Learning Programming

with your Children

8 steps to help you and your child learn and

practice programming
Learning Programming with your
Children
8 steps to help you and your child learn and

practice programming

by
Nicos Ioannou

Editors: Emily Millett and Timothy Isaacs

Designer & Illustrator: Andreas Kyprianou - www.DBspectrum.com

Copyright © August 2016 by Nicos Ioannou Nicosia, Cyprus

Second edition August 2019
https://www.patreon.com/namatreasure
(https://vimeo.com/namatreasure/videos)
[email protected]

All Rights Reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, either by
photocopying or by electronic or mechanical means, including
information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing
from both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book. This
book is not intended to give any legal, medical and/or financial advice
to its readers.

2 Learning Programming
Dedicated to you the reader, the parent, seeking the best and most
useful gift for your children, seeking something that can bring you
closer, that allows you to engage in fun and educational activities
together.

Dedicated to you the reader, who has realized that conventional

education is not as fun and engaging as it should be and does not
always attract or maintain children’s attention.

I have been in your position and this book is the fruit of my efforts to
teach my nephews, children, their friends and any other child who
might be interested in programming – but teach them in a playful and
fun way.

This book is dedicated to you because it has been made for you. It is
also dedicated to the Cyprus-America Scholarship Program (CASP)
and the Fulbright Program.

Learning Programming 3
Table of Contents
Learning Programming with your Children 5

Motivation 6

Ch.How to use this Book 10

Ch.1 Introduction to Programming as a New Language 13

Ch.2 Namatreasure Programming Environment 22

Ch.3 Computer Programming Environments - Scratch and Blockly 39

Ch.4 Tips to make an environment interesting 52

Ch.5 Competitions are a powerful driver. 68

Ch.6 Storytelling 75

Ch.7 Analysis before execution 88

Ch.8 Teams produce more work 97

Ch.9 To 3D world and beyond 100

Appendix 1. Level and Certificates 110

Appendix 2 Programming instruction 116

Appendix 3 Further Reading 125

Acknowledgments 129

About Nicos Ioannou 130

4
Learning Programming with your
Children
8 steps to help you and your child learn and practice

programming

Learning Programming with your Children 5

Motivation

Before you read any book, you might wonder whether it will be
important for you. This book is about you and your children and how
together, you can learn to communicate with, and control the billions
of devices which surround us today. This book is based on 20 years
of experience and a never-ending effort to guide children towards
learning programming (coding) through games and play. Ever since
computers first appeared, something called a ‘programming language’
was invented. What is this programming language? Put simply, it is
the language that we speak to these computerized devices and
machines. And as these computerized machines become more and
more intelligent, they occupy more and more of our world, both in the
workplace and at home.

• Computers, mobile phones, tablets, smart TVs, smart

polymixers, smart ovens and smart refrigerators exist in the
market and in our homes

• Autonomous vehicles, smart houses, smart offices and Artificial

Intelligence in the shape of robot-maids or e-secretaries will
soon be available on the market

• We hold, see, use and listen to intelligent devices: they are

our new pets and helpers

• A swarm of intelligent devices will always be around us

• Program them to serve you. If you do not know their program,

they may spy on you

For these reasons, it is important for us to talk to these digital devices.

If we don’t talk to them, someone else will. What is the importance of
programming? Could we go as far as to say that programming is like
a new alphabet?

The only similarity between programming and the alphabet, is that in

the past, we would describe someone as educated if they could read
and write. Today when we talk about a technology-educated person

6 Motivation
we mean someone who, amongst other things, can program and
solve problems using programming.

Learning programming is like learning another language; but an easy

language, like a subset of your native tongue. Just like mathematics,
programming is a universal language, and the similarities don’t end
there. Programming is also like mathematics because it is a discipline
which children must begin learning from an early age and continue
learning for the rest of their lives. We use it both implicitly and
explicitly in all aspects of our everyday lives. Programming is a subset
of our spoken language and it is easy to learn. Anyone can learn
programming and through programming, can then subsequently learn
to make mobile applications, internet games or learn to program
home automation devices. If you stay with us until the end and
practice the examples, you will gain a very good understanding of
these graphical programming languages and above all, you will
master the programming principles so that you can easily pick up any
programming language.

Another way of looking at this subject, is to look at the important

people who program. Most of the biggest companies that influence
our lives are involved in programming. For example, Apple, Autodesk,
Adobe, Amazon, e-bay, Dropbox and Google all have products which
are created using programming. The people who founded or run
these companies were once programmers or engineers who made
computers, or entrepreneurs who realized the importance of
programming. Therefore, it is a very important discipline in our lives
and people that have managed to master this have gone a long way.

But, what can we do with programming? We can use it in everything,

literally everything from building web pages, programming

appliances, garden watering systems and soon we will be

programming our energy management systems and ventilation
systems (for example opening and closing the windows and doors). In
the near future, we will even program our cars. In the work area we
program control systems, the e-shop and automation systems.
Coming soon is the electronic office and, of course, your new e-
secretary; and the list goes on and on. Programming has changed
health support systems, factory floors and the design of new
medicines. Programming is making fun games, movies, and is also
changing education as it has changed the way we communicate. So

Motivation 7
programming is everywhere, and it is important. Even artists program
to make animation or art in motion as it is also known.

Learning a new language must start at a very early age and we have
to practice very often as we do with mathematics. The more we
practice, the more we learn and the more recipes (in other books this
is also called algorithms) get stored in our minds. Whenever we need
to solve a problem using a program, we can draw on our stored
recipes and combine them to create something new.
“Seeking the Namatreasure” is an educational tabletop game and the
predecessor of this book. Both the educational game and the book
have one purpose: to awaken parents so that they understand the
importance of learning programming. If the school does not provide
programming lessons, courses or workshops, the parents should take
the responsibility and do it themselves. This book aims to be a
backpack, with tools that will help parents on this journey of learning
together with their children. Most parents do not know programming
themselves, so they will have to learn it first in order to teach their
children. Please believe us, it is not difficult, and it comes naturally to
all humans. It is not difficult because there are tools that are there to
help you and we will cover them in this book.

8 Motivation
KEY CONCEPTS: Programming is fun. You can also
think of people as intelligent devices that are
programmed (they act upon a predetermined pattern
of behavior). Programming computers is done my
mimicking the way we humans think and learn.
Soon, by reading this book you will learn how to
create a world of robots or characters that will
interact with each other and you, following the
instructions that you have implanted into them. It is
obvious that robots (machines) are not naturally
intelligent, but they may behave in a way that
intelligent beings do, because they can store and
then execute intelligent behavior. With programming
you can solve many real problems. You can even
program wearable devices such as LED lights on
costumes. Computers do not think of themselves,
but they can execute complex programs that make
them behave intelligently.

Motivation 9
How to use this Book

If you want to teach your children programming, there is a vast

amount of information, tutorials and courses available on the internet,
both free and paid. The process of learning through these online
courses can be long and tedious and you may get lost, or you may
not have the time. This book is a shortcut that helps you reach the
destination quickly and safely, while also having the opportunity to
enjoy the view.

Your destination is to learn programming and learn how to teach

programming to your children. This book does exactly that. Starting
from a well-crafted tabletop game called Namatreasure, this book
introduces all the basic concepts of programming and all the types of
instructions, using plain English which is readable and completely
understandable by anyone who speaks English. These minor
explanations are elaborated with examples that you can practice until
you become familiar with them.

From the tabletop game Namatreasure, we continue smoothly to

Scratch by MIT Media lab - a free programming language which is
easy to use, enables sharing and is flexible and exciting. It is an
environment that enables us to recreate the Namatreasure game and
above all to create our own commands easily. By creating our own
commands, we can make programming more like writing instructions
to a friend, more like using the English language rather than the usual
programming language. In Scratch you are free to investigate, and at
the same time you are guided to reach your goal quickly.

We are not limited to Scratch though. We will also be investigating

Blockly by Google which is a programming language that is used in
many devices. Blockly is free and any company can incorporate it into
its products. For this reason, it can be found in many educational
robots. Blockly can also be found in more useful applications, like
programming mobile phones. We will mostly use Blockly to test the
level of knowledge and expertise attained. Blockly has created a set
of demo games with 10 levels, each of which can be used to test
someone’s programming skills. This book will guide you to reach the
highest level of the Blockly game, Maze, and be comfortable there.

10 How to use this Book

The highest level of Blockly games is for advanced programmers and
from there, one can proceed alone to learn other environments which
might be more interesting and more suited to individual tastes and
likes.

Because programming environments change continuously and

because YouTube, Vimeo and similar applications enable us to share
videos easily, we also use videos to provide the details in a more vivid
way. Therefore, you can view the videos and follow the channel that is
mentioned in the book, to see more related material. The book is your
companion that you can take with you anywhere; the videos are the
recipes that you follow to do the examples. You can also write to us
and send us comments so that we can add more videos on things
that interest you.

Moreover, in Scratch we have examples referenced in the book that

you can copy (remix) into your account and work on them. There is
also a Scratch account mentioned in the book, that you can follow to
get access to more related examples.

Once you become familiar with programming, you can then proceed
to our next book “Idea_Simulate_Develop_Explore_Build”, which is
under development, and which will contain examples of smart devices
that the whole family can build and program, as well as useful mobile
applications.

Thank you for selecting this book, we are all very excited for you and
will be here to guide you in many ways, as you go through the
wonderful journey of learning and sharing programming.

More material regarding the book can also be found at:

www.patreon.com/namatreasure.

How to use this Book 11

Notations

variable names are enclosed in ‘ ‘ for example ‘robotd’

Names of software buttons, on the screen, are enclosed in [ ] for

example [Remix]

Software commands are enclosed in ‘ ‘ or () for example (Go to cell

X[n] Y[n] )

Key reserved words of a programming language are written in bold

with the first letter in capital when that word starts a new command,
for example If, Repeat, For,

[n] n in brackets stands for any integer

[direction] direction in brackets stands for any direction for example

north, south, east, west

12 How to use this Book

CHAPTER 1
1 Introduction to Programming as a
New Language

• Programming is easy

• Programming is like any another spoken language

• Programming is easier than writing essays

• If you can communicate, you can write programs

Before feeding their children, parents taste the food to see if it is too
hot, cold or salty and then they give it to their children. You can
proceed in the same way with this book. First, read and try the
examples up to and including chapter four. Allow yourself to get
comfortable with them. Do not worry, they are straightforward. Once
you are comfortable in your understanding, then call your children to
play and learn together. You can pretend that you do not know
anything and that you are starting together, which is true because
only with experience can you really learn programming.

1 Programming is easy

Programming a computer is much less complicated than most people

think. Programming is like writing instructions with simple sentences.
You can look at the example below:

1 Introduction to Programming as a New Language 13

Pic. 1 Task: The duck must reach the Pic. 2 The program is in
treasure box plain English and in
symbols.

Programming is as easy as giving instructions in a sequence. Maybe

you have learned that programming is done with 1’s and 0’s, or with
complicated symbols and curly brackets. It is true that machine
languages, which only the computer understands, are programmed
with 1’s and 0’s and that third generation languages use curly
brackets and many other symbols that might seem scary in the
beginning. However, programming languages have evolved and now
we are using the fifth generation and graphical languages. When we
speak to each other, our brains understand words as electrical
impulses that travel along neurons to be stored somewhere in the
brain. Although this is a low-level task performed in the brain with
electrical impulses, we operate at a much higher level without thinking
about these low-level functions. Computers operate in much the same
way and programming languages are becoming more like plain
English. When we program a computer, we use words and simple-
structure sentences. In fact, it is easier to write a computer program
than it is to write a good essay!

A programming language is like any other language: it has a

vocabulary, names that represent instructions that do something,

14 1 Introduction to Programming as a New Language

and a syntax (rules on how to put the instructions together). The
syntax is very limited and there are only a limited number of ways that
we can put the instructions together, so programming as a language
is much smaller than spoken languages like English and Chinese.

2 What is a computer program and the use of repetition

A computer program is a set of simple instructions, much like giving

directions to someone on how to go to a certain place or cook a
certain recipe. One central idea in computer programming is
repetition. The use of repetition does not bother computers at all, in
fact, computers love repetition. By using repetition, we can
understand things more precisely. When we want to do something
several times, we can use the same structures every time. In this way,
whenever we see these structures, we will immediately recognize
what they mean. When you write an essay, you are taught to avoid
repetition by using different words, phrases and structures, but
computers don’t mind repetition at all. I remember when I was
studying at college; my roommate, who was a physics Master’s
student, would say he could not understand how I could write pages
and pages of program. The truth of the matter was that it was a
repetitive task and the original work was not very much at all.

3 Repetition and simple sentence structures

Programming uses very basic sentence structures and moreover,

uses the same sentence structures over and over. Although the
sentences are simple, there is one drawback – you cannot change
the sentence structures any way you want. You must learn them as
they are. Even if you write the structure just a little bit incorrectly, the
program won’t work. But there are syntax checkers which work much
like an auto spell-checker in a word processor, which help you write
the program correctly. Even more easy is that there are pre-made
sentence structures that only require you to fill in the blanks in order
to make the program. Simple sentence structures look like this:

1 Introduction to Programming as a New Language 15

 Move 5 steps forward, (example)

Move 4 steps up (example)

Move NumberOf steps Direction (sentence structure)

Turn right, (example)

Turn left, (example)

Turn Direction (sentence structure)

Using these simple sentence structures, you can create your own
sentence structures and new instructions, like:

Define ‘Move_horse’

Move 1 step forward

Turn left

Move 2 steps forward

End define

From now on you can use the

instruction ‘Move_horse’, which is Pic. 2 The program is in
like the movement the horse does in plain English and in
Chess. symbols.

16 1 Introduction to Programming as a New Language

 MAGIC: The magic of programming (yes, there is
magic in programming) is that you can create your
own sentence structures from the existing ones so
that you can expand the language. Yes, you can
become a linguistic professor and a new word
creator. There is a lot of creating in programming
and a lot of magic. Stay with us.

All these instructions are simple sentences. The most important thing
in programming is to think logically and make a plan of what you want
to do. Learning programming, helps in learning other skills like
problem solving, breaking problems down into simpler problems,
telling stories and effective communication.

