Unplugged Artist's Chapter

A recently released book Teaching Computing Unplugged in Primary Schools  edited by Helen Caldwell (University of Northampton) and Neil Smith (Open University) has a number of interesting chapters by authors who are passionate about how computing is taught in schools. The central theme is unplugged activities, without using computers, but still teach the fundamental of computational thinking.

Ok, confession time. I co-wrote, along with Katharine Childs (Code Club), Chapter 3 Artists so I am biased here, but I believe in the central theme of Unplugged Computing. Computing, and Computational Thinking in general,  is not just about programming and using a computer (though using computers and  programming are vitally important to Computing) but it is also about many other things including problem-solving, being creative and working collaboratively.

Chapter 3 is about linking these computational thinking ideas to produce visual art, by applying computing principles including  repetition, following and refining algorithms, and abstraction. The chapter also looks, how these links have already being made, with examples such Sol Le Witt where not all the work that was produced by the artist himself, but some by others following his written instructions - in other words an algorithm. An example activity is shown below (named after my son who was the first to play it).

Thomas’ Tangles

Exploring abstract patterns using randomness within an algorithm.

Using crayons, pencils or pens, we are going to follow an algorithm to create a random drawing. This could be done in pairs and you will need squared paper.

Person A: Rolls the dice and reads out the instructions.

Person B: Is the ‘robot' carrying out the instructions.

When the starting or central square is blocked and a new central square is needed the roles of A and B swap (so A is the ‘robot’ and B rolls the dice and reads out the instruction). The roles keep swapping.

Algorithm

Start from a random square – call it the centre square

Repeat until end of game

If die roll = 1

Roll die for number of moves

Check for blocks

If not blocked then

move die roll number of steps up the page

If die roll = 2

Roll die for number of moves

Check for blocks

If not blocked then

move die roll number of steps down the page

If die roll = 3

Roll die for number of moves

Check for blocks

If not blocked then

move die roll number of steps to the left

If die roll = 4

Roll die for number of moves

Check for blocks

If not blocked then

move die roll number of steps to the right

If die roll = 5

Roll die

If die = 1 change colour to Red

If die = 2 change colour to Blue

If die = 3 change colour to Black

If die = 4 change colour to Red

If die = 5 change colour to Orange

If die = 6 change colour to Yellow

If die roll = 6

Return to current centre square

Check for blocks:

If pathway blocked do not move then

reroll die

If number of spaces in the direction > die roll then

move until blocked

If all pathways blocked then

choose a new centre square

The other chapters make links with areas such as Robots, Musicians, Explorers, Magicians, Gamers, Cooks and Scientists.


References

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Barr, V. and Stephenson, C. (2011) Bringing Computational Thinking to K-12, ACM Inroads, Vol 2. No 1, pp 48 - 54 [accessed via http://csta.acm.org/Curriculum/sub/CurrFiles/BarrStephensonInroadsArticle.pdf on 26/12/2015] https://doi.org/10.1145/1929887.1929905

Computing at School (2013) Computing in the National Curriculum: A guide for primary teachers [accessed via http://www.computingatschool.org.uk/data/uploads/CASPrimaryComputing.pdf on 13/3/2016]

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DfE: Department for Education (2013) National Curriculum in England: computing programmes of study

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Knuth, D. 1968. Preface, The Art of Programming vol 1., Boston: Addison-Wesley.

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The Art Story (2016) Sol LeWitt [online] http://www.theartstory.org/artist-lewitt-sol.htm accessed on: 6/3/2016

Wing, J. (2006) Computational Thinking Communications of the ACM Vol 49 pp 33 - 35 [accessed via https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~15110-s13/Wing06-ct.pdf on 26/12/2015] https://doi.org/10.1145/1118178.1118215

Wing, J. (2011) Computational Thinking - What and Why The Link - News from the School of Computer Science, Issue 6.0, Spring 2011 [accessed via http://www.cs.cmu.edu/sites/default/files/11-399_The_Link_Newsletter-3.pdf on 26/12/2015]

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