I love programming and am constantly look at new ways it can be taught in the classroom in a way that engages my students. I use Scratch with my Year 8’s for which I created a scheme of work (available here). I also use Scratch and Visual Basic .NET when teaching my sixth-formers for their game programming unit. After scouring the Net for ideas I have recently discovered a lovely tool called Small Basic which is made by Microsoft.
Small Basic is very simple and straight-forward to use and comes with a fantastic tutorial booklet on the Microsoft website that takes students from a simple “Hello World” text-based program to programming a drawing application, with a bit of turtle graphics mixed in too! An added bonus for me in using Small Basic is that the syntax is generally the same as VB.NET so therefore allows for easy migration as students become more advanced at programming.
Other Programming Tools
If you are looking to teach your students programming I would also recommend the following (all of which are free):
- Scratch – simple to use visual tool with a drag & drop interface allowing for the creation of animations and games with no need to learn how to program. Fantastic for demonstrating the use of variables, iteration and selection.
- Robomind – This uses a very simple and easy to use programming language called ROBO which allows you to program your own robot to navigate around obstacles and pick up items.
- Greenfoot – Java based environment allowing users to create games by programming in an Object Oriented fashion using Java. I taught myself how to use this over the summer and found it quite simple to pick up, although I’m not sure if this was because I already have some background knowledge of Java programming. I would imagine this would be better aimed at older students or those in a grammar school.
- Ruby – I’ve only just started to look at Ruby but certainly like the straightforward programming syntax that it offers. There’s also an online interactive console here that teaches you the basics of Ruby programming without even having to leave your web browser!
- I’ve also heard good things about a program called Alice and am interested in learning more about programming in Python, in particular Pygame.
Today I have also downloaded a “game” called Ceebot-Teen, which teaches you programming concepts by working your way through a “game-like” environment solving missions while programming. I have just started using the trial version, as this is not free software, I need to see whether it would be worthwile purchasing this and where it can be embedded within our curriculum. From what I have seen so far it certainly looks very good.
If you have any recommendations of any other software tools I could try, or indeed any resources, please post a comment.