In the previous post — Programming with Understanding — I explained why Turtle Graphics are great for learning about how the world works, through programming. In this post we’ll program our own basic animation by using Python’s turtle module.

All animation (indeed, all moving pictures) is fundamentally nothing more than consecutive pictures being shown so quickly that it simulates continuous motion. Each picture is called a frame. Each frame must differ from the previous one slightly, and quickly showing the frames one after the other gives the illusion of continuous motion, hence the word ‘animate’ as in ‘bring to life’. The frames have to be shown at a rate of about 12 or more frames per second (fps) for a person to experience them as an animation.

You can’t learn to speak — to say things — without learning to say something. And you can’t learn to program — to talk to a computer — without learning to program something. Learning to program therefore not only provides the opportunity to learn to instruct a computer, but is also an opportunity to learn about everything else in the world.

When learning something new, by coming to understand its fundamental elements or building blocks you’ll not only learn more, and more exciting things, but have a greater amount of expressive power with that knowledge. It is essential, however, that the process of learning those detailed fundamentals takes place with the big picture always in mind, and in sight. Literally as well: appropriate visuals greatly improve the learning process by serving as memory and reasoning aids.

We held a Coding Day event on 03 February for learners from the schools that are part of the programme this year, at Stellenbosch University’s Fharga computer lab. The day was a great success, and we are all very excited about the year ahead. The learners had a tremendous amount of fun, and would hardly stop programming to break for snacks and lunch!

Many people break into a cold sweat when they hear the word “mathematics”. Why is that? I think it is fundamentally linked to how Mathematics is taught at school. Take a look at the following TED talk and re-think your views on Mathematics teaching.