4 Immediate feedback

When you create a program, you test it and know immediately

whether it works. Testing provides immediate feedback. This is the
beauty of programming. No wonder our children are so fascinated
with tablets and computers; they get immediate feedback and when
we say immediate, we mean in milliseconds, maybe less. The
immediate feedback gives you the chance to fix your mistakes as
soon as they are created, because mistakes always happen, and the
important thing is to try again until you get it right. To fix the mistake,
you must execute a program step by step like the computers do.
Investigating what the computer should do when it executes a
program is an excellent way to test your understanding of every
instruction. Programs start to work correctly only when you know
exactly what and why they do what they do. This is a striking

1 Introduction to Programming as a New Language 17

truth that I have realized because it happens to me all the time,
whenever I write a program without knowing exactly how it will
behave, it never behaves as I want it to. Whenever I study a program,
analyze all its subprograms and know exactly what each instruction
does, then it always works.

5 Logical plan

A program is like a plan. When you create a program, you are making
a logical plan. It does not have to be fully developed or cover all the
details because it can be changed as you write it. The important thing
is to cut a complicated task into simpler sub tasks and then cut them
again into even simpler tasks and so on, until you find a solution to
each sub task. When you find a solution for each sub task, you begin
assembling each one together until they are all included in one
program that solves the complicated task. We will deal with
complicated tasks and how to tackle them by decomposing them into
simpler problems.

6 Anatomy of a program

Programming is separated into three basic phases: the initial

conditions, the task to be completed (or the main loop) and the result
(or the conditions of exit from the loop). Similarly, with cooking, first
you gather the ingredients, (this is the initial conditions), then you start
cooking and tasting along the way, (which is like the loop) and when it
tastes right, you stop because you have reached the desired result
(which is like exiting the loop).

6.1 Initial conditions

Initial conditions in a program, is like laying the ingredients on the

table to be cooked, or setting up the pieces before a chess game, or
filling the car with petrol before taking a journey. Suppose you are
going to find treasure on an island. The initial conditions will tell you
where the island is, and from which point you need to start. Unless
you know the correct island and starting point, you will never find the
treasure. Another example of initial conditions is the setting up of the
pieces of a tabletop game, like chess. If the setting up is done wrong
all else will be wrong.

18 1 Introduction to Programming as a New Language

6.2 The main program

6.2.1 Linear programming, as a story from start to end,

describes what to do.

The next part of making a program is setting a list of tasks and

repeating them until the result of the program is obtained. In our
example on finding Namatreasure, the program is a list of instructions
to follow. These instructions give directions, information warnings and
options to select. The main program can be a list of instructions that
are executed one after the other, like a list of things to do. An example
of instructions that go from the first to the last, are the instructions for
searching to find a treasure given above, which are like a story or a
catalog of instructions which take you from one point to the next.

6.2.2 Loop programming, repeating continuously,

describes how to react.

The main program can also be a repeat loop that contains instructions
which are continuously executed at each pass when their turn comes.
This kind of program has a main loop where the instructions are
repeated continuously and instead of instructing what to do, they
instruct how to behave. For example, you can program a
computerized character such as a duck to swim when it enters water
and walk when it leaves water. This is achieved with an
“If…….then……..else…...” statement. Similarly, in cooking, you cook
and taste and repeat, until the food is cooked. Cooking and tasting
are in a loop and tasting is inside the ‘If’ statement: ‘If (it tastes
cooked) then stop cooking else continue cooking.’

Another example of a loop is playing chess with the computer. The

computer is on a loop and at each turn it decides its next move until
the game finishes.

6.3 The result, the outcome

Continuing with our treasure example, the last instruction is (Dig until
you find the treasure box). If you dig and do not find the treasure, then

1 Introduction to Programming as a New Language 19

you know that you have done something wrong and you must search
for the mistake, otherwise you are finished and you have found the
treasure.

For the programs that use the loop and prescribe behavior, there is
still an end and a condition where the program ends, for example
when the character reaches its goal.

7 Programming Environments

What is a programming environment? A programming environment is

like a tabletop board game. The programming environment is the
board, some pieces which move on the board and a set of rules.
From our experience, we understand different real environments
immediately and prepare to handle them accordingly. In programming,
the same applies, although the environments are not understood so
perceptually. In this book three programming environments will be
introduced:

Namatreasure, Blockly and Scratch, so that you can appreciate that

programming is not tied to only one environment. Generally, there are
programming environments to program mobile applications (Blockly -
MIT App Inventor), to program robots (Engino ERP), to program
games on the internet (Scratch, AgentSheets), to program home
automation (Arduino) and so on. All programming environments share
a lot of common elements and programmers can easily move from
one to any another easily, since they have the foundation.

Programming is very easy to do when there are videos with step-by-

step instructions. We provide these step-by-step videos to keep the
book simple and short. The good thing about the videos, is that you
can repeat them any time you want. If you spot a missing link that
was not explained fully, you can always write to us.

KEY CONCEPTS: Programming is easy, there are a

limited amount of structures and they are repeated
all the time. Computers love repetition. Mainly
programs have two parts. In the first part everything

20 1 Introduction to Programming as a New Language

is setup and in the second there are instructions to
be executed once or many times.

1 Introduction to Programming as a New Language 21

CHAPTER 2
2 Namatreasure Programming
Environment

• Get into the adventure, have fun

• Play with friends

• No computer needed, you play the role of the computer

• The easiest programming environment

1. Have fun, enjoy and get interested

It is critical to have fun, enjoy and get interested while you learn
programming. It is fun. You can enjoy the things you create, especially
when they come ‘alive’, and you should get interested because this is
the most important skills your children will acquire. If what the children
are doing is not fun and does not make them happy, they won’t do it.
The most important thing is to attract the attention of the children and
then keep it! To do this, you must make it fun, but first of all, YOU
yourself should have fun. Equally important is that you should be
excited because you will get to play and bond with your children.

We start with a tabletop game which explores the popular and exciting
theme of a treasure hunt. At the same time, we are also looking at
two other programming environments: Blockly Games and Scratch,
which are graphical, fun and easy to start. The other two
environments, Scratch and Blockly Games, are free thanks to by MIT
and Google, as well as the USA government that funded related
research.

You have to set an environment that is pleasant, and you have to be

part of the environment because your children want to spend time
with you. You have to be there. You have to offer yourself to the game
so that the children will want to play. The environment is the
playground where the treasure hunt adventures are going to take

22 2 Namatreasure Programming Environment

place. This is a game. It is not teaching a class and it is not about
programming or learning. It is about play and most of all, it is about
bonding. No matter what you think, or what you want, you need to see
it from the child’s perspective.

2. Invite friends, create an interesting environment

In addition to giving yourself to the game, there must be an interesting

environment that can be enriched by also inviting your children’s
friends.

An interesting environment is one that sparks the imagination, which

helps children visualize things, but is also familiar so that it reminds
them of things they already know. This association is necessary so
that new knowledge can be connected to rooted knowledge. Rooted
knowledge is easily accessible, whereas new knowledge may create
an island of new knowledge in the mind that can be easily forgotten.

My favorite story for creating an interesting environment is the

‘treasure hunt’. The treasure hunt happens on an exotic island and
the environment has to have attractive graphics. ‘Seeking the
Namatreasure’ has been created to offer a tabletop game with
attractive graphics that look like children’s drawings, so that children
feel comfortable with them.

Namatreasure tabletop game will be used as the first step in playing

with your children. Always keep putting yourself in the position of the
child and imagine what they really want so that you can give it to
them. Children first and foremost want to play games and have fun.
Learning programming is something that we, their parents, want,
therefore we should keep it in the back of our minds.

The importance of graphics cannot be stressed enough. They are

hugely important and evidence of this can be seen with the large
amount of money spent on advertisements, which are mostly pictures
and movies. Also, it can be seen by the status given to graphic artists
of children books which is equal to the status of the writer.

2 Namatreasure Programming Environment 23

3. The simplest, easiest programming environment,

Namatreasure

This first environment does not require a personal computer, it is the

simplest environment and builds more on interpersonal interaction,
than on interaction with the computer. It builds more on the foundation
than on immediate skills and it also teaches children the most basic
skill in programming. The skill of paying attention to detail and
precision, of executing every step of the program correctly, the way
the computer does. Programs are composed of many steps that are
easy to follow, but every step must be executed correctly in order to
succeed. It also teaches the skill of looking at something from the
perspective of the other person, which, in turn, is very helpful in the
development of interpersonal relations. You will see that when you
learn to interact with computers, you also become better at
communicating with people. For example, the first thing a master
computer does in a network of devices, is to communicate with each
device and verify that they are all healthy and ready. How many
managers do you know that do the same for their personnel?

24 2 Namatreasure Programming Environment

Pic. 4 Working Environment Namatreasure

Pic. 5 Types of Namatreasure graphical instructions

2 Namatreasure Programming Environment 25

This game is a bridge from spoken English to programming English.

The map shown above is the working environment, where the

treasure hunter travels to find the treasure. In illustration N5 there are
some instructions that are used to guide the treasure hunter. In its
simplest form, the game is played by two players, where one is the
treasure hunter and the other is the treasure owner. The treasure
owner hides the treasure in one of the squares, and then writes
instructions that can lead the hunter to the treasure. The instructions
are like those used in a programming language and are similar to
those used in Scratch and Blockly. The treasure hunter receives the
map of the island and the instructions for the treasure and follows the
instructions to reach the treasure. The treasure hunter replaces the
computer and acts as though he is executing the program. The role of
the treasure hunter is extremely important because it helps children
understand how the computer executes instructions.

If the children are between the ages of 6 and 9, you can dramatize
the adventures and imagine that you are actually in a boat or walking
in the forest and see the Indian huts. Drama for these ages works
very well.

Examples of Namatreasure Hunts are listed below, starting from the

simplest, to the more complicated. The level next to each example
denotes the complexity level of the treasure hunt. There will be more
elaboration on levels in the next chapters.

4. Treasures

Treasure T1 (Level 1)

Mark the start with a rectangle or a

circle, each blue line is one instruction.

(Watch video T1 on YouTube

https://youtu.be/FUmiJW_GkRg)

The instructions are written on paper, on a template. All cells that

have a white background are filled in by the user. The instructions can

26 2 Namatreasure Programming Environment

be written in words if the children can write words and in symbols if
they cannot. If they are written in symbols they can be read by
children who do not speak English. Symbols are a universal
language.

Instructions that will lead you to the treasure (Program)

Treasure Name T1

Treasure Island Island of two rivers

Initial position in X (column) 4

Initial position in Y (row) 4

Num. Instruction X Y

1 Move 1 cell right

5 4

1
2 Move 2 cells up

5 2

2
3 Move 2 cells right

7 2

2
4 Dig until you find a treasure box

7 2

2 Namatreasure Programming Environment 27

Treasure T2 (Level 2)

Treasure T2 is at a higher level than T1 because it uses instructions

without numeric values. It uses the instruction type, Move (direction)
until you (condition). This simple instruction type is very common in
English, but in programming it is one of the more advanced
structures. Instruction type is the general form of the instruction where
the words in parenthesis will be replaced when we write specific
instructions. The word
direction can be replaced
with all words that show the
basic direction for example
right, left, up, down, or
using more advanced
directions such as north,
south east, west and the
diagonals of these. The
condition can be replaced
with a task to be
completed, for example -
reach a house-, -reach the
river-, -see bridge on your right-, and so on. You can also think of the
condition as a question. For example, “Have you reached a house?”,

“Have you reached the river”, and so on. When the answer to the
question is yes, then the condition becomes true. When the condition
becomes true, the instruction is finished. Once an instruction is
completed, we move to next instruction. The words in bold define the
structure type and they cannot be replaced with similar words, nor
can their order be changed.

T2 starts from an Indian hut at cell X (column) 4 and Y (row) 4, and

from now on we write cell (4, 4) for ease of use. The first part of the
movement is to move one step down. The second is to move right
until you find a house and third to dig until you find the treasure T2.

28 2 Namatreasure Programming Environment

Let’s write the treasure in a graphical language that anyone can
understand so that you can share it with all the children in the world.

Watch video T2 on YouTube https://youtu.be/gOhTYHmQdGg

Instructions that will lead you to the treasure (Program)

Treasure Name T2

Treasure Island Island of two rivers

Initial position in X (column) 4

Initial position in Y (row) 4

Num. Instruction X Y

1 Move 1 cell down

4 5

1
2 Move right until you reach a house

7 5

3 Dig until you find a treasure box

7 5

2 Namatreasure Programming Environment 29

Treasure T3 (Level 3)

Treasure T3 is a higher level than T2 because it has more

instructions. The instructions are the same as in Level T2 but because
it is longer, it provides an added difficulty for children. It is difficult for
children to execute one instruction and then forget it and concentrate
entirely on the next one. They keep thinking about all the instructions
and get confused. Therefore, they should practice a lot with longer
programs. With practice they will learn to handle a complicated task
piece by piece.

First, we will write the instructions for each path segment of treasure
in T3 in short form because by now you are already a little
experienced.

Instructions for treasure T3

Initial location before we start following instructions is Cell (3,3).

Watch video T3 on YouTube https://youtu.be/gm6H1uXN71k

The words in bold do not change in a type of instruction. The other

words can be taken from a list of optional words.

Move 1 cell up.

Move right until you reach a bridge

Move across the bridge

Move 1 cell down

Move right until you find a tree

Move down until you reach a house

Dig until you find the treasure box

30 2 Namatreasure Programming Environment

Note instruction (move across the bridge) means that the treasure
hunter will move up to a cell where there is no bridge cell (7,2).
Instructions that will lead you to the treasure (Program).

2 Namatreasure Programming Environment 31

Instructions that will lead you to the treasure (Program)

Treasure Name T3

Treasure Island Island of two rivers

Initial position in X (column) 3

Initial position in Y (row) 3

Num. Instruction X Y

1 Move 1 cell up

3 2
1

2 Move until you reach the bridge

5 2

3 Move across the bridge

7 2

4 Move 1 cell down

1 7 3

5 Move right until you reach a tree

32 2 Namatreasure Programming Environment

 10 3

6 Move down until you reach a house 10 4

7 Dig until you find a treasure box 10 4

Treasure T4 (Level 4)

Treasure T4 introduces a new type of instruction called If. Follow the

instructions for the treasure T4 and see if you encounter any
difficulties.

(Watch video T4 on YouTube

https://youtu.be/Q1MFmynqK80

Treasure Island of two rivers

2 Namatreasure Programming Environment 33

The instructions are not difficult to follow, but they have two new types of
instruction. One is the ‘Information:
…………………………………………………………….’

that tells us some information to make the treasure hunt more interesting;
to make it like a story; to add to the unexpected and

Instructions that will lead you to the treasure (Program)

Treasure Name T4

Treasure Island Island of two rivers

Initial position in X (column) 1

Initial position in Y (row) 4

Num. Instruction X Y

1 Information: You have enough food to go find the 1 4

treasure and return

2 Move right until you find an Indian hut 4 4

3 Information: In the Indian hut you meet the

Indian chief, who likes your food very much and 4 4
asks you to give him some to taste

4 If you give the Indian chief food then

the Indian chief will give you a key
else 4 4
you will have enough food to go and come back

5 Move right until you reach a house with yellow roof 7 4

just below you

6 Move down until you reach the door of the 7 5

house

34 2 Namatreasure Programming Environment

 7 If you have a key with you then
you can enter the house
find the treasure find the 7 5
food
else
you go back without the treasure

8 End of treasure T4 7 4

to enable us to use the ‘If’ instruction. The second new instruction

type is the

“If …............. then …................else……. ”.

It can also be written as

If (condition)

then do something that is written here

else do something different that is written here

It is much easier to follow the instruction than to describe what type of

instruction it is. The ‘If’.. is not a type of instruction, it is a whole
structure because it contains instructions and, based on the condition,
it guides the flow of the execution of the instructions to one of two
paths. The ‘If’ structure is like a T-intersection on the road. At the T-
intersection you completely stop and then you decide which road to
take; you cannot take both.

The ‘If’ structure is very important in programming. There is even one

programming environment called AgentSheets, where all the
instructions are of the If type.

2 Namatreasure Programming Environment 35

Treasure T5 (Level 5)

Treasure T5 introduces one more element that we will see after you
follow the instructions.

Watch video T5 on YouTube https://youtu.be/ggZgUv9zpp8

It is easier to execute the instructions of Treasure hunt T5 than it is to

explain it theoretically.

36 2 Namatreasure Programming Environment

Main Block of instructions that will lead you to the
treasure (Program)

Treasure Name T5

Treasure Island Island of two rivers

Initial position in X (column) 4

Initial position in Y (row) 10

Num. Instruction X Y

1 Move 4 cells up 4 6

2 Move right until you touch the bridge 7 6

3 Move across the bridge (Move until you no longer 9 6

touching the bridge)

4 Move right until you reach a river 12 6

5 If it is summer then 12 6
follow the Block “Cyan” instructions

6 If it is winter then
follow the Block “Grey” instructions

7 Dig until you find the treasure

8 End of treasure T5

2 Namatreasure Programming Environment 37

 Sub Block of instructions of T5 Cyan

Num. Instruction X Y

1 Move up until you reach a house with a yellow roof 12 3

2 Move 3 cells right 15 3

3 Move 1 cell down 15 4

4 Return to the previous block of instructions

Sub Block of instructions of T5 Grey

Num. Instruction X Y

1 Move 3 cells right 15 6

2 Move 2 cells up 15 4

3 Return to the previous block of

instructions

Treasure T5 starts from the Main Block of instructions, continues to

other blocks of instructions and then when the execution of their
instructions finishes, the user returns to the instructions of the
previous block. It is very easy to perform these tasks in Namatreasure
because they are things that we do all the time. However, In the
official programming languages, these simple structures may confuse
some children, so it is good to build strong foundations in
Namatreasure. In the programming environments we will investigate
in this book, the transition from Namatreasure will be very smooth
because they are very advanced environments and because we will
redo the Namatreasure Treasures T1 to T4 in the Scratch
environment.

38 2 Namatreasure Programming Environment

Namatreasure is derived from the word Nama and the word treasure.
The word Nama in Greek means the source. Namatreasure stands for
the treasure that your children will find at the source. The source is
the programming language that will enable us to talk to the intelligent
devices that surround us, but above all, to understand when someone
is trying to program us.

MAGIC: By practicing programming you acquire the

skill of attention to detail and precision, executing
every step of the program correctly, as the computer
does. Programs are composed of many steps that
are easy to follow, but every step must be executed
correctly in order to find out how it will function. It
also teaches the skill of looking at something from
the perspective of the other person, which can also
be very helpful with the development of interpersonal
relations. You see, when you learn to interact with
computers, you also become better at
communicating with people.

KEY CONCEPTS: Programming is fun especially if

your friends join you. There is an easy way to start
even without a computer, by playing the educational
game Namatreasure. You can start programming by
writing instructions to find hidden treasure. The
programs are executed by your friends when they try
to find the treasure you have hidden. All instruction
types that are used in most programming languages
are similar and they are also used in the game.

2 Namatreasure Programming Environment 39

CHAPTER 3
3 Computer Programming
Environments - Scratch and Blockly

• From paper to screen

• Programming environments are like board games

• Each programming environment is targeted to a specific

audience and a specific task

• Once you have mastered one programming environment,

you can learn the others

• Exploring the programming environments is fun

1 Let’s make computer programs

Congratulations!! If you are reading this, it means you have come a

long way. If you have practiced writing treasures and finding
treasures, then you already know programming. You have all the
basic concepts down, now all you lack are the specifics of the
programming environment.

Therefore, in this chapter, we will move from paper to screen, to real

computers and mainly to the network. We are moving to the network
because what is the use of having or knowing something, if you
cannot share it.

Once we have managed to play with our children, make them

interested, find treasures and compete, what’s next? A tabletop game
and paper are the foundations. But up until now, they have only
worked with their imagination. There were no errors, and everything
worked, but it wasn’t exactly programming because

40 3 Computer Programming Environments - Scratch and Blockly

it did not involve a computer. It was the foundation of programming,
and a foundation without the building is nothing. Now we must
proceed smoothly to the building.

Fortunately for us, there has been an enormous amount of effort to

make programming easy for children. The US government (public
sector), private enterprises and academia have put a lot of resources
into creating tools that make programming challenging, stimulating
and attractive to children. This is because they consider programming
to be one of the basic foundations for science and for the
development of a prosperous nation. The important thing for us is that
there are basic tools to help us learn programming easily. We will use
those tools as an extension of what we have already learned, and we
will use what we have learned to transpose it into programming on the
screen. It won’t be exactly the same, but it will be very close. The
principle is that we want to transition smoothly into a higher level of
learning.

Each programming language (and there are many) does something

well and effectively. We will use the programming languages that are
most effective for us and we will explore the most innovative and
interesting things we can achieve with them. Do not expect to easily
transpose one problem to all programming languages. We will find
this out soon.

In the next chapters we will see the Namatreasure game in a

programming environment, where we can easily play any treasure
hunt and even upload it to the internet so that everyone can play. The
two different programming environments that we will investigate are
free, graphics oriented and intuitive. Each one has different
advantages, and understanding the strengths of each programming
language is the best way to solve a problem.

Like spoken (natural) languages, there are many programming

languages. We are constantly inventing new ones in the hopes that
with the least effort, there will be a transfer of knowledge and know-
how from human beings to computers. We won’t learn all the
programming languages; there is no need. We have learned the
foundation and from there it is easy for us to learn different
programming languages.

In real life, we don’t know which programming languages we will use,

or what programming languages will still be used. Learning a new

3 Computer Programming Environments - Scratch and Blockly 41

language is just a matter of learning a few basic data structures,
syntax rules and some vocabulary. The important thing is the skills,
and this is what we will master and accumulate. Now we are ready to
test what we have cultivated.

First let me tell you about my personal experience with programming.

After I graduated from my Masters program, I counted 15
programming environments that I had used during my studies and in
my work up to that time. There were general programming
environments like Pascal and C; programming for electronic devices
using assembly language and PDP 11; programming in mathematical
environments; programming in statistics; programming for factory
simulation and network simulation; for robot programming; for CNC
programming and for industrial electronic controllers. Now, I have to
learn new programming languages and environments, but I know
programming, so I only need to learn the new specifics. It is like
driving a car, every time you enter into a new one, you have to learn
where everything is, and it takes a while before you feel comfortable.

42 3 Computer Programming Environments - Scratch and Blockly

2 Programming Environment Blockly Games

Let’s proceed to write our first program in the programming

environment of Blockly Games. Blockly Maze Level 2.

Portions of this page and the following pages referring to Blockly are
reproduced from work created and shared by Google and used
according to terms described in the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution
License.
The original pages can be found at:
https://blockly-games.appspot.com

The whole programming environment is shown in the picture below.

Pic. 10 Blockly Maze Level 2

In the right side of the picture above, the five stacked sentences are
the program in the program area. In the middle part, there are the
instructions the programmer can use by dragging and dropping them

3 Computer Programming Environments - Scratch and Blockly 43

into the program area. The instructions are needed to solve this task.
The left part of the screen is the board (play area) in which the
program acts and where the pieces move.

In the initial conditions, the astronaut stands in the left lower sphere,
as shown in the picture.

The main program is the five instructions stacked one below the
other. The instructions are executed top to bottom and the astronaut
obeys the instructions and moves.

The aim is reached when all the instructions are executed, and the
astronaut has moved up to his destination – the red pin flag in the
upper right sphere.

Please note that this is a complete program and a task has been
achieved. This is a Basic Level program, called Blockly Maze Level 2.

We will use levels throughout the book so that you can measure your
progress, record your achievements and see where we are heading.
The first instruction, ‘move forward’, is the simplest type of
instruction. The second instruction, ‘turn left’, is also very simple and
the fourth instruction, ‘turn right’ is the same type as the second. The
first instruction is used three times. Please note the ‘turn left’ and
‘turn right’ instructions have a downwards facing arrow at the farthest
right part of the screen. When this is pressed, a drop-down list
appears containing the directions left and right. Similarly, other
instructions will have other choice lists. By using choice lists, the
number of available instructions in the middle sections is less and can
fit.

Blockly Maze is one of the easiest programming environments.

(Watch video BM2 Blockly Maze Level 2 on YouTube https://youtu.be/
eFPfMshwvyo)

Link to Blockly Games https://blockly-games.appspot.com/maze .

44 3 Computer Programming Environments - Scratch and Blockly

3 Programming Environment Scratch

We now proceed to another similar graphic environment, but this one

is made especially for children.

“Scratch is developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT

Media Lab. See http://scratch.mit.edu”. “Scratch is a programming
language and online community where you can create your own
interactive stories, games, and animations - and share your creations
with others around the world. In the process of designing and
programming Scratch projects, young people learn to think creatively,
reason systematically and work collaboratively. It is available for free
at http://scratch.mit.edu”.

This programming environment has been influenced by Logo,

Smalltalk, HyperCard, StarLogo, AgentSheets and Etoys
programming environments. As you can see it is based on many
languages and has gathered the best of each. In my opinion it has a
friendly easy-to- use interface, it is free, it can run directly from the
internet and it has a strong support group. Above all, it makes it easy
to share and collaborate.

It is aimed at attracting children to programming and in order to

achieve this goal, the creators had to provide an environment where,
with little effort, they could create an exciting graphical game. Coding
the program should be easy and the program itself should be
readable and understandable, meaning that users should be able to
read it as though they were reading a book and understand what it
instructs the program to do. Each game can then be shared over the
Internet with friends and followers. By the end of this book, you will
learn how to teach your children to make arcade games like “Super
Mario” and to program robots that compete against other robots.

This environment is very similar to Blockly Games. In the right part of

the window is the program.

3 Computer Programming Environments - Scratch and Blockly 45

In the left part are the instructions the programmer can use. The
instructions are separated into ten categories shown at the extreme
left part. In this screen shot, the category Motion is activated, and the
instructions shown are from that category. The instructions in the
program are the same as those used in Blockly and the two programs
do similar things, although not exactly the same.

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/93614537/editor

[pic N11 Scratch Programming Environment T1]

Pic. 11 Scratch Programming Environment T1

The instruction ‘turn right’ in Blockly Games is the same as ‘Turn right’
in Scratch and the instruction “move forward” the same as “Move 1
cell”.

The result of the program is shown in the picture. The cells where the
duck will walk are shown with cyan circles. In this program there was
also an initial condition, the program and the result. You can remix
this program and start from a different cell and end at the target cell
where the gift box is.

Instructions fit like a puzzle so the user cannot put them in the wrong
place. In the left part of the window is the board of the working
environment. The board is a graphical window where the pieces (they
are called sprites in Scratch) can move and behave according to their

46 3 Computer Programming Environments - Scratch and Blockly

program. The user can design or import sprites. These sprites can be
animated by the program. Similar programming environments call the
pieces actors, agents or characters. You can call them whatever you
like, the important thing is that you can program them to do a specific
task or you can program their behavior and let them interact with each
other and the user.

It is obvious that this environment is more complicated and little

children need guidance to enter it with confidence. It is like small
children holding their parent’s hand when entering a fun-park. As long
as they are holding their parent’s hand, they feel safe and enjoy it, but
if they lose sight of their parents they start crying.

Follow the link below to go to that project.

Watch video ST1 Scratch treasure 1 on YouTube

https://youtu.be/Ub3Rc7J1fmM

The project described above was specifically made for the book to
link Namatreasure with the Scratch environment. The instructions
shown in purple, are made by the user using simpler instructions in
Scratch. We made the purple instructions by writing a simple program
using the original instructions of Scratch, so, we have extended the
vocabulary of Scratch.

Go to these locations to practice with Scratch and Treasure T1

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/93614537/#editor

3 Computer Programming Environments - Scratch and Blockly 47

4 When the main program is a loop

After having seen some examples of programs and gained some

experience, it is time to see the second type of main program that we
talked about in chapter 1.6.2. Please note this type is the most widely
used. It is a Loop where instructions are repeated forever, or until
something happens.

In the following example, the traveler has a target to reach – the red
flag (pin). The program to guide the traveler to the target is composed
of only two instructions, but one instruction is different, it is not like the
normal instructions which are piled one after the other. In plain
English, this instruction could be ‘Move forward until you reach the
red flag’. In programming language there is a small twist, so that it
becomes ‘Repeat until you reach the red flag’. It contains all the
instructions that are to be repeated.

In this case there is only one instruction ‘move forward’. In the

illustration N12, in the graphical Blockly language the ‘repeat until
you reach the red flag’ embraces all the instructions that are going to
be repeated. The instructions are executed as long as the target is not
reached. The way you think about this instruction and the way the
computer executes it is:

First check if the target red flag is reached. The answer is “No” (false),
therefore the instructions inside the embrace of ‘repeat until you
reach the red flag’ are executed.

