[MWForum] Amazed.

[Wendy Petti]

Hi Folks,

A few days ago Jay sent us this challenge (below) that he had sent to
his grandson, and then 3 days later he posted his grandson's solution
(Amazed / Davids Pickup).  We held off on remarking on the challenge
itself, and afterwards, Daniel complimented an aspect of the solution.
I would like to remark on the whole process, which intrigues me greatly.

I think many or all of us are great fans of MicroWorlds.  Many of us
have used it in a classroom setting.  I taught MicroWorlds for many
years; I moderate this forum; I encourage the use of MicroWorlds through
my Math Cats site and the MicroWorlds in Action site; I've introduced my
three children and most of my eight nieces and nephews to it... and yet
my youngish relations have never used MicroWorlds to the extent that
Jay's grandson has become engaged with it with minimal long-distance
nudging.  So I am very very inspired by Jay's strategy of providing
detailed e-mail challenges.

Here are some of the aspects I really like:

1) The challenge is fun and motivating.
2) Jay provides 5 design stages.  Brilliant!  This is similar to what we
do in the MicroWorlds in Action folders... only we provide the whole
solution in stages.  I love how Jay provides the challenge in stages.
3) Jay provides some design specifications.  This may not seem like the
most constructivist way to go about it, but these specs do not cramp his
grandson's creative style in solving the programming challenge itself.
4) Jay gives his grandson complete control over how to solve the
programming challenge.
5) Jay suggests that this project is a stepping stone, and the next game
challenge will give his grandson control over all design decisions.
6) Clearly Jay had already knew that his grandson had enough
prerequisite Logo skills to rise to the challenge... but clearly the
project stretched his grandson to a greater level of competence.
7) Jay's challenge keeps the focus on the programming while making
provisions for some bells and whistles.

I think that Jay's approach to a programming challenge could be adapted
quite well to classroom use.  The most competent students could be given
5 (or so) design stages to accomplish; the less competent sutdents could
be given one or two stages.  And so on.

When I taught MicroWorlds, I think I tended to alternate too much
between extremes:  I would coach everyone step by step through the same
procedures, or else I would give them so much freedom to develop their
own projects that many students floundered and/or spent most of their
time working on the bells and whistles.  I love Jay's challenge for the
way it gives a comfortable amount of structure and a comfortable amount
of freedom.

And Jay's grandson's project is testimony to Jay's approach:  it
worked!!!!  I too am amazed... at grandson and grandfather both!

Thanks for sharing, Jay.  I hope others will also share some of the
strategies you use in guiding young people to greater competence with
MicroWorlds.

