Challenge
Open the project (2)Return of the Painted Turtles. In the section, add your own buttons and sliders to control the turtle activity.
What kinds of patterns can you create by adding your own simple commands? What sorts of behavior can you generate using a series of commands? Can you build buttons that faithfully reproduce your favorite patterns by repeating a sequence of steps? What is the simplest set of commands you can use to create a complex pattern? Can you use the paint tools to set up different initial conditions?
Remember that StarLogo is a parallel language, so any command that you write for one turtle will be run by all of the turtles. When you issue any turtle instructions all of the turtles will follow those commands.
Possible Explorations
· Try using the repeat command in conjunction with a slider that specifies the number of repetitions. Explore how varying the number of repetitions affects turtle behavior and the resulting pattern.
· Try to create buttons that make the turtles draw different shapes. What pattern emerges when 100 turtles each draw a triangle? You might use a slider to change the size of the shapes.
· See if you can make the turtles “wiggle” by making them repeatedly walk and turn.
For more information contact Vanessa Colella (vanessa@media.mit.edu) or Eric Klopfer (klopfer@mit.edu).