Instead of teaching the girls Processing again, we'll use the turtle module to draw fun pictures in Python, LOGO-style! Then, on day two, we're going to see what we can do with the Raspberry Pi.
I'm a big believer in teaching programming to beginners in a visual way. Not only is it more exciting than printing text out onto a console, but it can help understand commands in a more concrete context. In can even allow for an embodied understanding of concepts, for example by imagining yourself as the turtle moving around the screen, leaving a pen trail behind you.
It's no surprise that I'd favour using something visual to introduce Python. But as you may know, I tend to favour Processing over Python as a first language. Why use Python? Partly to get more first-hand experience in teaching it as a first language, and partly because it seems to be the language of choice for the Raspberry Pi.
I know that in the three hours we have on the second day, we won't be able to do that much with the Pis. I want to try to give the girls enough knowledge and confidence to continue exploring on their own, should they wish to purchase a Pi of their own. Thus, it's important that they know a bit of Python.
As an added bonus, I can experiment with the turtle approach for teaching programming to my arts and social science students next year. I imagine it would be a big improvement over how I did it last fall.
I'll report back on how things went and provide a link to the workshop materials when it's all over.
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