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Line 14: − + − − 6. During a discussion [http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/2011-July/013831.html] about curricula guidelines, Gary Martin generated a self-organizing map for the Science Education Framework published by the United States National Academies (See [File:K-12_science_education_framework_13165_som.jpg]). I thought it would be interesting to how some other guidelines mapped, so I asked him to generate some from the Newton Public Schools, a well-regarded US system (See Curriculum Overview Documents for Parents, "Your Child's Year in Grades K- 8" [http://www3.newton.k12.ma.us/content/grade-level-curriculum]). − The results are fascinating: [[File:Grade_K_2010_som.jpg]] [[File:Grade_1_2010_som.jpg]] [[File:Grade_2_2010_som.jpg]] [[File:Grade_3_2010_som.jpg]] [[File:Grade_4_2010_som.jpg]] [[File:Grade_5_2010_som.jpg]] [[File:Grade_6_2010_som.jpg]] [[File:Grade_7_2010_som.jpg]] [[File:Grade_8_2010_som.jpg]], particularly the frequency of words such as 'identify', 'understand', and, my favorite, 'appropriate'. + + + + + + + + + + + + + Line 25:
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→Sugar Digest
4. As part of the toolbar cleanup, I could not resist adding a feature to the Distance activity that I have wanted since the first time I saw it demonstrated by Ben Schwartz. There is now a toolbar for adjusting the units used – the default is still meters, but you can measure in centimeters, inches, feet, or yards as well. In addition, you can use the current distance being measured as your unit of measure, i.e., Distance will let you measure in 'Smoots' (See [http:wikipedia.org/go/Smoots]). I also made an updated activity page for Distance here: [[Activities/Distance]].
4. As part of the toolbar cleanup, I could not resist adding a feature to the Distance activity that I have wanted since the first time I saw it demonstrated by Ben Schwartz. There is now a toolbar for adjusting the units used – the default is still meters, but you can measure in centimeters, inches, feet, or yards as well. In addition, you can use the current distance being measured as your unit of measure, i.e., Distance will let you measure in 'Smoots' (See [http:wikipedia.org/go/Smoots]). I also made an updated activity page for Distance here: [[Activities/Distance]].
5. The OLPC team in Australia has a new discussion portal that has been seeing many posts from teachers using Sugar ([https://www.yammer.com/australianxoteachers]). One of the teachers, Frank Van Den Boom, was looking for a Powerpoint equivalent in order to let children manipulate pictures of currency. Van Den Boom has some learning exercises relating to currency that involve building equivalencies with different bills and coins. Of course, I immediately thought of how Turtle Art might be used for such an exercise. After doing the obvious: rendering images of money, I opted to write a plug in that provides a palette of coins and bills that can be used as if their were number blocks [[File:Oz_currency.png]]; e.g. they can be used with the various arithmetic operators and they can be used with the various turtle commands. A silly but revealing example is shown here [[File:US_currency.png]]. You can download the plug ins for various currencies from here: [[Activities/TurtleArt#currency]]
5. The OLPC team in Australia has a new discussion portal that has been seeing many posts from teachers using Sugar ([https://www.yammer.com/australianxoteachers]). One of the teachers, Frank Van Den Boom, was looking for a Powerpoint equivalent in order to let children manipulate pictures of currency. Van Den Boom has some learning exercises relating to currency that involve building equivalencies with different bills and coins. Of course, I immediately thought of how Turtle Art might be used for such an exercise. After doing the obvious: rendering images of money, I opted to write a plug in that provides a palette of coins and bills that can be used as if their were number blocks [[:File:Oz_currency.png]]; e.g. they can be used with the various arithmetic operators and they can be used with the various turtle commands. A silly but revealing example is shown here [[:File:US_currency.png]]. You can download the plug ins for various currencies from here: [[Activities/TurtleArt#currency]]
6. During a discussion [http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/2011-July/013831.html] about curricula guidelines, Gary Martin generated a self-organizing map for the Science Education Framework published by the United States National Academies (See [File:K-12_science_education_framework_13165_som.jpg]). I thought it would be interesting to how some other guidelines mapped, so I asked him to generate some from the Newton Public Schools, a well-regarded US system (See Curriculum Overview Documents for Parents, "Your Child's Year in Grades K- 8" [http://www3.newton.k12.ma.us/content/grade-level-curriculum]).
The results are fascinating, particularly the frequency of words such as 'identify', 'understand', and, my favorite, 'appropriate'.
<gallery>
File:Grade_K_2010_som.jpg|K
File:Grade_1_2010_som.jpg|Grade 1
File:Grade_2_2010_som.jpg|Grade 2
File:Grade_3_2010_som.jpg|Grade 3
File:Grade_4_2010_som.jpg|Grade 4
File:Grade_5_2010_som.jpg|Grade 5
File:Grade_6_2010_som.jpg|Grade 6
File:Grade_7_2010_som.jpg|Grade 7
File:Grade_8_2010_som.jpg|Grade 8
</gallery>
=== In the community ===
=== In the community ===
=== Tech Talk ===
=== Tech Talk ===
8. Daniel Drake has created [[Features/GTK3|a page in the wiki]] for discussing the migration to GNOME 3.0. There is a section for [[Features/GTK3/DesktopSummitActivities|The Desktop Summit]], which is underway in Berlin. Raul and friends have already gotten a Sugar Hello World running (See http://people.collabora.co.uk/~rgs/tmp/gtk3-activity-in-sugar.png).
8. Daniel Drake has created [[Features/GTK3|a page in the wiki]] for discussing the migration to GNOME 3.0. There is a section for [[Features/GTK3/DesktopSummitActivities|The Desktop Summit]], which is underway in Berlin. Raul and friends have already gotten a Sugar Hello World running (See [http://people.collabora.co.uk/~rgs/tmp/gtk3-activity-in-sugar.png]).
9. Hilaire Fernandes has announced Release 11.08 of DrGeo, which is fully working with the latest stable Sugar release (See http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/addon/4323). Additional features include:
9. Hilaire Fernandes has announced Release 11.08 of DrGeo, which is fully working with the latest stable Sugar release (See http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/addon/4323). Additional features include: