Re: [seul-edu] programming courses for 6 th grades

[GERALD LOGAN <glogan@telusplanet.net>]

I have been teaching programming on and off for the past 20 years to 
students age 10-18.  I agree with the majority.  LOGO is a great friendly 
version of LISP (which I played with during my education) and can be used 
to make some very interesting programs.  I have not used the Linux 
flavours but the LCSI MicroWorlds version is great and the last one I 
used with 6th graders.  The reinforcement of geometry is great and the 
better Math students catch on really fast.  http://www.microworlds.com/

I currently teach older students, and have been using the Mac version of 
Chipmunk BASIC, not the Linux version.  It has a full feature set, well 
for students anyway.  I have developed some lessons, but there are no 
texts out there that are age appropriate.  My searches have turned up 
next to nothing for developed material on the net.

It seems that several versions are now available, including Sony 
Playstation (http://perso.club-internet.fr/psxdev/) .  If you want to 
check it out, have a look at the home page at  
http://www.nicholson.com/rhn/basic/