Teaching recursion using fractals in Prolog

Elenbogen, Bruce S.; O'Kennon, Martha R.

doi:10.1145/52964.53029

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Those introductory courses that have used graphics have often used turtle graphics (Elenbogen and O'Kennon, 1988;Liss and McMillan, 1987), first used in LOGO to teach computing to children (Papert, 1980). A picture can be drawn by giving a sequence of commands to a robot turtle, of the form move Forward distance, turn Right angle, lift Pen Up, and put Pen Down.…”

Section: Turtle Graphicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Miranda as a first programming language

1993

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The functional programming language Miranda has been used as a first programming language at the University of NSW since the beginning of 1989, when a new computer engineering course and a revised computer science course were introduced. This paper explains the reasons for choosing the language, and describes the subject in which Miranda is introduced. Examples of the presentation of the material, and of exercises and assignment used in the course, are given. Finally, an assessment of the experience is given.

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Section: Turtle Graphicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Miranda as a first programming language

1993

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“…It is often claimed that everyday life lacks analogies for the concept of recursion (Pirolli and Anderson, 1985), so it is no surprise that most authors come up with the same objects, such as cauliflowers, including the healthy broccoli, ringed targets, tree branches, reflections on facing mirrors, tilings (Chu and Johnsonbaugh, 1987), ladders (Levy and Lapidot, 2002) and Russian dolls (Bowman and Seagraves, 1985). Typical geometric figures are fractals (Riordon, 1984b, Elenbogen and O'Kennon, 1988, Wakin, 1989, Bruce et al, 2005, Ammari-Allahyari, 2005, Stephenson, 2009b, Gordon, 2006 and certain kinds of artwork, most notably by the Dutch graphic artist M. C. Escher (Gunion et al, 2009b). Their structures are characterised by self-replication with selfembedding (also called nesting), but, unfortunately, these examples are perhaps more likely to suggest infinity than recursion (whose evaluation must terminate to be useful and, in the case of embedded recursion, may require backtracking), and this involuntary association of infinity and recursion may explain the avoidance of the latter by novices (Wiedenbeck, 1989).…”

Section: Analogies Objectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Survey on Teaching and Learning Recursive Programming

Rinderknecht¹

2014

Informatics in Education

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We survey the literature about the teaching and learning of recursive programming. After a short history of the advent of recursion in programming languages and its adoption by programmers, we present curricular approaches to recursion, including a review of textbooks and some programming methodology, as well as the functional and imperative paradigms and the distinction between control flow vs. data flow. We follow the researchers in stating the problem with base cases, noting the similarity with induction in mathematics, making concrete analogies for recursion, using games, visualizations, animations, multimedia environments, intelligent tutoring systems and visual programming. We cover the usage in schools of the Logo programming language and the associated theoretical didactics, including a brief overview of the constructivist and constructionist theories of learning; we also sketch the learners' mental models which have been identified so far, and non-classical remedial strategies, such as kinesthesis and syntonicity. We append an extensive and carefully collated bibliography, which we hope will facilitate new research.

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“…None of these three languages are mainstream first programming languages. However, Z and Prolog [14] are used in the courses on discrete mathematics that often run in parallel with the first programming course. We include Pizza in our selection of languages because we feel that it would be an interesting alternative to Java as a first language [15,16].…”

Section: Appendix B Using Z Prolog and Pizzamentioning

confidence: 99%

Programming by Numbers: A Programming Method for Novices

Glaser

Hartel

Garratt

2000

The Computer Journal

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Students often have difficulty with the minutiae of program construction. We introduce the idea of 'Programming by Numbers', which breaks some of the programming process down into smaller steps, giving such students a way into the process of Programming in the Small. Programming by Numbers does not add intellectual difficulty to learning programming, as it does not require the student to learn additional tools or theory. In fact it can be done with pencil and paper or the normal editor, and only requires the student to remember (and understand) seven simple steps. Programming by Numbers works best with languages that offer pattern matching, such as ML, or data-directed dispatching, such as Java.

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Teaching recursion using fractals in Prolog

Cited by 8 publications

References 8 publications

Using Miranda as a first programming language

Using Miranda as a first programming language

A Survey on Teaching and Learning Recursive Programming

Programming by Numbers: A Programming Method for Novices

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