ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN LIMA NEWSLETTER -- 1993 ~~~~~ TI-101 ~~~~~ OUR 4/A UNIVERSITY by Jack Sughrue Box 459 E.Douglas MA 01516 #4 ROOTS Last session, Class, we had a couple questions from Mr.^Shakespeare over there by the window. He said he had a nephew in junior high and two elementary school grandchildren. Okay. Okay, Mr.^Shakespeare. Just put your grandchildren's pictures away. So long as we know one's 8 and one's 4 and that your nephew in junior high is having trouble reading. Got that, Class. He wants to know what the TI can do for him. Or, more specifically, for the significant kiddies in his life. There are so many directions one can go here that I'm not sure where to begin. Because I'm so text oriented, I think I'll begin with some sources that may not be dried up yet. There are real books like Fred D'Ignazio's TI PLAYGROUND, which I'll discuss during another class. But, first, I want to discuss Newsletter Childrenware. Zounds, Mr.^Shakespeare! Just be patient. I'm sure I'll answer your questions before you even have to ask them. Now. Er, oh, yes; the newsletters. There were so many great newsletters over the years that provided good, solid, educational material in so many enterprising ways - ways that let the adults learn along by typing in the programs. It would be impossible to even list them all on the blackboard here. Let me just take a super example and hope that her materials are still on disk in the club's library for new massive circulation. Sue Harper (the present librarian of the Pittsburgh User Group, P.O.^Box 8043, Pittsburgh PA 15216) for years wrote a wonderful column called "Kiddie Corner" (note she didn't succumb to the temptation to misspell "Corner" with a "K") and reviewed material for young (and old) learners. Sometimes the older learners could type the programs for the younger learners. Although I never met Sue, I have been an admirer of her creativity and writing talent for years. Anyway, Class, while I was preparing some notes I uncovered some of the old "PUG Peripheral" newsletters and want to share a bit of a Fall '89 issue (when her son was 9 and daughter 11): "This month, since we are all getting back into the swing of things with school, I thought I would give you a little quiz. Yes, indeed, you can tell I used to be a school teacher! Really, it's not a hard quiz; it's a take-home (for sure) and you have a month to do it! Just five questions, and then a little program to amuse you until next month, when I will give you the answers! ^^1. Write a program that will make the screen blink the colors of fall. ^^2. Write a program that will play 'Mary Had a Little Lamb.' I'll help you on that one - the notes are A,B,A,G,F,G,A. ^^3. Write a program that will make your name blink on and off until you use FCTN 4 to stop it. ^^4. Write a program that will turn your name red and make the screen blue. ^^5. Take all the programs 1 through 4 and make one long program that blinks fall colors, plays the little song, and blink a red name on a blue screen. GOOD LUCK! 10 CALL CLEAR 20 FOR H=1 TO 10 30 RANDOMIZE 40 LET R=INT(RND*32)+32 50 LET S=INT(RND*14)+3 60 CALL SCREEN(S) 70 CALL HCHAR(12,12,R) 80 CALL KEY(0,K,S) 90 IF S=0 THEN 100 ELSE 80 100 NEXT H 110 PRINT "PEACHY-KEEN!!!!" : : : : : : 120 STOP "This little program ... well, what will it do? Try it and see! "See you next month!" Now this short "Kiddie Corner" article is filled with the stuff of learning. First, Class, it made me go back and dig out a couple manuals to solve those five small problems of hers. Very enticing, very educational little problems. Suffice it to say that previous columns of hers led up to skills levels that could achieve these creative extensions. These are real, relevant logic problems for any age. They also include things that younger children must know for a solution even if parents, grandparents, or older siblings are typing some things in (i.e., What ARE the colors of fall? How does the song go?). And then that tiny program you have to type in to see what it is supposed to do. I modified it slightly upon the suggestion of Harold Hoyt of the St.Louis TI user group. But is that program a motivator or what? And the safety net of all the answers next month. But could anyone wait a full month. Nope! This is a true leaning situation for everyone, including those who DO wait the month and type in all the answer programs. However, if you don't wait the month your correct answers are guaranteed to be different from