Python – Turtle
On the last day of the programming workshop we got to put our Python programming to good use with Trinket.io. This is one of many go-to sites for getting started with Python.
After a couple of days of learning Python, we started to discuss what GUI or graphic user interfaces Python works with. Python is often used in html but I was keen to know of some sites where you could quickly visualise your Python code as an interactive without having to first learn how to write HTML.
Caitlin shared with us Trinket.io, which seems to be a great beginners site with plenty of resources and it works directly in the browser. Import turtle and turtle commands and you have a nice graphic user interface where students could visually see their code. There are a lot of turtle commands or functions you can call some of the basic ones are;
turtle.penup()
turtle.color(color)
turtle.fillcolor(color)
turtle.goto(x,y)
turtle.begin_fill()
turtle.circle(size)
turtle.end_fill()
turtle.pendown()
This could be a fun environment for students to learn about geometry while doing a bit of code at the same time. I actually came across Turtle and Python years ago and at that time it was all gobbledygook, so it was good to revisit it. Although I have been teaching programming with Scratch, HTML and CSS for a number of years, learning the fundamentals of Python has really helped me fill some knowledge gaps I had before.
Interestingly Turtle was written and developed by Wally Feurzig and Seymour Papert in 1966 to introduce students to programming with Logo shame it wasn’t offered at my school all those years ago. Anyway I’m looking forward to learning more Python and exploring what I can do with Trinket.io. Here’s my first go programming with turtle.
