Visual Programming Via The Squeak Car Demo Dan Grossman University of Washington CS4HS July 11-13, 2008

2 This 90 minutes minutes: –introduction –“cooking-show demo” 45 minutes: paired up in the lab “trying it out” 20 minutes: –recap concepts –maybe a demo I made in 10 minutes –brainstorm

3 “Visual programming” “Virtual worlds” for scripting, simulation, animation, building control systems, etc. –“Discovering” core math, science, and computer science with some “computer game” feel Popular ones with amazing stuff: –Squeak, Scratch, Alice Today: A demo for 11-year-olds –The point is the idea & approach –Not the specific content (make up own or search web later)

4 Why? Virtual scriptable worlds compared to real-world –Easier to control –Faster –Cheaper –More fun as a result Computational concepts without a CS class –Scripting –Modeling –Simulation –Feedback and control loops –Conditionals –(plus tons of useful math, probability, statistics, …)

5 Why me? Computer science faculty since 2003 –Programming languages (ways to think about computation) –Believe “computational thinking” is essential for all college-prep high-school students Not the same as programming class I never programmed until college –But I’m not a high-school teacher Show you Squeak; hope you think it’s useful

6 Cooking-show 4x-speed version of what you’ll do in the lab –Feel free to play around also, but try to get through most of this –Step-by-step instructions in lab, so just “get a sense” here By the way, I’m new to Squeak – you pick it up fast

7 Outline 1.Paint a car; keep it 2.Use mouse and object viewer to move car 3.Skip saving/loading projects 4.Script circles/polygons (pen down) 5.Steering wheel connected to car 6.“Robot” car that follows the road 7.Car with random speed 8.(Time permitting, car that accelerates at each step)

8 Let’s go try it ourselves!!!

9 This 90 minutes minutes: –introduction –“cooking-show demo” 45 minutes: paired up in the lab “trying it out” 20 minutes: –recap concepts –maybe a demo I made in 10 minutes –brainstorm

10 Outline 1.Paint a car; keep it 2.Use mouse and object viewer to move car 3.Skip saving/loading projects 4.Script circles/polygons (pen down) 5.Steering wheel connected to car 6.“Robot” car that follows the road 7.Car with random speed 8.(Time permitting, car that accelerates, at each step)

11 A ton of CS in there Using mouse and object viewer to move car –State of a model –Multiple representations for viewing and controlling the model

12 A ton of CS in there Script circles/polygons –Expressing repetitive tasks via an algorithm –Automating repetitive tasks –Approximations, derivatives, limits

13 A ton of CS in there Steering wheel –“Wires” for connecting outputs to inputs –Perspective and relative positions

14 A ton of CS in there Smart car –Feedback and control systems –Conditionals

15 A ton of CS in there Random speed –Simulation of a random process for collecting statistics A key alternative to mathematical analysis So much faster than rolling real-world dice Let me show you my “roulette car”… –In theory, analysis is more convincing –In practice, many people learn visually

16 Why? Virtual scriptable worlds compared to real-world –Easier to control –Faster –Cheaper –More fun Computational concepts without a CS class –Scripting –Modeling –Simulation –Feedback –Conditionals –(plus tons of useful math, probability, statistics, …)

17 Much, much more available Plenty of online information, forums, etc. Squeak school projects: – –Try school stuff, then high school Also try out –Scratch: –Alice: –(what? and start over after 90 minutes?? )

18 So… What in your courses could use something like this?