Monday, June 5, 2017

Girls Who Love to Code!

Who says "girls don't like to code?" In addition to learning JavaScript, students in my Intro to Programming class use the Alice 3 program to experiment with the concept of Java animation. Recently, they participated in a project to demonstrate how they can make two dancers move realistically. Don't get me wrong, the boys did an outstanding job, but I wanted to highlight how well the girls did with troubleshooting and debugging to achieve some fine details in their overall scenes. I find that using Alice 3 promotes critical thinking, creativity and problem solving which are necessary components in the process.


Alice uses Java code in an object-oriented environment and students have the ability to work with code and view their animations. Students code with methods and functions using "if else, do together, and do in order" statements to set up conditions and organize the sequence of events throughout the scene. They also calculate value amounts to create more intricate movements when animating body parts.

Here is an example of three dance routines. You go girls!






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