Preparing for Programming (with Greenfoot)

In my high school computer class we're starting to look forward toward next semester when we begin programming. I like to have an assignment in the first semester of class where the students prepare a document with images, tables, and such. If possible I like to make it something they're actually interested in writing. And I have them tie the paper to a presentation to the class.

This year and last year I have had that paper be a design document or design proposal for a video game. This year we're going to actually use the proposals. The students will be presenting their video game concepts to the class, they'll get feedback and an opportunity to touch up their presentations then present them again. After that we'll vote to choose which games we'll actually work on developing next semester, and form small development teams to work on them (students with less of an interest in programming and more of an interest in art will be put to work producing visual resources for the programs they're interested in working on.)

In spring semester, we're going to be programming with Java, and this year I'm adding Greenfoot to the curriculum. In the past we've only managed to do a little bit of graphics in the time we have. I'm hoping that with Greenfoot we can make graphics and sound a much more integral part of our work. I've already got the students familiarizing themselves with what Greenfoot can do, so that they don't expect to develop full 3D first person shooters in one semester of introductory programming.

I've had them visit the Greenfoot Gallery to see what others have done with Greenfoot, and we've talked about how ambitious it would be for them to develop different types of programs. I've asked them to organize their design documents to have a core functionality described in the body of the document, with possible extensions described in an appendix. So hopefully the proposals will be developed enough to be interesting without being overly ambitious.

Since I first looked at Greenfoot the materials for learning how to use it have grown. There are a number of videos added to the video library they maintain. Likewise, the other documentation has grown, and the Greenfoot mailing list is quite active.

One of my middle school students has decided to take on Greenfoot on his own outside class. He saw the link on my class website, got interested and downloaded it for himself. He needed a hand getting the Java SE JDK installed on his home system, but with some basic instructions and the loan of a disk to save him the download time he's got that running now, it seems. He's worked through a few of the tutorials, it'll be interesting to see what he produces.

At this point I intend to teach only the most basic elements of running and compiling Java programs at the command line before we jump into the Greenfoot tutorials in class. It will be interesting to see how things go. Will Greenfoot drive an interest in learning how Java works to obtain desired results in the students' programs, with learning of Java smoothly interleaving with the work in Greenfoot? Or will we hit a plateau where we have to backfill with more formalized teaching of Java before we move forward? It will be interesting to see how things work out.

Either way, we'll certainly keep it fun.