Lesson plan
Pencil Code (programming language)
Pencil Code is an educational programming language and website. It allows programming using Scratch-style block coding or CoffeeScript. Code runs directly in the web browser and can be shared with others. The language centers on a model of a pencil programmatically drawing on a 2-dimensional screen, with the pencil cursor visually depicted as a turtle. A 2019 study by Deng et al. in an eight-week teaching intervention comparing text-based and block-based environments found that students learning in a mixed environment had improved confidence and computational thinking.
Article summary
Pencil Code is an educational programming language and website. It allows programming using Scratch-style block coding or CoffeeScript. Code runs directly in the web browser and can be shared with others. The language centers on a model of a pencil programmatically drawing on a 2-dimensional screen, with the pencil cursor visually depicted as a turtle. A 2019 study by Deng et al. in an eight-week teaching intervention comparing text-based and block-based environments found that students learning in a mixed environment had improved confidence and computational thinking.
Key claims
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Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
Bibliography
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Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.