The children in Year 4 at Thrunscoe Junior School have been using a program called Terrapin Logo as part of their ICT work on control. There are specific cross-curricular links that have been made with other areas of the curriculum such as angle work in numeracy and artwork. As part of the project the children have also been encouraged to develop their problem solving skills and it is felt that the Logo program is suitable for this purpose as it allows the children to investigate and correct their own mistakes independently.

Logo was devised in the 1960's by Seymour Papert and was specifically designed for use by learners, including children. An important concept guiding its creation was the principle of 'low floor, high ceiling' i.e. easy to use for beginners but it has no limits - within Logo is the ability to manipulate, control or respond to all areas of computer technology. Most programs using Logo feature an on-screen robot or 'turtle'. The children type in instructions to make the turtle move. Papert felt the turtle was an 'object to think with' and was a powerful way to be introduced to the idea of programming. Logo teaches problem solving, logical thinking and constructive methods and allows the user to interactively create and manipulate mathematical processes. (Papert, 1999)

The children have been highly motivated by this work and are at present writing procedures (list of instructions) for their turtles to draw pictures in the style of Kandinsky. Have a look and see what they have produced up to now!

Click on the picture's below to see the actual size

Click on the picture's below to view Kandinsky pictures