From: RDM
Subject: LISP - AN OUTSIDERS QUESTION
Date: 
Message-ID: <909705293.3900.0.nnrp-10.9e98e9c5@news.demon.co.uk>
Hi,

I have a vague recollection about LISP being used as a tool to  teach
children about mathamatics. This concept was featured on more than one TV
program a few years ago as I recall and the children were about 5 years of
age and were using 'turtles' to describe geometric shapes on large sheets of
paper.

Is my recollection true or am I confusing LISP with some other language ?

If I'm correct - how do I go about getting a copy of LISP suitable for
teaching my youngster - and how do I get a Circuit diagram to build a turtle
?

Your assistance is appreciated in advance.

RDM

From: rusty craine
Subject: Re: LISP - AN OUTSIDERS QUESTION
Date: 
Message-ID: <71bc63$f67$1@excalibur.flash.net>
RDM wrote in message <·································@news.demon.co.uk>...
>Hi,
>
>I have a vague recollection about LISP being used as a tool to  teach
>children about mathamatics. This concept was featured on more than one TV


Barry is right about the Logo.  It is used alot in education.  Try
comp.lang.logo. It is pretty active news group with a lot a educator
involvement.  there is a free logo from the University of Cal at Berekley
(UCBLogo)  I'm sure you can find the URL from the newsgroup.  Since lisp
uses an infix notation it might be a little confusing for a math starter.
Not too long ago I donated some time and several old 286's to get a logo
comp lab going for an after school program.  the problem with the logo the
schools had was it had to run under DOS and all the kids were already
windows-mouse computer litlerate.  I guess from the several very good
windows math programs and thougth this "new" deal was a step backwards.
What no mouse, no graphics of bunnies, cookies, et all.  They were under
whelmed.  I on the other hand had a good time with it. :)
rusty


>program a few years ago as I recall and the children were about 5 years of
>age and were using 'turtles' to describe geometric shapes on large sheets
of
>paper.
>
>Is my recollection true or am I confusing LISP with some other language ?
>
>If I'm correct - how do I go about getting a copy of LISP suitable for
>teaching my youngster - and how do I get a Circuit diagram to build a
turtle
>?
>
>Your assistance is appreciated in advance.
>
>RDM
>
>
From: Steven D. Majewski
Subject: Re: LISP - AN OUTSIDERS QUESTION
Date: 
Message-ID: <71cmqt$opb$1@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
In article <············@excalibur.flash.net>,
rusty craine <········@flash.net> wrote:
>
>Barry is right about the Logo.  It is used alot in education.  Try
>comp.lang.logo. It is pretty active news group with a lot a educator
>involvement.  there is a free logo from the University of Cal at Berekley
>(UCBLogo)  I'm sure you can find the URL from the newsgroup.  Since lisp

And if you have a Mac, there's a fantastic version of LOGO available
from MIT:  <http://starlogo.www.media.mit.edu/people/starlogo/>


>RDM wrote in message <·································@news.demon.co.uk>...
[...]
>>program a few years ago as I recall and the children were about 5 years of
>>age and were using 'turtles' to describe geometric shapes on large sheets
>>of paper.
>>
>>Is my recollection true or am I confusing LISP with some other language ?
>>
>>If I'm correct - how do I go about getting a copy of LISP suitable for
>>teaching my youngster - and how do I get a Circuit diagram to build a
>turtle
>>?

The very earliest version of Logo used robot turtles dragging a 
pen on a sheet of paper.

Then, when high quality computer graphics became common on PCs, 
the turtle changed to a virtual onscreen turtle. 

Since then, folks have been getting back into robots and other
forms of physical manipulation. Check out LegoLogo from Lego Dacta. 

Take a look at some of the projects at MIT's Epistomology and Learning
Group:  <http://el.www.media.mit.edu/groups/el/elprojects.html>
for more ideas. 

Seymore Papert of that group was the developer of LOGO, and has written
several books on children, teaching and computers. 

Brian Harvey has written several good intro books for both LOGO and 
Scheme (another variant of Lisp). 


---|  Steven D. Majewski   (804-982-0831)  <·····@Virginia.EDU>  |---
---|  Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics  |---
---|  University of Virginia             Health Sciences Center  |---
---|  P.O. Box 10011            Charlottesville, VA  22906-0011  |---

"I'm not as big a fool as I used to be, I'm a smaller fool." - Jack Kerouac
Some of the Dharma  <http://members.aol.com/kerouacsis/SomeDharma.html>
From: Barry Margolin
Subject: Re: LISP - AN OUTSIDERS QUESTION
Date: 
Message-ID: <SS7_1.34$YF4.525562@burlma1-snr1.gtei.net>
In article <·································@news.demon.co.uk>,
RDM <···@cloudbse.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>I have a vague recollection about LISP being used as a tool to  teach
>children about mathamatics. This concept was featured on more than one TV
>program a few years ago as I recall and the children were about 5 years of
>age and were using 'turtles' to describe geometric shapes on large sheets of
>paper.
>
>Is my recollection true or am I confusing LISP with some other language ?

Logo is the language with the turtle.  Logo shares some underlying
similarities with Lisp, but its syntax is very English-like, to make it
easy to teach to children.

-- 
Barry Margolin, ······@bbnplanet.com
GTE Internetworking, Powered by BBN, Burlington, MA
*** DON'T SEND TECHNICAL QUESTIONS DIRECTLY TO ME, post them to newsgroups.
Don't bother cc'ing followups to me.
From: Andrew Volpe
Subject: Re: LISP - AN OUTSIDERS QUESTION
Date: 
Message-ID: <slrn73l45u.o11.volpe@login3.fas.harvard.edu>
In article <·································@news.demon.co.uk>, RDM wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I have a vague recollection about LISP being used as a tool to  teach
>children about mathamatics. This concept was featured on more than one TV
>program a few years ago as I recall and the children were about 5 years of
>age and were using 'turtles' to describe geometric shapes on large sheets of
>paper.
>
>Is my recollection true or am I confusing LISP with some other language ?
>
>If I'm correct - how do I go about getting a copy of LISP suitable for
>teaching my youngster - and how do I get a Circuit diagram to build a turtle
>?
>
>Your assistance is appreciated in advance.
>
>RDM
>
>


-- 
_____________________________________________________________________________
"Music is all relative" -Dante


Drew Volpe						·····@fas.harvard.edu
_____________________________________________________________________________