Challenge 1

A StarLogo Modeler is Born

Challenge

Open the project (1)Painted Turtles.  Can you use StarLogo’s turtles to create patterns? What happens to your pattern if you create only one turtle? Two turtles? Twenty turtles?

Are your favorite patterns symmetrical or asymmetrical?  Do your favorite patterns have common color schemes?  Do you prefer patterns that are dynamic or static?

Try to design your own pattern using a sequence of buttons.  What happens to the pattern if you execute the steps in a different order?

Possible Explorations

·        Try varying the initial number of turtles or their starting configurations to create graphic designs using the pattern buttons.  For example click the create-flower button followed by the pattern-1 button or the pattern-2 button.

·        Try pressing different combinations of pattern buttons or running more than one button simultaneously.  Now vary these patterns by repeating them while the turtles have their pens up or down.  You can further vary the patterns by resetting the turtles’ colors using the change-color button.

·        When you feel comfortable with the above explorations, try to create some of the following cool graphics for yourself

For more information contact Vanessa Colella (vanessa@media.mit.edu) or Eric Klopfer (klopfer@mit.edu).