Turtle graphics workshop

[brianfromoregon]

Hi, this is a follow up to issue #66.

I'm going to lead some kids through a turtle graphics workshop in two weeks. I'd love to hear your feedback on the content.

Agenda: (the classes I refer to are here)

1:00 - 1:10: Get settled in, feel free to fire up minecraft

1:10 - 1:30: Real world turtle demo (away from computers)

• One person is turtle, one person is coder
• Basic movement, down and up, forward(100)
• pen down and up
• Each kid should understand how to tell the turtle to draw a square

1:30 - 2:00: Play with turtle in ExampleTurtleMod

• Draw a square or whatever you want
• Show me what you make!
• After you get the hang of it, there is a "tips" section lower down in ExampleTurtleMod
• If you are advanced, there is a TurtleChallenges class with some challenging ideas for programming the turtle.

2:00 - 2:10: Bathroom break

2:10 - 2:30: Lecture

• Announcements
  • feel free to leave after lecture
  • Next workshop date is Nov8
  • Tell me your mod ideas so I can think about how to help you next time
  • If you would like to save your code we can push it to github before you leave
  • There is a ManyMoreMods class with directions to cool sample mods you can try out
• Lecture on Forge event handlers

2:30 - 4:00: Self-directed coding

[arun-gupta]

Confused about what the workshop title would be - Turtle Graphics or Minecraft or something else?

Seems like first hour is about Turtle Graphics and the structure of next 2 hours is not clear. "mod ideas" makes it confusing and possibly linking with Minecraft.

Minecraft Modding content is already available at: https://github.com/devoxx4kids/materials/blob/master/workshops/minecraft/readme.asciidoc Would love to get feedback and additions.

[brianfromoregon]

Hey thanks for responding Arun. Yeah you got it. The entire three hours is about teaching Minecraft modding. I aim to have a limited focus/scope for the first hour because I suspect younger kids may burn out after 1hr and stop absorbing any new material. So the first hour would be limited to teaching how to code Java with the turtle graphics mod and I hope even the youngest kids can have the turtle build exciting things (like really long lines, or really tall spirals) given the API is so basic, and older kids could also have fun making advanced shapes/structures (large boxes, walls, rectanges)

After that I want to give burnt out folks permission to go home but at the same time give more modding ideas and education for engaged kids to continue exploring. So I would offer some turtle challenges they can pursue as well as linking to your minecraft page for non-turtle mod ideas such as arrow shotgun. Yes I know about your devoxx4kids minecraft workshop page it's wonderful and I link to it from the ManyMoreMods class javadoc.

One reason I am suggesting a somewhat loose structure is I plan to host these workshops every few weeks and have some of the same kids showing up, so leaving some freedom in the agenda for them to pursue their own interests (with me helping them).

Is it still unclear? Do you think kids and parents might find this schedule confusing? Thanks again!

[arun-gupta]

I love free-style workshops but that is typically possible after some initial guidance. I think it would be useful if you can define structure for the first few week and show what the kids will accomplish. And then start moving more towards freestyle.

I've found that kids who don't know Java at all are typically not blocked because of that with Forge modding. This could be an interesting experiment and would be looking forward to hearing your feedback.

[brianfromoregon]

Great advice. I am doing a dry run this Sunday with only three beginning students, I'll try something a little more structured and see how it goes. On Oct 2, 2015 6:54 PM, "Arun Gupta" notifications@github.com wrote:

I love free-style workshops but that is typically possible after some initial guidance. I think it would be useful if you can define structure for the first few week and show what the kids will accomplish. And then start moving more towards freestyle.

I've found that kids who don't know Java at all are typically not blocked because of that with Forge modding. This could be an interesting experiment and would be looking forward to hearing your feedback.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/devoxx4kids/materials/issues/67#issuecomment-145192998 .

[brianfromoregon]

Update on this. I've run two minecraft modding workshops now one with 3 students and one with 9. Had success with a simplified format where the first hour I give a turtle graphics challenge (build TNT spiral staircase using turtle) and explain how Turtle API works, and second hour I give arrow shotgun challenge and explain how kids can copy mods from devoxx4kids page and install locally.

The starting point for spiral staircase challenge is this: https://github.com/brianfromoregon/ForgeProject/blob/5a13cbab1de63c56554f65a95fd3356231160428/src/main/java/com/findrealhope/examples/ExampleTurtleMod.java

Hey good luck at javaone4kids coming up Arun!

[arun-gupta]

Cool, keep us updated!