hers. Thus, Lesson Uno: there are many ways to skin a cat. Although why one would actually WANT to skin a cat has always been beyond me. What does one DO with a skinned cat? Do you use the skinless cat part or the skin itself? Or both? Anyway, Class, the point does not have anything to do with cats; the point has to do with the great learning tool called the 99/4A. Sue Harper is only one of many people throughout the whole TI World who wrote excellent early-learner articles. If every newsletter editor and every librarian in the country looked back in the old issues and disks and tapes and dug out the old programs and articles written by club members about education or for young people and transferred them all to disk for an educational clearinghouse, there would be piles of materials which would constitute a marvelous resource for all clubs, particularly as the new generation of grandchildren, nephews and nieces are arriving at the right ages for using these services. Remember, Mr.^Shakespeare, and all the rest of you who have questions similar to his, that what may be old stuff for oldtimers is new stuff for newtimers. You may quote me. But let's get back to Sue Harper. I hope she has all her stuff on disk. Anyway, she always began her column with a nice graphic (teddy bear in the case mentioned). This was at a time when not too many newsletters used graphics for their local columns. Sue also did program reviews, as I said, that dealt with learning. These were all excellent, too. For example, in this same '89 issue, she reviewed Jim Peterson's "KINDERTIMES," which I have had the good fortune to use with some younger children with much success. Here's Sue: "This program, listed as TCX-1062 on the disk ... is a very nice little program which uses only 12 sectors, and yet has quite a bit to offer. "The main audience for this program would be third graders learning their multiplication tables, or for a review for the next few grades. The program will accept parameters higher than one digit numbers, but working these problems in your head becomes difficult. "At the beginning, the program asks the user for the highest number desired and the lowest number desired. These two answers set the parameters for the multiplicands. The format of the program is: 7 X 6 = and waits for the answer. The answer must be typed in with the highest digit first, which is why I say this program is not suited for 'hard' questions like 167 X 639. In the 7 X 6 example, the user types in 42 and presses ENTER. The user is rewarded with a graphics display for correct answers." And so on. Actually, Jim (TIGERCUB) has upgraded this program. He even has a nice, new program that prints out simple worksheets (with answers on a separate sheet). Ideal for any adult who spends time helping children with math. Refer to your notes from previous classes to learn more about this extraordinary (and extraordinarily inexpensive) resource called TIGERCUB. These rich resources of newsletter and disk and tape libraries of clubs throughout the country are some of the very best sources all of you can use for learners even in today's "high-tech wizardry" marketplace. The TI STILL does what it was made to do better than anybody else. No, Mr.^Shakespeare, I am not going to give you or Ms.^Bronte or anyone else in the class the answers to Sue's five problems. That is homework for next class. Please, please, Class! Give me your attention! Stop that moaning and groaning back there! These five questions will be on the mid-term, so I would definitely have them ready for the next class. Yes, yes. There were many other people who did such articles for newsletters and magazines. I remember Chick De Marti of the Los Angeles Group often had similar fascinating items in his "Did You Know That...?" column. I wonder if he has all those great columns on disk? And Fred D'Ignazio ran a regular children's column in COMPUTE, I think. Anyway, TI PLAYGROUND is one of his tested for-and-by-kids program books. Maybe next class I'll do nothing but educational books, like my favorite, THE ACADEMIC TI. Meanwhile, do your homework and maybe you can reach Sue or Chick for extra-credit material. The software, Mr.^Bell? We'll get to the tapes and cartridges during another session, right after we finish discussing the rest of the textware. What? The SYLLABUS, Mr.^Bell. Must follow the syllabus. No, Mr.^Shakespeare, a syllabus is not like a hexbus. Perhaps if you'd care to walk out with me to my car, I'll explain the differences on my way.