[Edu-sig] using Python as a calculator

[kirby urner]

On Sat, Apr 10, 2010 at 9:25 PM, Helene Martin <lognaturel at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> (Speaking as a high school teacher with ~120 students in 3 different
> levels of computer science courses in a public school in Seattle)
>

That's hard work and you have my respect for it.

I started out as a full time high school teacher, mostly math, but only
stayed with St. Dominic Academy (Jersey City) for two years.

Later I wound up at McGraw-Hill and looked from the text book publisher
angle (I was on the 28th floor of a skyscraper in Rockefeller Center,
commuting from my friend Ray Simon's apartment in Brooklyn.

> I guess my point is that computer science in general and programming
> specifically have so much opportunity to be exciting for both the
> majority of students who are burned out on "traditional classes" as
> well as the minority of students who "know they likely won't be taken
> seriously if they boast of math skills and yet evidence no ability to
> think like computer scientists" (come on, that requires a high level
> of intellectual sophistication and is REALLY rare).  I think we need
> to exploit that opportunity to its full potential.
>
> I steer away from purely math-oriented examples because they alienate
> the majority of my students.  It's a tricky balancing act and I
> certainly can't claim to have figured it out.  Selfishly, I'd like to
> see the brilliant minds in this group sharing examples or ideas that
> the average 13-18 year old would find exciting and worthy of further
> exploration.  For example, a while back, Gregor Lingl shared a Turtle
> Graphics example in which a turtle performs a random walk collecting
> "coins" as it goes.  There are lots of interesting mathematical
> concepts to discuss in there and it requires students to use a lot of
> programming tools and ideas but it also has a "cool" factor.
> Furthermore, the basic idea is reasonably simple to understand and to
> see a use for (we can simulate other kinds of real-world situations,
> etc).
>

Yes, and I would not want to get in your way.

What I like to do in some of my classes (I still get teaching gigs through
the private sector) is show up with an XO or two, those One Laptop per
Child gizmos that Ed does Turtle Art for.

Our XO HQS in Portland, Oregon is one Duke's Landing on SE Belmont,
where Michael D. is tending mine among others, got me a developer's key
and everything, upgraded me to the latest Sugar.

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=XO&w=17157315@N00
(tagged with XO in my Photostream)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315@N00/4104822975/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17157315@N00/4105591168/
(at Duke's specifically)

The Python application that puts Python most in one's scope is called
Pippy.  The fact that Sugar itself is a Python program will escape notice
unless they somehow get access to this lore, through a teacher or other
peer, perhaps via the Web.

The last gig I did was for a Free School event near Duke's, a place
called Flipside around the corner from Muddy Water's.

http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2010/03/radical-math.html

Anyway, that's a lot of Portland geography most people here won't know
(check Google Earth if curious, or Google Street Views -- here's Duke's

http://preview.tinyurl.com/ydeyzjl

).

Also, in the public sector, I took the whole of Winterhaven's 8th
grade for a spin.  Winterhaven is a one of Portland public's and a
kind of geek Hogwarts for some families.  It only goes up through
middle school though (8th grade).

What I taught there was a mixture of Python and GIS/GPS subjects,
per recommendations from other faculty.

The thinking has evolved since then to where we might adapt this for
high schools by having kids actually venture forth from their buildings
in teams, riding the buses and such, following various clues -- a kind
of geocaching as an organized sport, but also an academic exercise.

I could send links, but this is already pretty long.

Here's a peak at some of the work that we accomplished at
Winterhaven.

http://www.4dsolutions.net/ocn/winterhaven/

> I agree that we as educators are not entertainers and that learning is
> important for the sake of learning but at the same time, we need to be
> careful not to on one hand deplore the fact that students aren't
> taking computing courses while on the other creating courses which are
> dry and esoteric.
>

What we're trying to get off the ground in Oregon are pilot classes
that go towards the 3 year math requirement (mandatory for a h.s.
diploma) yet include computer programming as a part of the content,
maybe (I personally would hope) more of this GIS/GPS stuff.

It's a math course in other words, and yet Python might be used
for a language, like if teachers go with the Litvins' text, which I highly
recommend, among others.  In a hands-on music class, students
pick an instrument.  In hands-on math, you pick a computer
language (at least one, but one leads to another if a student
gets curious).