Wendy Petti


> -----Original Message-----
> From: mwforum-admin@lists.mathcats.com
> [mailto:mwforum-admin@lists.mathcats.com]On Behalf Of Jay
> Sent: Tuesday, January 07, 2003 9:00 PM
> To: mwforum@lists.mathcats.com
> Subject: [MWForum] Amazed.
>
>
> Hi Members
>
> I am amazed at what a child can do (in terms of designing an
> interactive
> program), and I am equally amazed and pleased with
> MicroWorld's product ...
> MWPro. An excellent program, that allows one to quickly
> proto-type, design
> and run a wide range of visual programs.
>
> This past September, for my grandson's 11th birthday, I
> bought him (and
> myself) MicroWorld Pro. I have been teaching him how to use
> MWPro primarily
> through e-mail. (Made 2 or 3 visits to his home to get him started).
>
> To be fair about this glowing testimonial, I must confess I
> did introduce my
> grandson to MSWLogo programming, about a year ago. It held
> his interest a
> short time. He progressed from drawing Squares to
> Decahedrons, Spirals, etc.
> but the interest faded ... difficult to teach and maintain a child's
> interest via only e-mail (few visits to his home). Needed more Bells &
> Whistles ... that's where MWPro comes in.
>
> My grandson loves fixing things, taking things apart, looking
> inside things
> ... he figured out how to customize and use MSWLogo's Pop-UP
> Windows before
> I did! ... But his interest was fading. So as a change of
> pace (rather than
> ask him to write more programs), I wrote a program with
> deliberate errors in
> it, and asked him to fix it. ("Fix the houses" . I drew 3
> incomplete houses.
> The 1st house needed windows, the 2nd house had a crooked
> roof that needed
> fixing, and the 3rd needed painting).
>
> Rather than simply correct my erroneous code (as I expected),
> he wrote new
> code to re-draw corrected images over my erroneously drawn houses. I'm
> always surprised how different a persons solution can be!
>
> After three small MWPro projects,
> 1. A Coordinate Smart Turtle,
> 2. How to talk to Text Boxes,
> 3. Fix the Houses,
> I suggested he design a game called "Pick-up Sticks" ... a
> paper/pencil game
> ...
> (I wrote a computer version of it on a Philco 2000 Main Frame
> Computer about
> 40 years ago).
>
> I sent him an e-mail defining how the Pickup Sticks game was to work.
> I had no further discussions with him about the game, and I
> had no previous
> discussions with him about the "IF Statement".
> (see below).
>
> For Christmas (as a present), he sent me his solution!
> (see below).
>
> I am amazed what a child can do! (and how excellent a product
> MicroWorlds
> Pro is!)
>
> <<<<<<<<<<<< My e-mail to David >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>
> Hi David            ...... November 25, 2002
>
> Did you ever hear a "Yo-Momma-Is" joke?
>
> Yo-Momma-Is ...........
> Yo momma is so stupid it took her 2 hours to watch 60 minutes.
> Yo momma is so stupid she sold her car for gasoline money!
> Yo-Momma-Is ...........
> Could also be Yo-Daddy, or Yo-Brother, or Yo-GrandPa (Oh!.
> No! . Not GP's !)
>
> Well so much for jokes. Now let's get on with some serious
> design stuff.
>
> For our 1st game project we are gonna play a "pickup sticks
> game". Where we
> have a bunch of sticks and 2 players. We agree to pickup 1,
> 2, or 3 sticks
> when it's our turn. We alternate turns & agree who should go
> first. The
> object of the game is:- the last person to pick up the last
> stick, loses. (A
> variation of the game could be .. the last person to pick up
> the last of the
> sticks, wins).
>
> Now I know how smart you are and you can probably design and
> build this
> whole game all by yourself, but we are going to do it
> differently. It's
> something like playing the piano without taking piano
> lessons. I don't want
> you to develop bad habits.
>
> So, I will specify what the game will look like and how it
> will operate, (I
> get to name all the sliders, buttons, and textboxes) and you
> will build it.
> (In the future, when we start a Second Game Project, I'll
> just say what kind
> of game I want, and you will design it and build it.).
>
> ============================================================
>
> We will break this game up into 5 design stages.
>
> 1st stage:- Very basic operation. Just two real players
> called "Guest" and
> "David". No error checking. Just get the mechanics of the
> game to work.
> [sticks-1-00.mw2]
>
> 2nd stage:- Add some error checking to the game. Be sure a
> player does not
> take more sticks than is allowed. Check when there is a winner.
> [sticks-2-00.mw2]
>
> 3rd stage:- Add some Bells and Whistles and fancy stuff.
> [sticks-3-00.mw2]
>
> 4th stage:- "Guest" versus dumb "Computer". Teach the
> computer how to play a
> dumb game. Where the computer does not know the winning
> strategy, but at
> least can play the game. [sticks-4-00.mw2]
>
> 5th stage:- "Guest" versus smart "Computer". You learn the
> strategy of how
> to play a winning game and teach the computer how to play a
> smart game.
> Also, add the last stick (win or lose) variation capability.
> [sticks-5-00.mw2]
>
> When you finish all this you can go to Turtle Logo College!
>
> ======================================================
> Need:
> 1 slider [slider1] to establish the number of sticks to start with.
> 3 buttons [m1, m2, m3] to control whether to pickup 1, 2 or 3 sticks.
>
> 1 textbox [text1] to display the number of sticks in play
> 1 textbox [text2] to display the name of whos turn it is.
> "Guest" or "David"
>
> 1 button [who.1st] to establish who goes first (should switch
> [text2] player
> 's name with each click)
> 1 button [reset] to do what ever is need, like:- move [slider1] into
> [text1], and move "Guest" into [text2]
>
> Remember for 1st stage:-
> Don't worry about [text1] going negative.
> Don't bother to check for a winner. Just get the basics working.
>
> Note:
> The "who.1st" button procedure may require use of the ifelse command.
> (We never discussed IF statements)
> Try the following little example to see how the ifelse command works:
> (also check MWPro's Vocabulary Help)
>
> example:
> to TEST
> make "player1 "guest
> make "player2 "david
> settext2 :player1 ;;; or ;;; settext2 :player2
> ifelse (text2 = "guest)
> [show [the textbox has GUEST]]
> [show [the textbox does NOT have GUEST]]
> show [that's all folks]
> end
>
> An alternate FUTURE design could be to draw pictures of the
> sticks, and
> control their appearance and disappearance, rather than than
> use a text box
> to show the number of sticks left.
>
> <<<<<< end of my e-mail >>>>>>>>
>
> P.S.
> I'll post David's solution in a few days.
> (This will give Members of MicroWorld Forum a chance to write
> their own
> solutions, if they care to.)
>
> Regards
> J (also known as GP)