The traveler moves one step forward and following the green line of
the command ‘repeat until you reach the red flag’ he goes back to
check again if the target red flag, is reached. The answer is “No”
again, so the instructions inside the embrace are executed once

48 3 Computer Programming Environments - Scratch and Blockly

again. We continue to go around the loop until the traveler reaches
the red flag. Then the answer to the check is “Yes” (true), so that the
instruction within the embrace is not executed and execution moves
to the instruction after the ‘repeat until you reach the red flag’. In this
case there are no further instructions and the program is finished.

The main difference between

Move forward until you reach the red flag

and
Repeat until you reach the red flag
Move forward
Return to repeat

is that inside the ‘Repeat until…….Return to repeat” we can have

more than one instruction. Another important difference is that the first
type ‘Move forward until..” is more readable and understandable by
people because it is used more widely.

Watch video BM3 Blockly Maze Level 3 on

https://youtu.be/S8lX-M0x11Y

Another example of a program with a LOOP is the following:

Repeat forever
Lights ON
wait 1 second
Lights OFF
wait 1 second
Return to repeat

In the above code, there is a Loop that repeats forever. The words
‘Repeat forever’ stands for ‘repeat forever the instructions below’.
The instructions above have the effect of turning on and off a light
every one second.

The program in illustration N13 is from Scratch and is for the sprite
flag of the previous example. It makes the flag change costume. In

3 Computer Programming Environments - Scratch and Blockly 49

this graphical representation of the Loop instruction, it is shown very
clearly which instructions are in the loop. However, the word ‘forever’
does not convey a clear message, and therefore you can think of this
instruction as the same as the ‘Repeat forever’ command.

LINK https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/101656127/#editor

In the project see the code for sprite Flag.

Pic. 13 Flag Code, Loop in structure in T1

50 3 Computer Programming Environments - Scratch and Blockly

Example of an exit from a Loop using comparison
Count = 0
Repeat until (CountTimes > 1000)
Lights on
Delay 1 second
Lights off
Delay 1 second
Increment CountTimes by 1
Return to repeat
Next Instruction

Another example of a “Repeat until…..” is shown above where the

condition is a mathematical comparison. The condition is in
parentheses. In this example the condition is true (that is, it is correct)
for all the values of CountTimes >1000. When the criteria are false,
the four instructions within Repeat until ….and Return to repeat are
executed repeatedly. When the criterion becomes true the instruction
after Return to repeat is executed and the program execution
proceeds.

Watch video ST2 Scratch – Namatreasure Level 2 on YouTube

https://youtu.be/TR5m9j4HNAo

Take a deep breath, if you have reached this far you now have a
basic understanding of programming, but as they say the beginning is
50% of the work to be done. Relax; from now on you will just perfect
the art and science of programming.

Watch video BM3 Blockly Maze Level 3 on

https://youtu.be/S8lX-M0x11Y

Watch video BM4 Blockly Maze Level 4 Find the repeating Pattern on
YouTube https://youtu.be/YLdbX4oFpuw

Watch video BM5 Blockly Maze Level 5 separate motion in phases,

linear phase loop phase on YouTube https://youtu.be/Xxg8cyLIQMs

3 Computer Programming Environments - Scratch and Blockly 51

 MAGIC: In the latest programming environments,
Blockly Games, Scratch and others, instructions fit
like a puzzle so the user cannot put them in the
wrong place. The user does not have to write even
one line of code. Programming is done by dragging
and dropping instructions from the tools section to
the program area.

KEY CONCEPTS: Programming technology is

progressing fast. The new programming
environments have ‘drag and drop’ facilities, to write
the programs. Any syntactic errors are immediately
spotted so that the user can correct them. With little
effort, the user can create thrilling graphical games.
Imagine the future of programming environments.
Programming could be achieved by talking to the
computer as though you are two good friends
sharing a cup of java coffee.

52 3 Computer Programming Environments - Scratch and Blockly

 CHAPTER 4
4 Tips to make an environment
interesting

• Measure progress with badges, levels and progress bars

• Reward every bit of effort and let learners explore

• Get feedback, explore, find the problem, (debugging)

• Insert uncertainty, an element of luck

• Share with others, work as a team

• Play to learn programming

Introduce computer game rules to make a game interesting.

Remember that teaching children programming in an interesting way,
can only be done using games.

We can use the accumulated knowledge of what makes computer

games so attractive, to help us make our game attractive too.
Computer games have a theory and certain rules which make them
very interesting. There are some basic rules present in all games.
They have been developed through the creation of many games over
time, and most games follow them. You cannot escape these rules.
Instead you need to follow them, not only because they make the
game fun, but also because they work. Let’s see how we can use
these rules to accomplish our purpose.

1 Levels, bar to measure progress, badges

Everything you do must be done in small easy steps, as if there is a

ladder that can be clearly marked so that children can see themselves
climbing, progressing and achieving something. The Blockly Maze
game is an excellent test for measuring progress at the basic

4 Tips to make an environment interesting 53

programming levels. The complexity of the programs done so far is
equivalent to Level 5 in the Blockly Maze Level System.

Learning is like a mountain that we can separate into several small

trips, where each trip is divided into levels. Ten levels is a good
number; not too large and not too small. With each trip we climb
higher up the mountain and explore new areas. For example, Blockly
Games has several trips which are called games. The basic game is
the Maze, then there is the Bird, the Turtle, the Movie and the Pond.

You have to be very careful and make sure that each step is mastered
before moving on to the next. Each step starts with a repetition of
what has been demonstrated and learned in the previous level. Each
piece of new material is covered several times and at each level there
is an activity that helps you practice all the material covered.
However, you can still proceed to the next step to make it more
interesting, but steps must be repeated in order to be mastered. We
will use Blockly games and levels to show the knowledge and
experience that your children will acquire, because they are universal,
they are excellent and can be used for comparison across the world.
We will also use the Treasures of the Namatreasure game because
that is the easiest level that is possible. Remember this book is not
about teaching or learning but about playing – learning comes
automatically without effort. Each step is a small increment. You need
to carry the children along with you. You cannot lose them. You
cannot make big steps. Repeat the steps as many times as needed in
order to master that knowledge through practice. The good thing
about the videos is that you can repeat them any time you want. If
you still spot a missing link that was not explained fully you can
always write to us.

There are two accomplishment bars when it comes to programming.

One is the level of understanding of written programs, and the other is
the level of writing programs from scratch. These accomplishment
bars of understanding and writing are very distinct in programming
and each child will be at a different level in each bar. Usually most
people who learn programming proceed much faster in the
understanding bar than in the writing bar. The understanding bar
focuses on the levels of complexity of the instructions that children
understand, as well as the instructions they can change in order to
make the program a little different. The writing bar focuses on the
level of complexity of the instructions that children use in their own
programs that they start from scratch (nothing). In Namatreasure the

54 4 Tips to make an environment interesting

two accomplishment bars are very clear. In the first accomplishment
bar, children are treasure hunters and follow the instructions that the
treasure owner has written in order to find the treasure. In this role
children can quickly move up through the levels. In the second bar,
they are the treasure owners and they must write the instructions for
others to follow. In this role, and depending on the age, it might take a
year to move up a level, and this has to do with their ability to deal
with abstract concepts. It is the same with mathematics where they
are taught concepts according to their age.

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/93609616/ project T2 in Scratch,

explore it

We have shown Blockly Maze Level 5

Watch video ST2 Scratch – Namatreasure Level 2 on YouTube

https://youtu.be/TR5m9j4HNAo

2 Reward every bit of effort and accomplishment

and don’t punish failure

Think of failure as a hypothesis that proved to be wrong; as acquiring

knowledge of the things that do not work. Let us make a quick note on
this. First year university students are taught an introduction to
programming, and many find it very difficult. Recently, with the help of
graphical programming environments made especially for children
and with the help of this book, we can now teach programming to six-
year-old children. So, have a little patience; it can be done, and it can
be fun. Try not to get alarmed about making progress, just stay cool.

This rule is entirely up to you and the attitude you have towards the
effort of your child. Environments like Scratch, Blockly Games and
Namatreasure are not exactly video games where you are being led
all the time. The programming environments are more open, and you
have complete freedom to do whatever you like. Therefore, it is up to
you – the leader that leads the child on this wonderful journey – to
keep this rule in mind. I must give a warning here. Most people do not
have this attitude of rewarding effort and ignoring failure.
Unfortunately, some parents expect their children to know something
before they are even taught it and some parents expect their children

4 Tips to make an environment interesting 55

to know something after only having been exposed to it once. The
truth is that learning comes with repetition and practice and that even
if you are a master of something you can still make mistakes.

I still remember a conversation that happened 25 years ago between

my professor and a fellow student.

The professor said: “You do not seem to fully understand this paper,”
to which the student responded: “But I have read it two times.”

Professor: “Two times? You have to keep reading it until you

understand it even if it takes five or ten times: you read it until you
understand it.”

This professor did not only teach this concept, but he also actually
practiced it. There was another situation where he was talking to one
of his PhD students and I was waiting my turn. The PhD student was
trying to explain a process of selecting the best among many and the
professor did not understand, so he kept asking the student two main
questions. The student was trying to explain using different words
each time, but the professor kept asking the same questions. There
were more than five rounds of this questioning and answering but the
professor did not for a second pretend that he understood. This kept
going for more than 30 minutes, without the professor reaching any
understanding at all. What most people do is pretend that they
understand what you are telling them, so there is no real
communication. I share this example in order to stress the fact that
doing something once or saying: “I understand”, does not always
mean a lot. Usually books on programming condense the essence of
programming into one or two pages at the front for reference. These
two pages don’t include all the practice it takes in order to master the
art. Practice and repetition do the trick, but the most difficult part is to
attract someone to this repetition, which is what this book is all about.
It is about motivation, techniques and spending time with your
children, practicing programming through games and play.

3 Feedback, Explore, Find the problem, Debugging

In school and at work, when you take a test or submit an assignment,

the feedback usually comes when you have already forgotten what
you have done. Programming has immediate feedback. After you
finish writing the code and run the program, you get the result. In

56 4 Tips to make an environment interesting

Namatreasure, once you have followed the instructions and reached
the last one, which says: ‘Dig to find the treasure’, you get feedback.
You know if you have found the treasure or not. In Scratch
programming, if something goes wrong you will know about it as soon
as you run the program because it will not perform the way you
expected it to. Not achieving the goal from the first attempt is common
in programming, which is why there is a famous computer term known
as debugging, meaning to find the faults and mistakes. The term
debugging, in the early computers that used to run on relays, meant
to remove bugs from under the contacts of relays. The bugs under the
contacts prevented the current from flowing, causing the program to
malfunction.

Today, debugging means to find the mistakes in the program that are
causing it not to perform as planned. Debugging is one of the basic
skills learned in programming. It is a structured procedure, utilizing
certain techniques. We will cover debugging in this book from the first
steps one needs to take in order to find out what went wrong.
Programming is a series of many small steps and because some of
them can go wrong, we need to construct in small pieces and test
them as we go along. We also document our program. We write extra
information (comments) about what the instructions do. In order to
find where things went wrong, we add extra instructions that give
signals of what happens when the program is running. In
programming you have complete control over your program and
success depends entirely on you. You can make it work. It is you and
the computer that gives you feedback. It is a fun procedure like the
game hot-cold that children play when they hide something, and
another child tries to find it. Immediate feedback is a blessing
because you continue your efforts until you succeed. However, this is
what causes programmers to work long hours trying to get the
program to work. Although programs execute very fast, the first time
we run them, we execute them step-by-step, recording the result of
every action.

Seeking the Treasure T3

4 Tips to make an environment interesting 57

Pic. 14 Scratch map T3

The program in Illustration N16 is written in Scratch and leads the

treasure seeker to Treasure T3. The instructions are separated from
one another so that the program is not executed all together. Instead,
by clicking on each instruction, that one and only that one is
executed. This way you can easily spot if any part of the program is
not executing as expected. In the above example, this method is
suitable, but in other more complicated occasions, other methods will
be used that we will cover later. In the map in illustration N15, the
cyan circles show the point where the treasurer will be after the
execution of each instruction.

Watch video ST3 Scratch T3 step by step for debugging on YouTube

https://youtu.be/rKPQ2A5KNMk

58 4 Tips to make an environment interesting

Pic. 15 Scratch T3 Code

4 Tips to make an environment interesting 59

4 Uncertainty or luck, Elements of chance

(Stochastic games where uncertainty plays a role, as opposed to

Deterministic games where there is no uncertainty)

The lack of uncertainty was the reason that the first version of
Namatreasure was not a success. I believed at that time, that games
of luck do not promote the right values and that people should depend
entirely on their own strengths and efforts. It was a lack of knowledge
on my part and a disregard of nature’s fundamental laws. In nature
there is the element of luck, but also the element of change. No two
apples are the same; the weather is unpredictable. Even primitive
people’s survival depended on what they happened to find along their
way, a lion, a tiger, or a deer. The element of luck must be included
in the game, and through knowledge and strategy its importance
should be minimized. The element of luck simulates life because life
is full of unexpected things. People get very excited by uncertainty,
and about lucky games. Consequently, in Namatreasure, we added
event cards which the treasure owner writes, and which are
associated with locations on the island. When the treasure seeker
passes through that specific location, he rolls the dice and depending
on the outcome the card may or may not be activated.

The events can be positive or negative to the treasure hunter. In

Scratch you get to program uncertain things to happen by using a
special command called ‘pick random [1] to [6]’ (this outputs a
number from 1 to 6 in a random order, like rolling a dice).

Example of Uncertainty in Scratch

Let’s investigate an example that will demonstrate the uncertainty

element and the commands used to create it.

The project T3V4 is in Scratch in the link

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/93609347/

(note that the number of the project in the above case it is 93609347).
Copy and paste it in any browser to see its operation.

60 4 Tips to make an environment interesting

In a game there are lots of things happening, apart from the main
character. For example, there may be a flag moving with the wind,
waves on the sea breaking on the shore, or snow falling. All of these
natural phenomena are stochastic. They happen at random times, in
random orders of appearance and intensity, as well as according to
other properties. In the program in illustration N13, a flag is
programmed to change appearance so that its behavior simulates
when there is wind blowing. The simulation is not very convincing or
attractive because it changes costume (appearance) every second.
Costume 1 shows for one second, then costume 2 shows for one
second and then this ‘repeats forever’. It looks more like traffic lights
than a flag. Its behavior is characterized by its property of “time taken
to change costume” (wait for one second).

