Much existing STEM curricula focuses on drag and drop languages. We started on the assumption that students could start learning to code the way professionals learn: by typing in code, sometimes making mistakes, and learning by experience.
The coursework is based around fundamental coding concepts that apply to any modern programming language used today.
Processing, the langauge we teach, was designed for the arts and visual design communities with the purpose of teaching fundamentals of computer programming in a visual context. One of the aims of Processing is to allow non-programmers to start computer programming aided by visual feedback.
The core language provides many basic building blocks for producing visual graphics and computer animation.
From the very beginning, students are learning to produce visual results with their code. We start with paper and pencil and graphing on paper. Students write simple programs on paper and learn to predict what the computer will do.
Then they move to writing code on the computer as they advance learning about color, geometry, and animation. After the basics, learners are introduced to more advanced concepts such as conditionals, functions, loops, and arrays. They are taught how to organize larger bodies of code and learn better how to express their ideas through code.
var x,y;
var left_edge=0, top_edge=0, right_edge=400, bottom_edge=400;
var xdir = 1, ydir = 1;
function setup() {
createCanvas(400, 400);
x=50;
y=30;
}
function draw() {
background(255,255,255);
fill(255,255,255);
rect(0,0,400-1,400-1);
fill(255,0,0);
ellipse(x, y, 20, 20);
x = x + 2*xdir;
y = y + 5*ydir;
if(x > right_edge) {
xdir = xdir * -1;
x = right_edge;
}
if(x < left_edge) {
xdir = xdir * -1;
x = left_edge;
}
if(y > bottom_edge) {
ydir = ydir * -1;
y = bottom_edge;
}
if(y < top_edge) {
ydir = ydir * -1;
y = top_edge;
}
}