Turing Tumble Community

Educator Guide for Turing Tumble

Education
#1

We finally finished it! The Turing Tumble Educator Guide is now available and free to download. We created the Educator Guide to help teachers get the most out of Turing Tumble. But even as parents or players of Turing Tumble, you might find some interesting information in there. The guide contains:

  1. A series of “computer logic lessons” that explain how Turing Tumble relates to regular, electronic computers we use every day.
  2. Puzzle-specific help that explains what each puzzle teaches and gives help for common hang-ups we’ve seen players have with each puzzle.

I hope it’s useful to you. Alyssa and I used the lesson material this summer as we taught classes at a few different libraries. You can see a little more about it here. If you have any questions or feedback, please post them here or email Alyssa Boswell at alyssa.boswell@turingtumble.com or call her at 651-231-0617.

Thanks!

Paul

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#2

Congratulations! I just read through it, it is very good

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#3

Thanks a lot, JohnZ!

#4

really useful! thanks!

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#5

What a great!
I’ve read Educator Guide.

In leson #6, it say importance of tset for all condition.
I think it mean “Code coverage” in Program test, and it’s very important.

Challenge #26 has an example of a nested loop.
However, the question remains from the point of view that looping requires initialization.
Turing Tumble seems to do a periodic motion.
In this regard, we will have to watch the program of Turing Tumble.

In lesson #10, it’s nice explanation it is Turing complete, since gear-bit conveys information upwards.
“Structured program theorem” say it is possible to calculate everything with loops and folks.
Even without a gear-bit, if we maneuver the ball course well,
It is possible to control the bit as desired to some extent.
But then, as we can see in the document, we can only transfer information downwards.
Information is transmitted upward by the gear-bit, and continuous operation becomes possible.

Thank you.

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#6

This looks awesome. Very well done. I get to try this with three sessions of middle school girls at Expanding Your Horizons on Sat, 10/27/2018.

Thanks for all of your great work putting this together. I have put a handout together for each girl to keep when our session ends. They will have links to TuringTumble and a checklist of the puzzles they solved during the session.

I hope you don’t mind my reusing images from your education guide. I simply wanted them to have some record of what they completed to show their families. If you do mind, let me know and I will remove from web and discontinue use.

I’m curious to see how far the kids get in one hour of time.

Here’s the handout that kids can keep:

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#7

Worth it for the video link alone!

#8

If you try this with a group of kids, I recommend having stickers. I did briefly explain the story line and discuss that work being done by gravity on these mechanical computers was the same work that electricity does in electronic computers.

Students were allowed to start by reading the story for themselves, or going to p14 to see how the computer works. I did not witness any of the girls reading the story first. They all went right to p14, and many tried to skip that page and start with puzzle one.

Getting a sticker for demonstrating their solution to each puzzle got each kid to interact with us. They would show and explain what was easy or hard to figure out and why. Those discussions were great and would have been easy to miss without the stickers providing the link between kid and volunteer.

The girls left with a sheet filled with small star stickers next to each puzzle they solved.

In one hours time, most kids completed between 7 and 9 puzzles. I think a couple kids finished 10. But, most had more fun showing their work to each other than to keep racing to complete more puzzles.

I hope the participant surveys show that they had as much fun as we did.

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#9

Thanks so much for sharing your experience! I hadn’t thought of the sticker idea before. I bet that gives the kids even more motivation to make progress through the puzzles.

Paul

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#10

Yes, the stickers were more about the connection between volunteer and student. The stickers gave kids a reason for demonstrating their solution and that made all the difference. I’m now trying to think how can I achieve the same with my college students.

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#11

Hello,

I’m wondering if you are planning to release an Educator Guide for the puzzles 31+

Katrina

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#12

This is a fantastic way to keep the kids on track and to make sure they don’t skip ahead too! I would love to put the spotlight on your idea in one of the Turing Tumble educator newsletters! If you are interested in sharing, please email me at anna@turingtumble.com, I’d love to know more!

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#13

@kmontinola We aren’t planning to expand the Educator Guide at this time. We are finding that most classes don’t have the time to go through the entire book. What context are you using it in? Thanks so much for reaching out!

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