This book is unique in that its stress is not on the mastery of a programming language, but on the importance and value of interactive problem solving. The authors focus on several specific interest worlds: mathematics, computer science, artificial intelligence, linguistics, and games; however, their approach can serve as a model that may be applied easily to other fields as well. Those who are interested in symbolic computing will find that Interactive Problem Solving Using LOGO provides a gentle introduction from which one may move on to other, more advanced computational frameworks or more formal analysis. What is of primary importance, however, is the text's ability — through its presentation of rich, open-ended problems — to effectively cultivate crucial cognitive skills.
Contents: Part I: Fundamentals of LOGO. Your First Encounters With LOGO. Extending LOGO. Recursive Procedures. Recommendations and Principles for Writing Procedures. Debugging. Analysis of a Program. How Programs Communicate With the User. Names, Values, and Scope. Data Structures. Data as Programs, Programs as Data. Smaller Projects. Part II: Mathematics. Prime Numbers. The Greatest Common Divisor (GCD). Problem Solving in Mathematics. Recursive Expansion of Arithmetic Operations. Representing Numbers in Different Base Systems. Basic Rules of Arithmetic. Part III: Computer Science. Sorting. Pattern Matching. Formal Languages and Grammars. Tree Data Structures: Building a Dictionary. TOWERS OF HANOI. Software Tools for LOGO. Simulation of a Moving Camera. The Game of LIFE. Part IV: Artificial Intelligence. Problem Solving Using LOGO. The Equivalence Between Programs and Data. Production Systems. Is It a Mammal? Who Are the Children of Adam? Part V: Linguistics. Conjugating Verbs. Forming Plurals. Linguistic Explorations. Part VI: Games. TIC-TAC-TOE. Reversi. Hunting the Wumpus. HOW THE WEST WAS WON. BLACKJACK. Part VII: New Developments in Computers and Education. Extensions to the Programming Language LOGO. Object-Oriented Programming in LOGO. New Approaches to Using Computers in Education. New Approaches for Education, Psychology, and Epistemology. Appendices: LOGO Versions. LOGO Primitives Used in This Book. Utility Procedures. Conventions Used in This Book. Additional Resources.
Overview
This book is unique in that its stress is not on the mastery of a programming language, but on the importance and value of interactive problem solving. The authors focus on several specific interest worlds: mathematics, computer science, artificial intelligence, linguistics, and games; however, their approach can serve as a model that may be applied easily to other fields as well. Those who are interested in symbolic computing will find that Interactive Problem Solving Using LOGO provides a gentle introduction ...