Hi Brian, I think both approaches (with or without graphics) are popular. I'm a grad student and TA many different introductory courses, and I prefer teaching Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) with a graphics package.
You can see what I use at the OCW site for one of my classes, 6.189 - http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-189-a-gentle-introduction-to-programming-using-python-january-iap-2011/ - you're welcome to use any of the material there, and I will provide solution files upon request. Homework 4, as well as projects 2 & 3, utilize a *very *simplified graphics package based off of TK. I use this package because I teach this course in 3 weeks and don't want to delve into tk stuff whatsoever; the point of using graphics, for us, is to introduce OOP in a more concrete way. It's easy to grasp what an object is when you're dealing with physical circles, squares, etc. However in a semester- or year- long course I think it would be wonderful to introduce some form of real graphics package; you're not going to go wrong teaching any of them, imho. I'm a fan of tk, but that's simply because it's what our lab and courses here use. >From a students' perspective, when I was learning programming, the graphical projects I did to learn Java (my third language) are far more memorable than the mathematical/from-a-textbook psets for my first languages (python and perl). I was so excited to show my Java projects to my parents (when we do the Tetris project in 6.189, the most-asked question is "how can I explain how to install Python to my parents, so I can email my project to them?") Many of my students have gone on to do extra projects with PyGame and have loved that, as well. Good luck! Sarina On Wed, Nov 9, 2011 at 11:58 AM, Brian Wilkinson <brian.wilkin...@ssfs.org>wrote: > Hello everyone,**** > > ** ** > > Our upper school, looking to beef up their technology offerings, offered > an introductory programming course this year using Python. I am normally a > technology coordinator, supporting teachers and students, but was tapped to > teach this class (which I have thoroughly enjoyed so far). The purpose of > this course is to try and get kids excited about programming and so I would > like to teach them a bit about graphics and GUI’s. My initial thought was > just to have them work with tkinter, as that (to me) seems the easiest > path. After doing some reading, it looks as though wxPython and pyQt are > popular options as well.**** > > ** ** > > So finally to the questions:**** > > ** ** > > 1) Is teaching basic graphics too ambitious for an introductory course?*** > * > > 2) If the answer to #1 is no, do folks out there have suggestions for the > best tool to use with the students?**** > > ** ** > > I have enjoyed reading this group this year. It has been a big help.**** > > ** ** > > Brian Wilkinson**** > > Sandy Spring Friends School**** > > Technology Resource Coordinator**** > > ** ** > > “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, *however > improbable*, must be the truth.”**** > > ** ** > > _______________________________________________ > Edu-sig mailing list > Edu-sig@python.org > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig > > -- Sarina Canelake MIT EECS
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