I just got a mailing from Saturday Academy today in fact, listing
some of my students for such a class at Reed College (just a
short pilot).  I call my portion Martian Math and have pages on
Wikieducator about it.  These will be younger students than I'm
used to.

My associate Glenn Stockton is doing Neolithic Math and Tai Chi
with the same group.  Neolithic Math, like Martian Math, is just
branding we're using, hoping to keep things interesting.

In terms of content, you'd want to look at the write-up, but it
includes Euclidean basics such as the Vesica Pices and
generating edge lengths with string and stick (compass and
ruler), using these edges in constructions (such as polyhedra).

You may have seen the polyhedra go by in a short script
here recently.

Obviously some of this material is further down the timeline than
either the Paleolithic, Neolithic or Mesolithic eras.  Some of it is
downright futuristic, which is where my Martian Math stuff kicks
in.

We try to provide some continuity in our students' experience,
picking up on some cues from Ralph Abraham at the Oregon Math
Summit in 1997, Sir Roger Penrose a keynote.  He suggested a
more time-line based approach, more direct linking to history.

> Again, I don't claim to have figured it out.  I say all this but at
> the same time, I'm wary of courses which expose students to computing
> applications without giving them many skills (programming/critical
> thinking/math/algorithmics) or which rely entirely on one application
> space (animation, games, personal robots, whatever) to be "sexy" and
> capture students' attention.
>

I'm wary of math classes that use boring calculators.

When I say lets use Python as a calculator instead of using a calculator,
I'm talking about stopping using calculators in math class and using
Python instead.

Picture the NCTM conference with a Ruby booth, a Scheme booth,
a J booth and so on.  This is the National Council of Teachers of
Mathematics and yet industrial strength computer languages are
treated on a par with the calculators.  What a concept!

Hooray for less bigotry against thinking like computer scientists.
'Concrete Mathematics' broke some ice maybe.

> I suppose it's all about goals.  One potential goal for using Python
> in teaching is to reinforce and develop mathematical reasoning skills
> and it seems like that's the focus of a lot of the people on this
> list.  I believe that's a worthy goal and I try to accomplish some of
> that in my courses as well, but it's not my primary goal.  I guess my
> primary goal is to encourage students to see software as something
> they can be a part of rather than simply as something they consume or
> are forced to live with.  I don't have a ton of concrete ideas on how
> to do that -- I think I've somehow crafted successful courses on
> intuition more than anything else and can't really formally express
> what I'm doing yet -- but I really do see it as a very different goal
> that leads to very different types of courses.
>

I appreciate your commitment to keeping interest levels high.

You rightly point out how I risk coming across as some kind of
killjoy by wanting to take a colorful bright computer and make it
seem like a boring old calculator.

Of all the fun and interesting things one might do...

But I'm not talking about using it *exclusively* in that way.

> And maybe I'm the only one who sees the majority of examples and ideas
> on this list as esoteric!  It's something I often find myself thinking
> so I thought I'd try to describe and explain a bit of my discomfort.
> Not sure I really expressed myself very well -- sorry!
>
> Hélène.
>

I think "esoteric" and/or "avant-garde" are fair characterizations.

I'm glad you've joined us here, as a fully participating individual and
professional, Seattle-based -- just 3.5 hours from here by car on I-5,
for those of you unfamiliar with this bio-region.

I'm wondering if you've gone through Allen Downey's work, and/or
Jeff Elkner's:

http://www.greenteapress.com/thinkpython/thinkpython.html

This book is free to public schools (is free period).

If a school is spending big bucks on a textbook about programming,
this could be a savings, especially with Python itself being both
free and open source.

Here's a rave review by Hong Feng of Allen's book in the series about Java.

http://www.free-soft.org/FSM/english/issue01/bookreview.html

Whereas I'm a huge fan of Python, I wouldn't discourage using some
Java or JavaScript in a math class as well.

I'm all about leaving it to local faculties to create their own courseware.

As long as teachers retain their professional freedom to innovate,
I think we'll gradually see more of these math and computer science
hybrids that include more geography (Google Earth etc.).

Kirby