Teaching Basic and Pascal "Logo Style."

Abstract

In traditional programming courses assignments usually consist of problems that are somewhat closed in nature. That is, students are usually given a rigidly defined problem statement and are provided with a set of data that they are to use to test their program to produce a unique result. While this approach makes evaluation easy, it discourages creativity and exploration, and encourages inappropriate sharing of information. Another approach involves open-ended assignments that encourage students to make the problem their own and to include their own creative ideas in their work. Such projects require that the teacher carefully examine the objectives for a particular assignment and plan the evaluation scheme thoughtfully. However, student response to such open-ended assignments is quite positive and often very creative. An important side effect of such assignments is that group interactions are much more appropriate. Students help debug each others' projects rather than simply trading algorithms. Further, students learn from each person with whom they interact, thus extending their knowledge well beyond that acquired when solving a single solution problem. (4 references) (Author)