To create a more realistic looking flag, a new program (in illustration

N14) has been written that adds two elements of luck in the behavior
of the flag. The program is quite a bit bigger than the previous one,
but there is a lot of repetition. The wait instruction has been modified
and instead of taking a number value next to the word ‘wait’ it now
takes a green bar that writes ‘pick random [0.1] to [1]’ and it does
exactly what it says. The green bar ‘pick random [0.1] to [1]’ is like
throwing dice and outputs a random number from 0.1 to 1, including
all decimal numbers. It can output numbers like 0.234, 0.996 or 0.567
but not 1.1 or 0.05 or any numbers outside its limits. The number that
it generates is written as a value next to ‘wait’ and has the same
effect as if that number was written there by us. In scholarly terms the
value next to ‘wait’ that determines its behavior is called a parameter.
The command ‘pick random [0.1] to [1]’ in scholarly terms, is a
function (a subprogram) and it outputs a number so that it can be
used wherever a number is used. We encountered this type of
subprogram in Namatreasure where we used an additional block of
commands. However, in Namatreasure, the additional block of
commands did not return anything back, but it will in the next
chapters, when we revisit Namatreasure. In Scratch, when one
element goes into a location and it connects there, it means that it is
correct and will function as expected. Therefore, we will continue with
intuition, with what seems logical and what we see in the graphical
environment, as opposed to mentioning scholarly terms.

Apart from the randomness in ‘wait’, there is also randomness in the

order that the costumes change. Every costume has a unique
number in the upper left corner. The instruction: ‘set [CostumeNum]

4 Tips to make an environment interesting 61

to {pick random [1] to [3]}’ gives a value to the variable
[CostumeNum].

Pic. 16 Program for flag with uncertainty

62 4 Tips to make an environment interesting

The [CostumeNum] variable is created before using the button [Make
a Variable] from instruction type ‘Data’. After the [CostumeNum]
variable gets a number 1 or 2 or 3, it is used for the next three
instructions of ‘If’. The ‘If’ statement is used very often in everyday life
and in programming, it is probably the most widely used instruction
type. This is the instruction that gives computers and programmable
devices the ability to decide based on data stored, or data from
sensory devices. Using our experience and intelligence, we
analogously program, and by programming we learn lot about
ourselves and how we think. Let us continue the execution of the
program to the first ’If’ statement.

If [CostumeNum] gets the value of 1, then the check inside the green
check box (hexagon) is evaluated as true and subsequently, the
purple instruction inside it is executed, and thus the flag changes to
costume 1. The check in the second ‘If’ statement is false because
[CostumeNum] is not 2 and the instruction inside it is not executed.
The third ‘If’ statement happens in a similar manner. The program
continues again from the first instruction inside the loop and it
continues.

• To investigate the behavior of the program, you can

proceed to deconstruct it as in the program of T3 and run
each instruction. First press ‘set [CostumeNum] to {pick
random [1] to [3]}’ and watch the value [CostumeNum]
change, although sometimes it does not change because
it can return the same value as the previous value. Then
press on the ‘If’ statements and see how the flag changes
when the check is true and how nothing happens when
the check is false.

It is worth noting that the program in N14 can be rewritten using two
commands inside a loop.

Watch video Scratch Namatreasure ST3 Flag for uncertainty and IF

on YouTube https://youtu.be/_XXApVmgXBw

After learning the ‘If’ structure, our level is raised and therefore we are
ready to try Level 6 of Blockly Maze.

4 Tips to make an environment interesting 63

The program to guide the traveler to the red flag can have a
maximum of 5 blocks, which we call instructions. Therefore, because
there are lots of steps, a repeat until command will be used. Because
at some steps there has to be a turn to the left, and because we
cannot specify exactly at what point that will happen, we will need to
use an If statement.

Illustration N18 shows the solution, which is obvious to anyone who

understands the type of instructions ‘Repeat until (condition)....’ and
‘If (condition) then ...’

We can also continue to Level 7, which builds on Level 6. (Watch

video BM6 Blockly Maze Level 6 https://youtu.be/w43NO1op38U)
Watch video BM7 Blockly Maze Level7
https://youtu.be/BfE8PmMMfP0

There are a lot of choices in this map and we need a strategy to reach
the target. We need to think first, and then write down the best route.
However, when we study it, we reach the conclusion that is exactly
the same as Level 6, but this time we move to the right.
Watch video BM8 Blockly Maze Level 8
https://youtu.be/oKwL125BpLY

It builds on Level 6 and Level 7 and again it needs thought.

64 4 Tips to make an environment interesting

Watch video BB1 to 3 Blockly Bird Level 1 to 3
https://youtu.be/2SK_uazV82I

Blockly Bird has 10 levels testing your understanding and mastery of

the ‘If’ statement. The first three levels are within reach of anyone
who has attained Blockly Maze 6 and 7.

5 Share it with family and friends, publish it

This is the easiest rule to explain. Before trying to teach my daughters

programming, I had already taught them other small things.

But when I tried to teach them programming, they told me “Don’t even
think about it!”. You see I made the mistake of telling them that I was
going to teach them programming, rather than telling them that we
were going to play. However, it was easy to persuade the parents of
their friends that programming is very useful and that I could teach
their children, together with my daughters, for free. Of course, my
daughters were glad to learn in this context, because they liked the
company of their friends. The group was formed with three 10-year-
old girls. The lessons had no specific target and the pace was slow,
so we all had a lot of fun, and in a year, we managed to build three
programs in an environment called “AgentSheets”. In the last session,
they used their programs to compete with each other. We had three
mini competitions, one for each program they had developed. In the
end, each one of them won in one of the three competitions which
made everyone happy.

Scratch goes very far to make sure there is sharing. First you do not
have to download the game, but rather you play it on the web so that
you keep your programs online. It also always reminds you to make
your project public, to share it with other users. Moreover, it is easy to
take a public project and remix it, making it your own, changing it and
then sharing it again. In Scratch, they do all they can to promote the
sharing of games. However, programming, like any other mental
process, requires a lot of working alone.
Investigate the concept of program remixing by seeing inside T3,
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/93609347/

then selecting [Remix] and changing the route and the cell where the
treasure is.

4 Tips to make an environment interesting 65

First in order to hide the treasure, you should select the ‘Gift’ sprite
and then select the ‘Code’ tab. In the code select instruction ‘Go to
cell X[ ] Y [ ]’ and change the value of X and Y. Then go to the
‘Mark’ sprite and the ‘Code’ tab. In instructions ‘Go to cell X[ ] Y
[ ]’ change the values of X and Y so that new marks will be shown to
mark the path the treasure seeker will follow. Then go to sprite
‘Level3’ and write the program that will lead it to the treasure.

Some details of Scratch sharing: Once you register, you will get an
account with multiple pages. One of the pages is called ‘My Stuff’,
where you save all your projects. When you create a new project
(select ‘Create’ tab), you will be directed to the editor and in the upper
bar there is a magic button called [Share]. If you press it, your project
will be shared, as simple as that, with only one click. If someone
views your account in ‘https://scratch.mit.edu/youraccountname’,
they will be able to see all your shared projects. They can also see
inside your projects and when they are in the edit mode, they can also
press the [Remix] button to copy the project into their account so that
it becomes theirs. Each project has a tree diagram showing who
started it and then who remixed it. In Scratch, there is a Scratch-book
for socializing and for finding projects that interest you. There are
millions of projects and millions of users, and more are added every
day. You can find anything from mathematics and physics simulations,
to Mothers’ Day cards. Watch video Scratch Share it with others.
https://youtu.be/Lp93CMQ_z5E.

6 Work as a team. Collaboration to attain a task.

Engagement

There is a complete chapter dedicated to the important of working in

teams. Teams can accomplish more work and better work than one
person. Everything we have said above also applies to teams.

To accomplish the above, we use competitions. In order to win you

need a team so that more people will contribute to make something
bigger and more complicated. Competitions encourage sharing on
multiple levels. Firstly, among the team itself, then with the
competitors and then with the guides that help in the competition.
Competitions also create the need to form teams, to work together
and bond and share. They also provide the best awards because the
ultimate award is recognition, proving that you are good at something.

66 4 Tips to make an environment interesting

In competitions, an element of luck and uncertainty is introduced. The
uncertainty is introduced because competitions do not require a fixed
solution like in mathematics. Instead, they produce a program that
produces different results each time it is run. For example, a
competition may be to create a robot that collects oranges. The
position of the orange trees is not known, and the robot follows a
different route each time and collects a different number of oranges.
Effort is rewarded as all participants get a certificate for taking part
and some also get an award. There is immediate feedback and failure
is not punished.

This leads us to our next chapter.

Congratulations on reaching this level.

You can now start playing with your children using the things you
have learned. You have all the basic skills and knowledge to start.

The first thing to do is to make a team of friends. They will spend

some time playing programming, but also allow them time to play their
own games.

MAGIC: Reward every little bit of effort and never

punish failure: your child is a champion. Do not
make the mistake that many parents do of expecting
your children to know something before they are
even taught it, or to expect your children to know
something after they are exposed to it only once.
The truth is that learning comes with repetition and
practice and even if you are a master of something,
you can still make a careless mistake. If this lesson,
to never punish failure and always reward
improvement, is the only thing you take from this
book, then you have taken the best bit. Guide
children into new knowledge and let them
experiment. If they are thinking and doing
something, then you have accomplished your
purpose. Say “good job” and wait. Good teaching
inspires and makes them think in different directions.
Let them experiment – this is learning. Tell them that
they are good at programming and they will turn the
world upside-down to prove that you were right.

4 Tips to make an environment interesting 67

 KEY CONCEPTS: Use the techniques in computer
games to attract the attention of your children. First
there is a need to measure progress and to use
tangible proof of accomplishments. We have used
different thematics with achievement levels in each
thematic. For each achievement level your children
reach, give them a sticker and a book of
achievements to put it in. Use feedback techniques
and debugging to test programs during execution.
Use elements of uncertainty to create
unpredictability and surprises so that they learn to
cope in unknown environments. Invite their friends to
share learning, post the projects on the web to share
them and work in teams. Have them work on a team
project, where each team member makes one part.

68 4 Tips to make an environment interesting

 CHAPTER 5
5 Competitions are a powerful driver.

• Children want to compete

• Children want to become heroes for a day

• Children want to win competitions

• Children take competitions very seriously

1 Children want to compete and win

Children want to compete. We live in a very competitive world and

competing is something that must be learned. Also, children like to
compete, and they always compare themselves with their peers.
Therefore, we must build an environment which includes
competitions. I learned about the importance of competitions from a
summer camp leader called Father Michael.

I went to Father Michael and told him that I wanted to introduce the
children to a game that helps them learn programming – the
Namatreasure game. He told me the children do not have time for
anything else during their stay at the camp, because all of their time is
filled up with competitions. This was completely new to me and
amazing because I had never thought about using competitions as a
tool to teach programming. So, I went back and tested learning with
competitions in a programming summer camp that I had organized.
During their stay, the children learned three programming
environments and had one competition for each environment.

The first module at the summer school was with Namatreasure, the
second with LEGO Mindstorsms and the third with Crouzet, an
industrial computer. Children showed equal interest in all the three
modules and focused intensely on the competitions and on winning.
The subject matter taught was of less importance compared to the
importance of the competition and of winning. Children want to prove
themselves every day. Children want to compete because they want

5 Competitions are a powerful driver. 69

to win, which provides proof of accomplishment. It doesn’t matter if
they play a game and lose 9 out of 10 times. They just want to prove
themselves and get better. Every day is a new opportunity for children
to prove themselves. They go to school to not only learn, but also to
prove themselves, to become a hero for a day. If you ask your
children what is important about school, they will all tell you how the
teacher favors and praises one child and is unfair to them because he
or she doesn’t praise them. Very seldom will they talk about
something they have learned which impressed them. Every day there
must be something to be proud of. Every day you have to accomplish
something either by competing or just by doing something.

A competition is good because it sharpens the mind and the

comprehension. Even if you lose sometimes, you still win by
becoming better and better, and one victory is enough. Programming
is like climbing a ladder. It is easy, but you have to take it one step at
a time.

There are many failures in learning programming, especially when it

is done in the classroom environment. The main reasons for the
failures are firstly the teacher and secondly the teaching notes. The
teacher is responsible when he or she does not love programming or
does not know the subject thoroughly. Most of the time, the teaching
notes skip material, do not provide for enough practice and expect
children to know something they were not taught.

2 One step at a time

Take one step at a time. This is extremely important, and the steps
should be very small. So small that you don’t even notice that
something new has been introduced. Programming is very easy in
small steps. Take for example searching for a treasure. Each step is
very easy to be completed correctly. However, there are many steps
and if you miss one, you are risking your chances of finding the
treasure. So, there are many things which are simple and easy, but
they must all be correctly completed. This is also true with
mathematics, but you will hardly ever notice it. Solving a
mathematical problem is actually solving many small simple
problems, but each must be solved one after the other.

70 5 Competitions are a powerful driver.

3 Competitions in Namatreasure

In the Seeking the Namatreasure tabletop game, the competitions are

easy but there have to be two teams. Each team writes instructions
for finding a treasure; it specifies the initial cell from where the seeker
starts to execute the instructions as well as the cell where the
treasure is hidden. They also mark the path that the seeker will follow
only on their copy, they do not give it to the other team. Then the
teams exchange instructions for the treasures they have hidden. They
give only the instructions and the initial start cell. The two teams then
start together and have two guesses to find the cell where the
treasure is hidden. The team to find the treasure first wins.

Another competition is to give them a path and a story and ask them
to write a treasure program, and the first to finish it correctly wins.

4 Competition in Scratch – The Collector

In Scratch, the competitions can be made against any two users so

that you can create a championship. For example, in the competition
“Robot Orange Collector”, two users can each create a robot that can
be loaded to a third account which will act as the playing field. In
Scratch, one can load any project that is public and then remix it. After
remixing it he or she can load the sprites in the backpack and to
another project.

The purpose of the competition is to create a robot that will travel in

the field, find an orange, pick it up, take it to the basket, leave it and
return to the field for more.

In ‘Code’ tab of ‘robotu’ sprite there are various programs for each
level described below and some supporting functions and commands
specifically made by us for the project:

Orange pick from tree

Orange put to basket
Move forward
Leave a trace

5 Competitions are a powerful driver. 71

The above commands, that can be found at “More Blocks”, simplify
some operations and make the program more readable. In any other
language, the code for this would be hidden from the user, but in
Scratch it cannot be hidden, it can only be moved further down so it
won’t be visible at first. You can view the code for these commands,
and experiment with it. The best way to solve a problem is to break it
down into simpler problems, solve the simple problems and then
combine the different solutions.

Pic. 19 Stage for the Robot Orange Collector

Level 1: Make the robot move randomly in the field so that it will be
able to find oranges. The instruction ‘leave a trace’ can be used to
mark the path on which the robot is moving, so that the user can
inspect if the robot covers the whole area. The command ‘pen down’
can also be used or better results. To access pen commands, press
the cyan button in the lower left-hand corner ‘Add extension’ and
press ‘Pen raw with sprites’.

72 5 Competitions are a powerful driver.

Level 2: The solution of Level 1, plus it should be able to pick an
orange.

Pic. 20 Level 2 of Robot Orange collector

Level 3: The solution of Level 2, plus it should go to the basket.

5 Competitions are a powerful driver. 73

Level 4: The robot should be able to pick an orange and put it in the
basket. The robot has two distinct phases of operation. In the first
phase it is not holding an orange and is searching for one. In the
second phase it is holding an orange and will go to the basket to
leave it. The different behavior at different phases is very common in
video games.

Pic.21 Level 4 of Robot Orange Collector

Hint: Remove the robot’s ability to move by itself and use the mouse
to move it to investigate its behavior. Later you can add back the
ability to move.

74 5 Competitions are a powerful driver.

Level 5: Add a counter to add the oranges in the basket.

Go to this location to practice with “robot collect competition two

robot” https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/93545567/#editor

Add text on how to make a robot to collect oranges.

Watch video SRC1 Scratch Robot collect Orange Pick Level 1
https://youtu.be/taaMY8zq1kQ
Watch video SRC2 Scratch Robot collect Orange Pick Level 2
https://youtu.be/ZDCRnuLSNUE

MAGIC: The subject matter taught is of less

importance than the element of competition and of
winning. Competitions are a huge driving force that
should be used with caution.

KEY CONCEPTS: Use competitions to motivate

children. Set the rules from the beginning, make
them measurable, objective, easy to enforce and
check and execute them in a fair way for all. In
Namatreasure there can be competitions between
teams. Scratch has robot competitions and Blockly
Games is full of tests.

5 Competitions are a powerful driver. 75

CHAPTER 6
6 Storytelling

• Children like to talk

• Children like to create

• Children want your attention

• Storytelling is an attention magnet

• Storytelling is also one of the greatest skills

• Storytelling keeps your audience’s attention

Children like to talk; they like to tell stories and they like to imagine
things. So, the next logical step in this simple instruction about
programming, should be carried out with a story. As we have used the
treasure hunt example before, we will continue with this. It will
become even more interesting if there is a story about a witch, a
giant, or other mythical creatures.

1 Creating with their imagination

Create a story of going somewhere and finding an Indian chief who

gives you a key which you use to open a locker, where you find a
sword and food that you take with you. You use the sword to kill the
dragon or you use the food to feed the dragon and you make choices
which compose an entire story. Depending on where you want to take
your hero, you can end it by using the sword or end it by using the
food. When the children are in charge of the story, it is much more
interesting to them. For example, in Namatreasure you can look at
treasure T6. It has been written by a 14-year-old boy with a lot of
imagination. In Scratch, there is nothing to encourage this kind of
programming, but nothing to discourage it either. In Scratch we can
program a treasure hunt that we also wrote in Namatreasure. But in

76 6 Storytelling
Scratch, we can add unexpected and hidden surprises. ALICE – a 3D
programming environment – has a special edition for storytelling.
Children like to create with their imagination. They need to create
something, and a story is an exciting creation, especially when it can
be shared with friends. It has a start, an end and a body. However,
they won’t create something if it takes a painful amount of effort or
takes a lot of time, unless there is an important reason. This is why
we talked earlier about competitions. Because children like stories
and creating something and because they like competing and
winning, they will be willing to write a long and complicated story so
that they can win a competition in Namatreasure. In Namatreasure
the two competing teams write instructions for a treasure hunt and
then swap their instructions. The winning team is the one that finds
the treasure first. A complicated story will take the opposing team
longer to find the treasure.

2 Storytelling is an attention magnet

Storytelling is an attention magnet. As the children start telling a story

and manage to draw your attention, they will want to tell more stories
to get more of your attention because they love to draw the attention
of their parents. You can see this with your own children. They always
fight to see who will get more of your attention. Storytelling is also one
of the greatest marketing skills. If you want to sell something, it must
have a convincing story behind it. For example, these shoes are the
shoes of NASA astronauts. This food is what astronauts eat for
breakfast. Just watch advertisements to verify this. By telling stories,
children also learn other skills, such as marketing. Storytelling is
never boring. Storytelling draws your attention and makes you
visualize things. It’s a step-by-step process full of details that draws
your attention. It’s like the ornament of a drawing or the animation of a
movie. People heard their very first stories from their parents when
they would go to sleep. They love to feel their parents by their side at
night until they go to sleep, so they also love the story. The two things
are blended together in our mind. We like storytelling because it
reminds us of when we were children. Storytelling becomes part of
our game and part of our learning.

Create a program or treasure hunt with adventures, where the seeker

tries to find the treasure and also finds enemies that he has to defeat.

6 Storytelling 77
4 Treasure T6 (Level 6), a long story

Treasure 6 adds new dimensions to the treasure hunt. It adds the

element of storytelling and the element of multiple choices so that the
story builds up. This is of the most complex treasure hunt adventures
that are featured in Namatreasure, not because it uses complicated
structures, but because it is long and has many choices. If you write
more complex treasure hunt adventures, we will be glad to include
them in the next edition of this book. In treasure T6, you risk not
finding the treasure because of your choices, which are based on luck
and intuition. From the point of view of the treasure owner who writes
the instructions, extra effort is needed to keep track of all the different
instruction paths and of what the treasure seeker has in his
possession at any time. The story is an attraction magnet that
engages the players. It makes the treasure hunt look like an action
game. Enjoy the treasure hunt. Please note that the sub block of
instructions are not in order, so it becomes difficult to make decisions
based on the content of the other sub block instructions you can see.
Watch video T6 Namatreasure Story telling
https://youtu.be/paI2rUzFN_k

78 6 Storytelling
Main block of instructions that will lead you to the
treasure (Program)

Treasure Name T6

Treasure Island Island of two rivers

Initial position in X (column) 4

Initial position in Y (row) 12

Num. Instruction X Y

1 Enter the house 4 12

2 Follow the Block “Link1” instructions 4 12

3 Get out of the house 4 12

4 Move left until 3 12

you see a house above

5 Move up until 3 10

the entrance of the house

6 Follow the Block “Link2” instructions 3 10

7 Move 1 cell up 3 9

8 Information: You meet an old lady who is hungry 3 9

and thirsty, and she asks for food from you

9 If you give food

then

you lose one day of food

Follow Block “A2” instructions

6 Storytelling 79
 else

Follow Block “Link3” instructions

10 Move up until
3 5
you see a house with yellow roof on your right

11 Eat and sleep

12 Move up until
3 4
you see an Indian hut on your right

13 Information: A monster attacks you

14 If you have a sword

then
you fight and injure it
else
You run to save your life and
start from the beginning

15 If you are afraid then

you leave

If you kill it then

remember what you have done
If you leave food then

you lose two days of food

16 Move 1 cell right to the Indian hut 4 4

17 Enter the Indian hut 4 4

18 Buy the canoe in the river

19 Move up until you reach the canoe 4 2

80 6 Storytelling
20 Get in the canoe

21 Eat in the canoe

22 Sail down until the bridge

23 Take the canoe on the shore to the right 8 6

24 Pick up fruits for two days 9 6

25 Throw the canoe on the river

26 Get in the canoe

27 Sail down until 10 9

the two rivers meet

28 Sail 3 cells down 10 12

29 Tie the canoe in the right pier 10 12

30 Eat and sleep

31 If you do not have ring

then
go home without the treasure
end of Treasure T6
else
wear the ring

32 Dive into the bottom of the sea

33 Enter the cave that you will find

34 Dig until

you find the treasure box

35 Pick one thing to do according to what you

have done to the monster:

6 Storytelling 81
 If you did nothing to it then
Follow “E1” instructions
If you killed it then
Follow E2 instructions
If you left food then
Follow E3 instructions

36 End of treasure T6

Sub block of instructions for T6 Link3

Take with you from this block

Num. Instruction X Y

1 Information: Your behavior makes the old lady

very angry, so she sends you back home without
the treasure

2 End of treasure T6

Sub block of instructions for T6 [C]

Take with you from this block sword or food for five days

Num. Instruction X Y

1 Information: The door opens. Inside the house

there is a sword and food for five days

2 Pick only one of the two things in the house

that you will need the most in your journey

3 Return to the previous block of instructions

82 6 Storytelling
Sub block of instructions for T6 Link1

Take with you from this block

Num. Instruction X Y

1 Information: In the house there is an old lady

2 If you speak to the old lady then

Follow Block “B” instructions

3 Return to the previous block of instructions

Sub block of instructions for T6 E1

Take with you from this block

Num. Instruction X Y

1 Information: The sword tells you that because you

were afraid, you cannot take the treasure with
you

2 Go back to your house and your family

3 Information: In your home and in your simple

life you will find the treasure that you have been
seeking and do not look for it elsewhere again

4 Return to the previous block of instructions

Sub block of instructions for T6 B

Take with you from this block Information the right key, food

Num. Instruction X Y

6 Storytelling 83
 1 Information: The old lady tells you that there is a
door that has three keys and you have to press
the right key otherwise your choice will be your
last one

2 Take what the old lady gives you

3 Information: The old lady gives you food for 3 days

and she disappears

4 Return to the previous block of instructions

Sub block of instructions for T6 [B]

Take with you from this block

Num. Instruction X Y

1 Information: You see a bear running at you

2 Run to the boat to save your life, abandon the

treasure hunt

3 End of treasure T6

Sub block of instructions for T6 Link2

Take with you from this block

Num. Instruction X Y

1 Information: The door of the house is locked

If you try to open it then
2
follow Block “A*1” instructions
else
Follow Block “B*2” instructions”

3 Return to the previous block of instructions

84 6 Storytelling
Sub block of instructions for T6 E2

Take with you from this block

Num. Instruction X Y

1 Information: The sword tells you that you are a

coward because you kill woodland animals that
cannot harm you. Go back without the treasure
and never come here again

2 Return to the previous block of instructions

Sub block of instructions for T6 A*1

Take with you from this block

Num. Instruction X Y

1 Information: On the door there are three buttons

[A], [B], [C]
If you press [A] then
2
Follow Block “[A]” instructions

If you press [B] then

3
follow Block “[B]” instructions
Else
follow Block “[C]” instructions

4 Return to the previous block of instructions

Sub block of instructions for T6 [A]

Take with you from this block

Num. Instruction X Y

6 Storytelling 85
 1 Return to the previous block of instructions

Sub block of instructions for T6 B*2

Take with you from this block

Num. Instruction X Y

1 Information: You see a bear running at you

2 Run to the boat to save your life, abandon the

treasure hunt

3 End of Treasure T6

Sub block of instructions for T6 E3

Take with you from this block treasure

Num. Instruction X Y

1 Information: The sword tells you: You have

found the treasure and the magic sword and from
now on it is your duty to travel and restore
justice

2 Return to the previous block of instructions

Sub block of instructions for T6 A2

Take with you from this block ring

Num. Instruction X Y

86 6 Storytelling
 1 Information: the old lady takes you back to the
house. In the house there is an old man. The old
man is very glad that the old lady returned home,
and he gives you a ring that allows you to stay
under water for a long time.

2 Return to the previous block of instructions

After going on this long and complicated treasure hunt, you will
appreciate a summary and an analysis so that it becomes easy to
write such long and complicated treasure hunts as a treasure owner
and also to find the treasure as seeker.

Analysis of subprogram calls.

Write in a table all the instructions that instruct the hunter to go find
and follow another block of instructions

Start from main program (main block of instructions)

Main Call subpro- Instruc- Call sub- Instruc- Call Result

program gram tion program tion subpro
line number number - gram

3 Link1 2 B Information
right button,
food for 3 days

7 Link2 2 A*1 2 [A] nothing

3 [B] run to save

your life-End

3 [C] sword for food

7 Link2 2 B*2 run to save

your life-End

6 Storytelling 87
 9 A2 ring helps to
swim under
water

9 Link3 End

42 E1 End

42 E2 End

42 E3 Trea- sure

This is a highly complicated treasure hunt, because the hunter must

follow three levels of sub blocks. The first level is called from the main
block from where the program always starts, then each subsequent
call to follow instructions in another sub block is another level.

In real programming each level adds an abstraction level and makes

the program more intelligent. By intelligence we mean that with one
command, the program does many things, or we mean that the
program manages to function correctly in an unknown world. It copes
with whatever different situation it encounters. For example, a low-
level intelligence robot can follow instructions to go from point A to
point B. A higher-level intelligence robot can follow instructions to go
from point A to point B but can also avoid obstacles on the way.

MAGIC: Storytelling is one of the greatest marketing

skills. Everything has to have a compelling story
behind it. Storytelling can be easily practiced in
programming, like in Treasure 6 or in creating
adventure games in Scratch.

KEY CONCEPTS: Encourage children to use their

imagination to build a story, thus cultivating other
creative talents. When a project requires different
talents it also encourages cooperation since it
creates a task for many different characters.
Storytelling is an attention magnet.

88 6 Storytelling
CHAPTER 7
7 Analysis before execution

• First you get confused by the complexity of the problem

• Then you write it all down, separate and analyze

• Then you set priorities

• Then you write the recipe to solve the problem

If you have reached this far it means that you have mastered all the
basic programming structures (instruction types, commands,
statements etc.).

You are a programmer now, with Pic. 22 Blockly Maze 8 map

an understanding of what a
program is, what programming
language is, how to program in
linear mode by storytelling and
how to program using a loop
where sprites have behaviors and
interact with each other.

