On Friday 26 February 2010 12:12:19 pm Cherry Withers wrote: > It's definitely a balancing act trying to get them to focus on finishing up > something and getting them to explore. Once they realize that they > can affect the object by scripts they just want to do everything they can > possibly do in one sitting (dragging and dropping tiles in one script > window ..then I'm in fire fighting mode). Too much resulted in chaos in my > class. Not doing THAT again. I now give them some time to go nuts on > exploration then pull them back in to finish a project. Now I'm > introducing just a max of two concepts (or tiles) in one 40min. session. When a new tile is introduced, kids tend to use it over and over many times before they get to a state where they can use it in a project. This is par for the course.
Alan's car demo script starts with commands. When the script says "forward 5" what exactly is 5 in that blank space? Introducing watchers before commands helps ease the up ramp. Learning about watchers for shapes (length/width/heading), color and border and then position (x,y,..) allows kids to grasp spatial and angular dimensions gradually. BTW, I wouldn't worry about kids "finishing" a project in the first few sessions. Curiosity and experimentation will dominate the sessions. Only when they reach a zone of comfort with the system will they become receptive to tips on "saving" their projects. My experience is limited to non-English students in rural India using the English GUI. I don't know how much it would apply to students in other regions. YMMV .. Subbu _______________________________________________ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep