At 05:08 PM 02/14/2000 -0500, you wrote:
Kirby - Are you using Python in a classroom situation? How do you handle student access to a computer? Here in my county, the schools tend to have a computer lab for the CS classes, and a generic lab for math/science. The teachers have to sign up for computer lab time. It's great if the students have the computer immediately available.
My focus is teachers. I recently used an InFocus projector (courtesy of the State of Oregon) to screen content directly from a computer, while circulating copies of my printed materials. Some of our districts have computers in the math class, including projectors (Winterhaven in Brooklyn is an example).
In the school I'm at now, we're talking about how to get other departments more involved with programming...Sounds like what you're doing with Python. Are you doing it on your own, or are other teachers getting involved? Randy
Other teachers are getting involved. But I have a head start. It's nothing new to have programming mixed with math content. Many math text books (e.g. McGraw-Hill) have included BASIC or Logo -- these were not for CS courses in particular, although I'm sure they could have been used that way (I don't know in this case, as I was in McGraw-Hill, not in the classroom -- although I do have some years of classroom experience). Kirby
I've got a 2nd section of Python-related curriculum on the web at http://www.inetarena.com/~pdx4d/ocn/numeracy1.html This page, Getting Inventive with Vectors, spells out my technique for generating simple graphics. I use Python to write .pov files for the popular, cross-platform ray tracer, POV-ray (www.povray.org). One question is whether this technique will spread, to teachers and their students. Many colleagues of mine do something similar with Java + Povray, but I'm a pioneer doing this with Python, at least in my neck of the woods (this may be old hat to others). Whereas my previous section: http://www.inetarena.com/~pdx4d/ocn/numeracy1.html was a functional programming application (all the number series function defs in series.py), for vectors I start getting into class and objects (no subclasses though). Note, when it comes to virtual worlds (a thread on this list), the ActiveWorlds back end is certainly one to consider. It's already being used for educational purposes, and permits users to gather as avatars and chat in real time. The downside is it isn't very cross-platform. Several of my colleagues have put a lot of time populating various ActiveWorlds with interesting content -- although again, mostly of this work has not involved any Python to my knowledge. Kirby Curriculum writer Oregon Curriculum Network
I've much enjoyed the math Python tutorials developed by Kirby Urner which made me revisit the corner of "books to be read when I'll finally have some time" on my own book shelf at home where I found a truely well-illustra- ted and heavy work of Conway and Guy: The Book of Numbers John H. Conway, Richard K. Guy ISBN: 0-387-97993-X Publisher: Springer-Verlag New York, Inc. http://shop.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?isbn=038797993X It is reminding me much of the spirit of Kirby's Python tutorials, somewhere located between fun, play, explora- tion and learning, with the only disadvantage being the missing Python code... This leads me to ask how much sense you think there would be in asking authors of such books for whatever type of "cooperation" in order to create something like online and/or interactive "addendums" to their works? Jeffrey Elkner has been a pioneer in that field "conver- ting" Allen B. Downey's book "How to Think Like a Computer Scientist". Regards, Dinu -- Dinu C. Gherman ................................................................ Say no to Amazon: http://www.noamazon.com
participants (2)
-
Dinu C. Gherman
-
Kirby Urner