAResearch.html -- wesley - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "Core Python Programming", Prentice Hall, (c)2007,2001 "Python Fundamentals", Prentice Hall, (c)2009 http://corepython.com wesley.j.chun :: wescpy-at-gmail.com python training and technical consulting cyberweb.consulting : silicon valley, ca http://cyberwebconsulting.com

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pythonic andragogy...
by kirby urner 29 Aug '09

29 Aug '09

Below is a transcript of my first Python training session with a friend from Jordan, Arabic speaking but completely fluent in English (knows QWERTY touch type better). She has PhD and previous programming experience in a much earlier job, so this is hardly a high school student. And yet I start my introduction in much the same way, using my "objects first" approach (not unlike AlgebraFirst in some math circles). As I was writing to a prominent Python teacher the other day: """ In an "objects first" mindset, we run like hell from the CS1/CS2 tendency to look at objects as "2nd year advance topic" i.e. we'll gradually slog through data structures, procedural programming, flow of control, conditions, types, type coercion... and then spring "objects" on ya as a Grand Unified Theory (like now we're ready for Einstein level Python). No, no and no. The OO revolution was about making programming easier *from the top* i.e. we're taking everyday commonsense about "things with attributes and behaviors" and expressing those directly. So you need to *start* by explaining what Python being an object oriented language means, by starting with very simple Foo and Bar classes, or better Biotum, Dog, Monkey, then subclass as mammal. This counts as a preview or trailer (to a film), enrolls the student in the idea that (a) hey, I'm learning what OO means at last and (b) hey, thinking this way is really natural after a bit. Because once we've done the work to show a user defined type, then we have the concept of type (type of object). That then anchors the whole discussion of native or __builtin__ types e.g. now that you've seen a Biotum, a Python (everything is a python in python), it's really natural to see List type, Vector type (non-native), Integer type as "just more creatures with __ribs__." """ We switched the keyboard back and forth. Like when she tries to feed the snake both a carrot and some beer, that crashes because the args don't match, but even though I warned her, she wanted to see the error message anyway. Our venue with Powell's Technical, Personal Telco node for Wifi: http://www.personaltelco.net/ http://www.powells.com/technicalbooks We also talked a lot about micro-lending to women i.e. would there be any overlap between Python skills and a small business managed by women? I'll have more about that aspect in my blogs. I need to connect her to Idealist.org -- maybe through PPUG, where several from that organization have leadership roles. Transcript follows: Python 3.1.1 (r311:74483, Aug 17 2009, 17:02:12) [MSC v.1500 32 bit (Intel)] on win32 Type "copyright", "credits" or "license()" for more information. >>> class Snake: def __init__(self, name): self.me = name >>> kirby_snake = Snake("Kirby Urner") >>> kirby_snake.me 'Kirby Urner' >>> 2 ** 10000 19950631168807583848837421626835850838234968318861924548520089498529438830221946631919961684036194597899331129423209124271556491349413781117593785932096323957855730046793794526765246551266059895520550086918193311542508608460618104685509074866089624888090489894838009253941633257850621568309473902556912388065225096643874441046759871626985453222868538161694315775629640762836880760732228535091641476183956381458969463899410840960536267821064621427333394036525565649530603142680234969400335934316651459297773279665775606172582031407994198179607378245683762280037302885487251900834464581454650557929601414833921615734588139257095379769119277800826957735674444123062018757836325502728323789270710373802866393031428133241401624195671690574061419654342324638801248856147305207431992259611796250130992860241708340807605932320161268492288496255841312844061536738951487114256315111089745514203313820202931640957596464756010405845841566072044962867016515061920631004186422275908670900574606417856951911456055068251250406007519842261898059237118054444788072906395242548339221982707404473162376760846613033778706039803413197133493654622700563169937455508241780972810983291314403571877524768509857276937926433221599399876886660808368837838027643282775172273657572744784112294389733810861607423253291974813120197604178281965697475898164531258434135959862784130128185406283476649088690521047580882615823961985770122407044330583075869039319604603404973156583208672105913300903752823415539745394397715257455290510212310947321610753474825740775273986348298498340756937955646638621874569499279016572103701364433135817214311791398222983845847334440270964182851005072927748364550578634501100852987812389473928699540834346158807043959118985815145779177143619698728131459483783202081474982171858011389071228250905826817436220577475921417653715687725614904582904992461028630081535583308130101987675856234343538955409175623400844887526162643568648833519463720377293240094456246923254350400678027273837755376406726898636241037491410966718557050759098100246789880178271925953381282421954028302759408448955014676668389697996886241636313376393903373455801407636741877711055384225739499110186468219696581651485130494222369947714763069155468217682876200362777257723781365331611196811280792669481887201298643660768551639860534602297871557517947385246369446923087894265948217008051120322365496288169035739121368338393591756418733850510970271613915439590991598154654417336311656936031122249937969999226781732358023111862644575299135758175008199839236284615249881088960232244362173771618086357015468484058622329792853875623486556440536962622018963571028812361567512543338303270029097668650568557157505516727518899194129711337690149916181315171544007728650573189557450920330185304847113818315407324053319038462084036421763703911550639789000742853672196280903477974533320468368795868580237952218629120080742819551317948157624448298518461509704888027274721574688131594750409732115080498190455803416826949787141316063210686391511681774304792596709376 >>> >>> >>> >>> class Snake: def __init__(self, name): self.me = name self.stomach = [] def eat(self, food): self.stomach.append(food) def __repr__(self): return "Snake(%s)" % SyntaxError: invalid syntax (<pyshell#16>, line 8) >>> class Snake: def __init__(self, name): self.me = name self.stomach = [] def eat(self, food): self.stomach.append(food) def __repr__(self): return "Snake(%s)" % self.me >>> tag = Snake("Dr. Tag") >>> tag Snake(Dr. Tag) >>> snake2 = Snake("Kirby") >>> snake2 Snake(Kirby) >>> snake2.eat("beer") >>> snake2.stomach ['beer'] >>> snake2.eat("carrot") >>> snake2.stomach ['beer', 'carrot'] >>> tag.stomach [] >>> tag.eat("carrot","beer") Traceback (most recent call last): File "<pyshell#28>", line 1, in <module> tag.eat("carrot","beer") TypeError: eat() takes exactly 2 positional arguments (3 given) >>> a = [] >>> a [] >>> a.append(2) >>> a [2] >>> a.append(8) >>> a [2, 8] >>> a.append("the wonderful food of the day") >>> a [2, 8, 'the wonderful food of the day'] >>> a.pop(0) 2 >>> a [8, 'the wonderful food of the day'] >>> tag.stomach [] >>> tag.eat("carrot") >>> tag.eat("beer") >>> tag.stomach ['carrot', 'beer'] >>> tag.stomach("hummus") Traceback (most recent call last): File "<pyshell#43>", line 1, in <module> tag.stomach("hummus") TypeError: 'list' object is not callable >>> tag.eat("hummus") >>> tag.stomach ['carrot', 'beer', 'hummus'] >>> snake2.stomach ['beer', 'carrot'] >>> class Snake: def __init__(self, name): self.me = name self.stomach = [] def eat(self, food): self.stomach.append(food) def poop(self): if len(self.stomach) > 0: return self.stomach.pop(0) def __repr__(self): return "Snake(%s)" % self.me >>> newsnake = Snake("Kirby") >>> newsnake.stomach [] >>> newsnake.poop() >>> newsnake.eat("something yummy") >>> newsnake.stomach ['something yummy'] >>> newsnake.poop() 'something yummy' >>> newsnake.stomach [] >>> """ Note that I didn't get into my uroboros thing with the self-eating Python, per Vilnius slides (EuroPython 2007). Kirby

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