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programmingMS 2015
Shodor > SUCCEED > Workshops > Archive > programmingMS 2015

The class began with the use of a car-racing model. There were initially five cars in the model, but that was subject to change later on. First, the students were taught (by Phil) about each pre-written function, such as what they do and how they work. Next, the students went into the JavaScript code of the model and played around with adding different values as well adding new things. This model was mostly there to teach “objects” in JavaScript, and because of that, before the students could move on to the next model, they were tasked with creating a new car. While the students worked with the code, there was a short discussion on “spans”(the squares of color in the racing model). Also during that time, there was a short discussion on hexadecimal colors, which can be specified with letters and digits after a pound symbol. This would be useful in editing the colors of the “cars” in the racing model. There was yet another small discussion on “scopes” before the group moved on to the next model, one of ants and pheromones.

The ants and pheromones model simply had ants walking around with some pheromones staying behind them. The group discussed how the model works, why it works, and how one could use components of that model in other situations to do different things. Then, just like the previous model, the students were left to mess around again. There was a fair amount of time spent trying new things, then asking Phil for help if they didn’t work or if the student didn’t now how to start the creation of that thing, before the class ended and the students went to lunch.