If you understand the previous

paragraph, you are ready to go
onto a higher level of
programming. The problems will
be more difficult and will require
certain techniques to solve them. We will start with an analysis of the
problem, decompose it into simple tasks and then synthesize the
different task solutions into one.

Introduce the analysis of the problems Blockly Maze levels 8, 9 and

10. At Maze Level 8 there is an unknown world (the path), but the
rules to travel it are easy. You can see the path instantly and you can
easily describe it as: Follow the yellow path.

7 Analysis before execution 89

In programming it becomes: if
there is a path ahead go Pic. 23 Blockly Maze 8 code
forward, if not and there is a
path to the left, turn left unless
there is a path to the right, then
turn right.

Blockly Maze Level 8 is not an

advanced level and does not
require a high level of analysis.
We start from here to have a
solid base for the next step.

1 Set up priorities

Blockly Maze Level 9:

First, we can draw the path on which the traveler should go. This

is the first part of the analysis. Then we should give the rules that will
guide the traveler to this path. If there is a path ahead go forward,
else turn left. This is the minimum program to achieve the task.
However, we can add more instructions, for example replacing the
“turn left” with “if there is path to the left then turn left”. In problem 9
we have set the first priority to

90 7 Analysis before execution

go straight and if it is not possible, turn left. Here is a cascaded if
statement, where there is an ‘If…’ statement within an ‘If ….’
statement.

Watch video BM9 Blockly Maze Level 9

https://youtu.be/bt-l8UYw_4E

To visualize these cascaded ‘If ….’ statements, think about walking

down a corridor where you see a yellow door, a red door and then a
green door. You are given the following statements to follow.

If you see a green door then

enter through the door
If you see a yellow door then
enter through the door
else leave the room
else go on

When you enter the green door, you see another yellow door and you
enter that one. When you open the green door, you are limited to
what you see in that room.

Note that you do not enter the yellow door which is in the same
corridor as the green door, but you enter the yellow door that is after
the green door.

2 Tools for setting priorities

Blockly Maze 10:

Maze Level 10 is extremely difficult and for this reason a hint is

provided: “Try following the left-hand wall. Advanced programmers
only!”

We forget about the message and continue as we have learned. First,

we can draw the path that the traveler should go on as it is shown
next. Then we see that in locations 1, 2, 3 and 4 there is more than
one choice and we have to set the rules for the robot.

7 Analysis before execution 91

 Path left Path ahead Path right Decide Priority
(forward) Left,
Forward,
Right

1 1 1 0 L LF

2 1 1 1 R RLF

3 1 1 0 L LF

4 1 0 1 L L R (violation of
previous
priority

With the available instructions

we have, we cannot keep
count of the intersections and
program what to do at each
one. The only thing that can
be done is to set priorities like
we did in Level 9, to first go
straight and if that was not
available, to search for an
alternative route. In Level 10
we cannot do the same
because if we do that then at
location 1: the robot will go
straight in the wrong direction.
From the table above, we see
that at intersection 1, left has
priority over ahead (forward).
From intersection 2, we see
that right has priority over the other two, so up to now we have set the
priorities as Right, Left, Ahead (forward). From intersection 3, left has
priority over ahead, which is as we have it. But at intersection 4, left
must have priority over right, which cannot be done because the
priorities cannot change in the middle of the game.

92 7 Analysis before execution

After the first failure, we try a
different route. Let’s
remember the hint that was
given in the beginning which
was “try following the left-hand
wall”. This means to give
priority to left first and see
what happens.

Path left Path ahead Path right Decide Priorities 1st, 2nd, 3rd
(forward) Forward,
Right

1 1 1 0 L L

2 1 1 1 L L

3 0 0 1

4 0 1 1 F L,F first time that we

decided that forward
has priority over right

5 0 0 1 R L,F, R priority is set

continue to validate

6 0 0 1 R L,F, R priority is
validated

7 0 0 1 R L,F, R priority is
validated

7 Analysis before execution 93

 4 1 0 1 L L,F, R priority is
validated

3 1 0 L L,F, R priority is
validated

2 1 1 1 L L,F, R priority is
validated

8 0 0 0 L When no available
route decide to turn
Left

8 1 0 0

2 1 1 1 L L,F,R validat- ed

9 1 1 0 L L,F,R validat- ed

10 1 0 1 L

11 0 0 1 R

Design a path with priority Left.

Create the table of priorities to test for consistency

First set the priority to left for all the intersections that have left. Then
at intersection 4, forward is set at a higher priority than right. The
priority left, forward, right, is consistent in all intersections so we can
put it in code and test it. If it does not work, we will see where it fails
and correct it.

The priorities are shown very clearly, starting from top to bottom
inside the first If. Priority is left and if there is no left, it is forward, and
if there is no left or forward, it is right.

Since all levels have been covered, we have made a similar game in
Scratch to practice more.

94 7 Analysis before execution

Watch video BM10 Blockly Maze Level 10

https://youtu.be/wjeUuJUnRZE

7 Analysis before execution 95

Go to these locations to practice “engino maze level 9 and 10”

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/98616606/#editor

Pic. 29 Scratch project similar to blockly maze 10

there is path to
the left

there is path
ahead

96 7 Analysis before execution

Pic 30. Definition of instruction "Move Pic 31 Car that moves in the
1 step" maze, small color rectrangles
act as sensors

MAGIC: With programming we can solve difficult

problems mainly by breaking the problem into
smaller ones using decomposition and analysis. The
small problems can be easily solved and tested
thoroughly. We can then start the synthesis of the
smaller problem solutions, testing every time we add
a new module to the project. It is similar to cooking,
where the ingredients are added one by one, stirred
together, tested and then we proceed to add another
one until we have included all of them.

KEY CONCEPTS: Programming is easy but there

are difficult problems to solve. Difficult problems face
the scientist in NASA and CERN too, therefore do
not get discouraged when you face difficult
problems. But do not identify difficult problems with
programming itself; to solve difficult problems various
analytical tools are used.

7 Analysis before execution 97

CHAPTER 8
8 Teams produce more work

• One is not enough

• Two are better than one

• Three can start a team

• Teams can take you to the sky or to zero

• Teams helped primitive people hunt big animals

1 Work in teams

Teams are indispensable. Our whole society is based on teamwork. If

you want to accomplish something, you have to be able to work in a
team. However, in order to work in teams, you must also learn how to
work on your own. Therefore, having fulfilled the previous chapters,
we have reached the point where our children are fluent in
programming. They know their limitations, and they can now start to
work in teams. There needs to be a motive though. One motive is
company. Children like to have company. They like to talk and make
jokes. Another motive for working in teams is that together with their
team, they can win. For example, if there is a large amount of work to
be done and each member of the team does a part of it, then the
team can win over an individual. As teamwork is important and
necessary and we have reached a point where we can work in teams,
let us now concentrate on what the issues are when working as a
team.

First, we must be careful. Working in teams has many traps. Children

can easily form teams and make friends, but the opposite is also true:
children can also easily break up teams and lose friendships. They
can easily have fun and can also easily disagree and fight. We must
find all of these pitfalls and remove them before the game starts.
Each member must feel important to the team and must have a task.

98 8 Teams produce more work

You cannot have two leaders in the same team. You can only have
one leader. You will also have one member who is the best follower
and the others who work the team. It is better if they know each other
a bit.

2 Selection of the team members

When selecting the teams, try to have one leader in each group, as
well as one member that bonds the team together, a selection of
workers that work on the real stuff, and someone who is a dreamer
who can see the big picture and can create lots of ideas. Above all, do
not deprive anyone of the right to become a member of the team.
Take extra steps to find the child who is a secret team leader – who
cannot take orders from anyone but is too shy to take control. It is
worth the effort to try to bring everyone on board.

Once the team is formed, you should see them as one entity and talk
to them as a whole. In private you can talk to anyone you want, but in
public, when you talk to the team, you must speak to them collectively
rather than to one individual. I cannot stress the importance of this
point enough.

If you decide to give praise to someone, you must find a way to also
give praise to each person on the team and distribute the praise and
comments to all of them. You must give all of them credit. Although
we say all these things about teams, the most important motive for
children to work in teams is that it increases their chances of
winning. And as we already know, it’s all about competition and
winning. It’s all about feeling important. Give the teams a task that
they have to separate into smaller tasks so that together as a team,
they produce more than they would be able to on their own. This will
increase their chances of winning and will make them want to work on
teams in the future. They will appreciate that working with teammates
increases their chances of winning. They will only appreciate their
teammates if their individual work increases the chances of the team
winning. If any of the team members do not work, the others will want
to remove them from the team.

Children are very straightforward. If someone adds to the team, they

will want him or her on their team. If someone subtracts from the

8 Teams produce more work 99

team, they will not want him or her on their team. So, you must make
sure that each member contributes to the procedure.

Up until now, we have seen difficult problems that could be easier to

solve as a team than as an individual. For example, in Namatreasure,
treasure T6, in Blockly Maze Level 10, and in Scratch the orange
robot competition.

An excellent game for team work is also the “tennis competition”

project, which has an execution part and a programming part. Some
members of the team will be better at the execution part and others at
writing the code, but the synergy will come when they exchange ideas
because both are needed to get the maximum impact.
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/98775866/#editor

The project is the tennis competition remix.

MAGIC: Children’s motive for working in teams is

that together with their team, they can win. For
example, if there is a large amount of work to be
done and each member of the team does a part of it,
then the team can win over an individual.

KEY CONCEPTS: Although teams produce more

than an individual can, it is more difficult to manage
teams. Everyone has an opinion and the need to
participate, to be heard and to be the leader.
Managing the team and selecting the team members
is much more difficult than programming although for
some people it comes naturally. These people make
the best leaders.

100 8 Teams produce more work

CHAPTER 9
9 To 3D world and beyond

• You are now a programmer

• The road lies ahead and it’s up to you where you will travel

• You can do mobile applications with Blockly MIT App Inventor

• You can do automation projects with Blockly and Arduino

• Programming is for artists too

Where do we go from here? We have learned the basics of

programming in environments that were designed for learning and
now we need to go to the outside world. It is as if we have just got our
driving license and are free to drive on any road we want. The journey
and how long we travel is up to us.

The last thing we will do in this book is to show you different exciting
destinations that are within your reach. With the experience and
knowledge you have acquired you are now ready to start learning to
use tutorials.

You will be thrilled and amazed with what you can do with the things
you have learned. It will come as a huge surprise to you that you can
still do a lot with these environments. If you are wondering why there
is so much activity around these learning environments, you have to
first think about their success. Both Scratch and Blockly are very
popular and in the world of the internet the winner takes it all. This is
so true, that a new paradigm has been formed. First you provide a
free service to gather an audience and then you charge for a better
service, exploit their presence on your site or have a gift shop at the
exit. The gift shop provides for the free service.

9 To 3D world and beyond 101

1 Mobile Application development.

Can I program my mobile device? Yes you can program your mobile
device and develop applications for it, just like you have written
programs for Blockly, using the MIT app inventor.

“MIT Center for Mobile Learning.Welcome to MIT’s Center for Mobile

Learning’s App Inventor website (the “Site”). The Site runs on
Google’s App Engine service.”

What is “Google’s App Engine”? A quotation from the website:

“Google App Engine: Platform as a Service, Google App Engine lets
you build and run applications on Google’s infrastructure. App Engine
applications are easy to create, easy to maintain and easy to scale as
your traffic and data storage needs change. With App Engine, there
are no servers for you to maintain. You simply upload your application
and it’s ready to go.”

In simple words, imagine that you are a car designer, Google App
Engine would give you the tools to design, provide the factory to
produce the first few cars, and if sales pick up they will provide the
facilities to produce more, to meet the demand without any limitations,
and take care of the delivery to the customer’s door. They will only
charge a service fee for the exact amount of services you have used.
It is an excellent deal that is only possible with software products. The
MIT App Inventor does exactly that but for free because we are still
evolving, we are not designers yet, we are learners, we are still in an
incubator.

Quotation from the MIT app inventor website: MIT app inventor:

“Description of MIT App Inventor

From this Site you can access MIT App Inventor, which lets you
develop applications for Android devices using a web browser and
either a connected phone or emulator. You can also use the Site to
store your work and keep track of your projects. App Inventor was
originally developed by Google. The Site also includes documentation
and educational content, and this is being licensed to you under the
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0).

102 9 To 3D world and beyond

The Apps you create

By creating and storing apps on the MIT App Inventor server you
represent and warrant that you are the owner and creator of the apps,
(i) that you have the authority to authorize MIT to store the apps on
the MIT App Inventor Server and (ii) you will use the apps in
compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. You, and not MIT,
are solely responsible for your apps and your use of them.

MIT has no proprietary rights in the apps you create with MIT App
Inventor. These apps belong to you. Your apps are stored on the MIT
App Inventor server.”

So, we can become developers for free, in the real world, and do
whatever we want with our applications. For example, you can write
one to remind your husband of the things you want him to do.

Above you can see a program that is written in MIT Appinventor, but it
also looks as if it is a Scratch program. The program refers to a
Button 1 on the screen that you click (you tap it). Whenever you click
it, it executes the following program. The program executes only when
button 1 is clicked. First it selects a number from 0 to 6 and assigns it
to a global variable called Asel. All subprograms in the project know
this variable. Then there are “If” statements for every possible
number. For example, when Asel becomes 1, the Function
‘TextToSpeech1’ is called and speaks the text in parenthesis, which is
1. When variable Asel becomes 0 it is invalid, and simulates

9 To 3D world and beyond 103

the throw of dice out of bounds. When Asel becomes 0, it plays the
sound with the name Sound1, that can be anything you record.

The rest of the program is not shown but it is made of similar “if”
statements as the “if” statement for number 1. Before using a
variable, it is initialized using the command “initialize global Asel to 0”.

2 Programming in art

Programming language Processing. (reference https://processing.org)

Processing is one of the programming languages which uses the

curly brackets. We propose this as the first language with curly
brackets that you learn, if you want to expand into more established
languages that most programmers use today.

Processing is open, free and it addresses the needs of artists. It is a

tool for artists that enables them to create visual arts. Coming from
the engineering field, it came as a big surprise to me when I learned
that artists use programming, but then again, artists can use
everything and anything to create. For artists, programming is just
another tool that will help them create.

