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imb

764 karma · joined April 25, 2011

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imb··on Logo Programming
1. Students with no prior programming experience start with Logo (in-house version).

2. Logo is of course not strictly necessary, but for beginners, especially if they have had no interest in coding or have math/problem solving anxiety it seems like an excellent way to go based on our experience.

3. It's easier to get started coding using Logo than almost any other language/platform. Just a few characters (eg. fd 100) gives you an animation. As AI can now generate extremely complex code, it helps to have an easy to use language that someone can use to learn what coding is all about without getting stuck in (initially) unnecessary details. Logo is also not primarily about programming, but mostly about thinking and problem solving in a relatively simple environment that allows quick feedback to the learner. Logo is, of course, not the right tool for learning how operating systems, databases, CPUs, work.

imb··on Logo Programming
The original link seems to work for me, but yes, the book is "Lines and Curves: A Practical Geometry Handbook"
imb··on Logo Programming
For many years, our students[0] have used Logo as an integral part of their math circle-style[1] classes. When we started Wally Feurzeig, one of the creators of Logo, was instrumental in helping us incorporate ideas from Logo into the kind of non-standard problem solving that we were striving for. Turtle geometry is a particularly helpful "instrument of the mind" for exploring dynamic geometry. Our co-founder, Victor Gutenmacher, wrote an incredible book[2] on "geometry in motion," which gave a completely different perspective on geometry from the one seen in school and which our students could explore with the help of Logo. For many of our students, especially those with math anxiety, Logo was what enabled them to overcome that anxiety and discover the joy of thinking and tinkering. Many programmers today have fond memories of getting into programming via Logo, but I would argue that despite the current blistering pace of progress, it remains one of the best and gentlest introductions to problem solving and computational thinking.

[0] https://www.gentleknowledge.com/

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Math_circle

[2] https://www.amazon.com/dp/0817641610

imb··on A startup’s Firebase bill suddenly increased from $25 to $1750 per month
Others have had similar complaints for a while and Google/Firebase has not resolved them: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/38959321/firebase-databas...
imb··on Ask HN: Best Laptop for Developers Right Now?
A laptop is probably not the best idea for deep learning, but you can certainly use one as a terminal to connect to a much more powerful gpu-optimized server. I'm curious to hear what others are using for their deep learning setup.
imb··on HN. Let's share Twitter accounts
No personal account yet, but tweeting about computer science and math issues on behalf of our education organization. Looking for interesting people/projects to follow.

https://twitter.com/gentleknowledge

imb··on Modern Physics From Scratch
Absolutely agree and it will be added to the list. Initially, we're interested in K-12 resources and something that might be a little bit easier for students still in school (although SICP can be used by advanced high school students). There do not seem to be that many good cs books for younger students, so any ideas on that front would be especially useful.
imb··on Modern Physics From Scratch
I'm the OP and originally posted the link and a brief review here: http://www.latestlesson.org/the-theoretical-minimum-modern-p.... If anyone has other suggested physics materials for those who are not professional physicists, I would be interested in reviewing them for our site. We're trying to create a comprehensive list of resources for STEM learners.
imb··on Creating a hacking environment for girls in Chicago
I would actually be interested in seeing these studies because it seems (based on my teaching experience) that how girls feel in a class with male students may depend to a large extent on how the teacher manages the class. I'm not even talking about teachers who discourage girls, but teachers who let boys dominate the classroom (which should not happen).
imb··on Creating a hacking environment for girls in Chicago
Tanya Khovanova, a gold medalist at the International Math Olympiad seems somewhat hesitant (although not completely against it) about girls-only math enrichment programs: http://blog.tanyakhovanova.com/?p=60. I wonder if there might be another co-ed approach that would encourage girls while not forcing them to be segregated.