Workshop presso il Politecnico di Zurigo nella Giornata Svizzera per l’insegnamento dell’informatica

Ho appena scritto in un altro post che delle volte, se si è seminato qualcosa, ci pensa il mondo a chiudere il cerchio, molto meglio di quanto uno avrebbe immaginato. Così accade di ricevere un invito a tenere un workshop presso il Politecnico Federale di Zurigo (ETH: Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich).

La cosa rallegra particolarmente perché il centro di formazione e consulenza per la formazione informatica del Politecnico di Zurigo (Ausbildungs- und Beratungszentrum für Informatikunterricht der ETH Zürich – ABZ), diretto dal Prof. Juraj Hromkovič, svolge un grande lavoro di collegamento fra università e scuola in base a principi scientifici e etici che sono esattamente gli stessi che ispirano il nostro lavoro.

• Il flyer dell’evento
• Qui i workshop
• Qui i conduttori dei workhop

Spero di dare un contributo utile. Per me sicuramente un’occasione per imparare molto.

Qui il workshop che offrirò.

Workshop 5 – Exploring the land of powerful mathematical ideas with Logo’s Turtle

In this workshop, first we are going to talk about the choice of coding systems and other technologies in relation to accessibility. We will try to understand why it makes sense to use free software and free tools in educational contexts, whenever possible. We will pose the issue in an international perspective, where not all areas have equal opportunities, and we will relate it to the access to education as a basic requirement of democracy.

Then, the Turtle of Logo language will drive us, as kids, into the discovery of geometric shapes by means of some basic software constructs. However, it will be not merely about discovering geometric shapes: by playing with the Turtle we will realize how several fundamental powerful mathematical ideas are activated in childrens minds, without the need of explicitly naming them. And we will see how by riding the Turtle, starting from the first steps in primary school, these ideas may drive the exploration of physical phenomena, possibly up to pretty complex calculations, such as that needed to draw the orbit of Halley’s comet, for instance. We’ll find out that the land we will be exploring is named Turtle Geometry, which is a true geometry, like the Euclidean or Cartesian ones. Besides, we will also take a look at simulations of random phenomena, fractals and art creation. In contemporary words: by means of some STEAM activities we will understand in detail what computational thinking is about.

The LibreLogo version of Logo, which can be activated among the standard plugins of the LibreOffice Free Software, will be used. We will also show how the examples may be ported in the ABZ’s XLogoOnline environment.

If you will bring your laptops, you will be able to explore all the concepts mentioned in the workshop. You may prepare your systems by installing LibreOffice (http://libreoffice.org). The whole collection of programs used in the workshop will be made available at http://iamarf.ch/Codice-LOGO/ – be sure to download the last available version a few days before the workshop.

Workshop language will be English but discussions may be held in German and Italian as well, if needed.