In this book, we claim that anyone can program. Artists do whatever

they do best, therefore it is not a surprise that processing has some of
the best tutorials. Do not miss their first tutorial in this link
http://hello.processing.org/editor/. Everything is free, but if you want to
buy a book on processing please buy it from their store
https://processing.org/shop/ so that you can sponsor their activities.

Useful quotations from their site: (2016)

“At our core is the philosophy and politics of open-source software.

We see software as a medium, or something that connects two
things. We view it as a means for thinking and making. We believe it
should be free. We believe that learning to program is not about
acquiring a certain skillset but is instead a creative and exploratory
process. We believe software, and the tools to learn it, should be
accessible to everyone. We believe software literacy and an
understanding of media of all kinds is essential knowledge for today.”

104 9 To 3D world and beyond

“For the past fourteen years, Processing has promoted software
literacy,

particularly within the visual arts, and visual literacy within technology.
Initially created to serve as a software sketchbook and to teach
programming fundamentals within a visual context. Processing has
also evolved into a development tool for professionals. The
Processing software is free and open source, and runs on the Mac,
Windows, and GNU/Linux platforms.”

Education

“From the beginning, Processing was designed as a first

programming language. Processing is geared toward creating visual,
interactive media, so the first programs start with practicing drawing.
Students new to programming find it incredibly satisfying to make
something appear on their screen within moments of using the
software. This motivating curriculum has proved successful for
leading design, art, and architecture students into programming and
for engaging the wider student body in general...”

Culture

9 To 3D world and beyond 105

“The Processing software is used by thousands of visual designers,
artists, and architects to create their works. Projects created with
Processing have been featured at the Museum of Modern Art in New
York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Centre Georges
Pompidou in Paris, and many other prominent venues. Processing is
used to create projected stage designs for dance and music
performances; to generate images for music videos and film; to
export images for posters, magazines, and books; and to create
interactive installations in galleries, in museums, and on the street.
….”

History

“Processing was started by Ben Fry and Casey Reas in the spring of
2001, while both were graduate students at the MIT Media Lab within
John Maeda’s Aesthetics and Computation research group.
Development continued in their free time while Casey pursued his
artistic and teaching career and Ben pursued a Ph.D. and founded
Fathom Information Design. Many of the ideas in Processing go back
to Muriel Cooper’s Visual Language Workshop, and it grew directly
out of Maeda’s “Design By Numbers” project, developed at the Media
Lab and released in 1999. The Wiring and Arduino projects, in turn,
grew out of Processing while Casey was teaching at the Interaction
Design Institute Ivrea in Italy.”

3 Programming intelligent devices at home

The previous exciting story leads us to a new even more thrilling one,
the Arduino.

Arduino is a major milestone in the maker’s movement. The maker’s

movement empowers ordinary people like you and me to become
makers of things in the three-dimensional world, home automation,
smart devices in agriculture, smart manufacturing, fashion and
wearable devices, toys and in any aspect of our life.

Arduino is a free open platform with thousands of devices to meet any

application or need. What ‘open’ and ‘free’ means in this context, is
that anyone can copy the design, manufacture it and sell it. This is
what happens with Arduino. There is the official Arduino site where
you can buy Arduino-certified products, usually development boards.

106 9 To 3D world and beyond

There are other manufacturers that manufacture authentic Arduino
copies and they pay a small fee to the Arduino parent company. Then
there are other manufacturers that manufacture the exact Arduino
projects but do not put the Arduino mark on them because they did
not pay royalties to Arduino. They say their products are compatible
with Arduino and give them similar names like Beduino. Because it is
open and free to copy, Arduino became a huge success that
continually evolves.

From the official website, what is Arduino?

“Arduino is an open-source prototyping platform based on easy- to-

use hardware and software. Arduino boards are able to read inputs -
light on a sensor, a finger on a button, or a Twitter message - and turn
it into an output - activating a motor, turning on an LED, publishing
something online. You can tell your board what to do by sending a set
of instructions to the micro- controller on the board. To do so you use
the Arduino programming language (based on Wiring), and the
Arduino Software (IDE), based on Processing.

9 To 3D world and beyond 107

Pic. 34 Arduino programming environment for makers

Over the years Arduino has been the brain of thousands of projects,
from everyday objects to complex scientific instruments. A worldwide
community of makers - students, hobbyists, artists, programmers, and
professionals has gathered around this open-source platform, and
their contributions have added up to an incredible amount of
accessible knowledge that can be of great help to novices and
experts alike.

[pic N34 Arduino Programming environment for makers]

Arduino was born at the Ivrea Interaction Design Institute as an easy

tool for fast prototyping, aimed at students without a background in
electronics and programming. As soon as it reached a wider

108 9 To 3D world and beyond

community, the Arduino board started changing to adapt to new
needs and challenges, differentiating its offer from simple 8-bit boards
to products for IoT applications, wearable, 3D printing, and embedded
environments. All Arduino boards are completely open-source,
empowering users to build them independently and eventually adapt
them to their particular needs. The software, too, is open-source, and
it is growing through the contributions of users worldwide.” …

Why Arduino

• Inexpensive Arduino boards are relatively inexpensive compared

to other microcontroller platforms because they are so popular and
because any manufacturer can produce them.

• Cross-platform The Arduino Software (IDE) runs on Windows,

Macintosh OSX, and Linux operating systems, so you can run it on
any computer.

• Simple, clear programming environment The Arduino Software

(IDE) is easy to use for beginners, yet flexible enough for advanced
users to take advantage as well. And you can also use the
professional environment supplied by the Chip manufacturer that is
also free.

• Open source and extensible software The Arduino software is

published as open source tools, available for extension by
experienced programmers. The language can be expanded through
C++ libraries, and people wanting to understand the technical details
can make the leap from Arduino to the AVR C programming language
on which it’s based. Similarly, you can add AVR-C code directly into
your Arduino programs if you want to.

• Open source and extensible hardware The plans of the Arduino

boards are published under a Creative Commons license, so
experienced circuit designers can make their own version of the
module, extending it and improving it. You can start any project you
want from the closest available and then continue from there. It is
very useful to have an initial working prototype.

In simple words, Arduino is good for everyone, from the beginner to

the professional, because anyone can find cheap, excellent quality
products covering all the available applications. You start in an easy

9 To 3D world and beyond 109

programming environment and then move to a more complicated
environment with many buttons and windows.

Fortunately for us, we can program Arduino in Blockly environments

and in Scratch. From Scratch 1, the Snap4Arduino environment has
been developed, where projects can connect to the outside world.
From Blockly, an environment called ArduinoBlockly has been
developed to program Arduino boards.

Snap4Arduino and S4A are Scratch environments that have extra

instructions for controlling the Arduino board. Once you develop the
program, test it and debug it using the excellent Scratch tools. You
can then easily translate it to the Arduino programming language.

Magic: Programming is everywhere in mobile

applications, in art, in home devices, on the web, in
industry, in medical engineering, and you can also
develop your own solutions. You cannot excel in all
those fields, but you can excel in one or two, and
understand the others. If you understand
programming, you can appreciate the potentials and
the weaknesses that devices running programs
have. Above all, you will appreciate human behavior
and understand “IF Then” statements and “While”
loops that form the behavior of people. You will see
the similarities between our human behavior and
that of programmable devices.

110 9 To 3D world and beyond

Appendix 1. Level and Certificates

The learning path followed in this book is tested and is easy to follow
with exciting discoveries and projects along the way. The path can be
augmented with more projects and examples that you can add at
“Namatreasure Play with Children Programming” Studio in Scratch.

The awards in this Appendix are awarded to learners that repeatedly

demonstrate the ability that each award requires. For Blockly Maze
one can use the project in the book to add more examples and tests.

Children that manage to collect all the awards are fluent in

programming, since they have mastered the foundations and are
comfortable in talking about solving programming problems. They can
start a project from start to finish, work in teams and talk about project
development.

The material covered in this book is essential for learners irrespective

of age, the only difference related to age, is that older children can go
through the material very fast.

Learners that have mastered all the awards in this Appendix are
ready to go on to the next level, where real life problems can be
solved using programming and other hardware, which is the subject
of our next book. First, we explore the problem by defining it and by
enumerating the steps needed to solve it. The exploration continues
in the Scratch environment, where the problem is simulated and
possible solutions are investigated. After simulation, a test facility is
built to test the project in a laboratory environment using S4A, Arduino
hardware and software and Engino mechanical parts. A toy test
facility is built and tested, while we continue programming in the
Scratch environment, and we can control and sense the real world
with motors and sensors.

Appendix 1. Level and Certificates 111

After the project has been thoroughly tested in the test facility, we can
proceed to build a real project. The program is moved from Scratch to
Arduino and the hardware is built using real hardware items scaled up
to its real dimensions.

112 Appendix 1. Level and Certificates

Appendix 1. Level and Certificates 113
114 Appendix 1. Level and Certificates
Appendix 1. Level and Certificates 115
116 Appendix 1. Level and Certificates
Appendix 2 Programming instruction

types and control structures

Wherever there is the character ‘N’ it can be replaced with a number.

Wherever you see the phrase ‘Nam’ is represents Namatreasure, and
similarly ‘Sc’ with Scratch and ‘Bl’ with Blockly.

Appendix 2 Programming instruction 117

Simple Instruction types with parameters

118 Appendix 2 Programming instruction

Simple Loop structures (they are called structures because they are
composed of more than one instruction and they contain other
instructions. They are also called control structures because they
control the flow of the instructions executed.)

Appendix 2 Programming instruction 119

Advanced Loop Instructions with Condition

120 Appendix 2 Programming instruction

Appendix 2 Programming instruction 121
Conditional structures (instruction types) Simple

122 Appendix 2 Programming instruction

Sense instructions:

Appendix 2 Programming instruction 123

Functions (This is advanced and it is not used in Namatreasure) can
be used as parameters in other statements

Define new instructions

You can define instructions any time with a graphical design and
explain it in your language. For all those that do not speak your
language, you can hope they understand your design.

Sub programs, calls to run subprograms

124 Appendix 2 Programming instruction

Appendix 2 Programming instruction 125
Appendix 3 Further Reading

References are written in a free form so that you can add your own
references later in the same way.

1. TED talk - Let’s teach kids to code

Young people today have lots of experience interacting with new

technologies, but a lot less so of creating [or] expressing themselves
with new technologies. It’s almost as if they can read but not write.”

Mitch Resnick Let’s teach kids to code

www.ted.com/talks/mitch_resnick_let_s_teach_kids_to_code

2. Evolution of Graphical programming languages

Source Wikipedia

Agentsheets

Influenced by: Lisp, Logo, Smalltalk

Influenced: Etoys, Scratch

Designed by: Alexander Repenning Developer:

Etoys (Programming language)

Influenced by: Logo, Smalltalk, HyperCard, StarLogo, AgentSheets

Influenced: Scratch

Designed by: Alan Kay

126 Appendix 3 Further Reading

Developer: Scott Wallace, Ted Kaehler, John Maloney, Andreas Raab,
Dan Ingalls

Scratch (Programming language)

Influenced by: Logo, Smalltalk, HyperCard, StarLogo, AgentSheets,

Etoys

Influenced: Scratch Jr Snap!

Designed by: Mitchel Resnick

Developer: MIT Media Lab Lifelong Kindergarten Group, John

Maloney,

Follow the Etoys Programming Language team that will lead you to
the MIT scratch project. Follow the Agentsheets story that although
first in graphical programming stayed behind in popularity because in
my opinion it was not free. Because it was not free it could not be
adopted widely by schools and since most other programming
languages were free it was not welcomed.

3. Computer science in Vietnam, Neils Blocky (Google)

https://neil.fraser.name/news/2013/03/16/

https://neil.fraser.name/news/2012/01/24/

https://neil.fraser.name/news/2012/06/19/

https://neil.fraser.name/news/2013/12/31/

4. Etoys Alan kay talk on TED

“With all the intensity and brilliance for which he is known, Alan Kay
envisions better techniques for teaching kids by using computers to

Appendix 3 Further Reading 127

illustrate experience in ways – mathematically and scientifically —
that only computers can.” https://goo.gl/KAbpav

The Etoys system is based on the idea of programmable virtual

entities behaving on the computer screen.

5. Tyler DeWitt:

Hey science teachers — make it fun TEDxBeaconStreet 2012 · 11:20

· Filmed Nov 2012 https://goo.gl/yopq0I

128 Appendix 3 Further Reading

6 Blockly showcase of environments that use Blockly

https://developers.google.com/blockly/

7 https://developers.googleblog.com/2019/01/scratch-30s-new-
programming-blocks.html

On January 2nd 2019, Scratch 3.0 launched with all of the code open
source and publicly developed. At Google, we created two coding
activities that showcase this code base. The first was Code a
Snowflake, which was used by millions of kids as part of Google's
Santa Tracker. The second was a Google Doodle that celebrated 50
years of kids coding and gave millions of people their first experience
with block programming.

7.1 https://www.google.com/doodles/celebrating-50-years-of-kids-
coding

7.2 https://santatracker.google.com/village.html

Appendix 3 Further Reading 129

Acknowledgments

I wish to acknowledge all the help that my students have given me,
helping me to understand what is important and teaching me new
ways to improve the material in this book. I also want to thank my
family for their support and for the time they have given me to pursue
what is important to me.

Many thanks go to Andreas Kyprianou for providing the look and feel
of the book, and for making it pleasant to the eye and to Emily Millett
and Timothy Isaacs for providing the editing and making it simple to
read.

I also acknowledge the USA government, first for the CASP Cyprus
American Scholarship Program, and second for the support they give
to the development of programming languages for children that are
translated in many languages.

130 Acknowledgments
About

Nicos Ioannou

As a child, Nicos was a dreamer who liked to create things in his

imagination, hoping that one day he would make them a reality. As he
got older, he enjoyed learning more and more as the years went by.
He became an electronic engineer and worked in a power station for
ten years, before going on to work in the public service, where he is
engaged in research and innovation.

He has not forgotten the joy of creating and always dreams of finding
ways to make learning interesting, enjoyable and creative. He
believes that intellectual property is important, therefore he has
developed two patents. He also believes that programming is
important and therefore has developed useful programmable devices
using Arduino. Nicos practices first and then shows others the things
he found interesting and useful.

Nicos studied in the United States in Los Angeles USC and the

University of Texas, Austin, with scholarships from (CASP) Cyprus

America Scholarship Program.

Nicos Ioannou 131