Objectives

The goal of these activities is to let students familiarize with the basic functionality of ToonTalk from a modelling-oriented perspective rather than through the inbuilt introductory puzzle games.  

Description of activities

Modify a model in ToonTalk

The children work with a dynamic model that has been created with the TMs that the children will be using in later sessions. The children work in pairs.

The children get a worksheet introducing the basic tools of ToonTalk, and also have a pre-built notebook in toontalk containing all the TMs that will be used in their modelling activities.

Below is the simulation used in this activity by the Swedish children last year:

Students start exploring the model by test running it (pointing and pressing space in ToonTalk). What do each of the objects in the model do? What do the model try to show?

In the worksheet, the children are instructed to use "Dusty" to remove an object from the model, and to "flip" it to see how it has been programmed. What behaviours does the object have? What happens if you remove a behaviour from an object? Or if you take a behaviour from one object and place it on the back of another?

The children are then asked to look through the notebook with predefined behaviours and see if they can extend the model by adding a new behaviour to any of the objects in the simulation.

At the end of the session the children write a webreport on their work, and if possible upload their new simulation to the webpage.

 

Run a model away from the computer

In this activity the children collaboratively act out the intended functionality of the systems away from the computer. The activities are modelled after the style of programming with behaviours in ToonTalk, and are used as a way of discussing, test running, and debugging systems running on the computer. They are thereby intended to work as a bridge between ideas for prototypes designed in lo-fi activities and systems implemented in ToonTalk. The materials used in these activities, such as behaviour cards and pictures, correspond to the programming resources that the children are using in ToonTalk.

When conducting such a role play, clay figures or large paper elements representing the objects in the computational system are arranged on an area such as the floor or a table serving as the background. One or several persons are assigned the role of users, and the rest get assigned the responsibility for the execution of one or a small set of programming rules in the system, for instance that of removing an object from a game if it collides with another object. Usually, one of the researchers is responsible for monitoring the actions performed in order to facilitate the activity. The system is then played by iteratively evaluating all the rules/behaviours in the system. In each iteration the children perform their actions if the conditions for their behaviours are fulfilled.

 

By letting each child be responsible of controlling a subset of the functions available in the system, it is possible to collaboratively act out the system. Thereby, it provides means for studying and reflecting upon behaviours, relations and interactions between objects in the system. This is known to be challenging for novice as well as for professional programmers.