I'm an old hand at Python, but really a programmer by trade, not an educator. Most programming courses that I've taken were very boring due to their focus on text input and response. I am exploring teaching Python to high school seniors as part of an advanced program. I thought that a more interactive environment like PyGame would provide more stimulation and a better understanding of logic thinking that the typical exercises I was exposed to. For instance, tick-tac-toe, checkers and monopoly can all be children of the base "BoardGame" class. And while tick-tac-toe may be practical, I doubt if checkers or monopoly would be. Can anyone point me to some links that support using Python as an introduction to computing at an advanced high school level and Can anyone point me to some reference material on tools used to teach python? Thanks, Fred.
Hi, I don't know if Al Sweigart is on this list, but he has a book on that very subject... *Making Games with Python & Pygame* - http://www.amazon.com/Making-Games-Python-Pygame-Sweigart/dp/1469901730. He also has *Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python * http://www.amazon.com/Invent-Computer-Games-Python-Edition/dp/0982106017 I've never really looked at them closely, but they seem to be highly regarded, so you might check them out. Also, Warren and Carter Sande's *Hello World* has a chapter using Pygame to write a little downhill skier game... Probably others here have some other ideas as well... Cheers, Naomi On Sun, Feb 3, 2013 at 10:33 AM, Fred Sells <bu4fred@yahoo.com> wrote:
I'm an old hand at Python, but really a programmer by trade, not an educator.
Most programming courses that I've taken were very boring due to their focus on text input and response.
I am exploring teaching Python to high school seniors as part of an advanced program.
I thought that a more interactive environment like PyGame would provide more stimulation and a better understanding of logic thinking that the typical exercises I was exposed to. For instance, tick-tac-toe, checkers and monopoly can all be children of the base "BoardGame" class. And while tick-tac-toe may be practical, I doubt if checkers or monopoly would be.
Can anyone point me to some links that support using Python as an introduction to computing at an advanced high school level
and
Can anyone point me to some reference material on tools used to teach python?
Thanks,
Fred.
_______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list Edu-sig@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
-- Naomi Ceder https://plus.google.com/u/0/111396744045017339164/about
Here's an option if you want to use Python3: http://www.amazon.com/Python-Kids-Playful-Introduction-Programming/dp/159327... Not much on PyGame there. The focus is on the (simpler) tkinter library in the chapters on games development. (disclaimer: I'm to blame for that one… ;-) On 3 Feb 2013, at 16:33, Fred Sells <bu4fred@yahoo.com> wrote:
I'm an old hand at Python, but really a programmer by trade, not an educator.
Most programming courses that I've taken were very boring due to their focus on text input and response.
I am exploring teaching Python to high school seniors as part of an advanced program.
I thought that a more interactive environment like PyGame would provide more stimulation and a better understanding of logic thinking that the typical exercises I was exposed to. For instance, tick-tac-toe, checkers and monopoly can all be children of the base "BoardGame" class. And while tick-tac-toe may be practical, I doubt if checkers or monopoly would be.
Can anyone point me to some links that support using Python as an introduction to computing at an advanced high school level
and
Can anyone point me to some reference material on tools used to teach python?
Thanks,
Fred. _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list Edu-sig@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
participants (3)
-
Fred Sells -
Jason Briggs -
Naomi Ceder