Programming like a Pro

Using the motto "Programming like a Pro" on 11th of December a workshop for kids age 8-12 took place at the Institute of Computer Science as part of uni.com. Barbara Weber and Thomas Schrettl, both members of the research group Quality Engineering introduced the kids to the realm of bits and bytes and took them on a discovery tour through the world of computers. As part of the workshop kids programmed in the development environment Squeak Etoys

and had lots of fun doing so. The Kids designed their own sketches and brought them into life using scripts (the scripts telling the sketches what to do)

As can be seen from the screen shots, very often a car was the main actor in this. The kids told their cars (using scripts) how to move and turn, react to input from the steering wheel, evade obstacles and to follow the route automatically.