Poul Henriksen Computing Laboratory University of Kent greenfoot Poul Henriksen Computing Laboratory University of Kent

greenfoot A microworld meta-framework Animated execution Flexible scenarios Animated execution Direct interaction IDE (with editor, debugger, etc) Aimed at high school level and CS1 Microworlds: Karel, Marine Biology Case study, turtle graphics First BlueJ Day, Houston, Texas, 1st March 2006

Demo

Decoupled scenarios Scenarios are decoupled from the animation framework This leads to easier scenario development more scenarios individual scenarios (for specific target groups) First BlueJ Day, Houston, Texas, 1st March 2006

implement framework (with fixed scenario) Roles Microworlds Greenfoot implement framework (with fixed scenario) implement framework framework implementor framework implementor design scenario design exercise teacher teacher Can let the keen students create their own scenarios. design exercise student solve exercise student solve exercise First BlueJ Day, Houston, Texas, 1st March 2006

The teacher Teachers choose / write / share scenarios Typical scenario: Wombats: 3 classes, 266 lines in total TurtleGraphics: 6 classes, 276 lines total Ants: 6 classes, 598 lines in total Bricks: 4 classes, 303 lines in total Flexibility in choice of context First BlueJ Day, Houston, Texas, 1st March 2006

The student public class CircleTurtle extends Turtle { public CircleTurtle() penDown(); } public void act() move(5); turn(2); Initially the student can get away with interaction with the objects: invoking methods, observing behaviour. The code the student woks with can be VERY simple but still do some interesting stuff - visually. First BlueJ Day, Houston, Texas, 1st March 2006

Summary aimed at high school level and CS1 engaging – generate interest visual flexible teacher support migration to other IDEs (BlueJ!) First BlueJ Day, Houston, Texas, 1st March 2006

Status Prototype available: www.greenfoot.org Distribution: free Timeline: 1.0 release later this year First BlueJ Day, Houston, Texas, 1st March 2006