Lecture 1

date: 21 January 2016 tutor: Alessandro Memo

1. course introduction and rules
2. Lesson 1: intro (presentation ppt, see materials)
• installation problems (.NET framework compatibility)
• use of SmallBasic user interface
• description of the differences between LEGO visual programming and EV3Basic, compatibility with the LEGO brick, necessity to download the compiled program from PC to Brick. The description of the use of the utility EV3Explorer was postponed to the next lesson because the software was not already installed in the PCs.
• comment of an easy example of the use of the conditional command (If ... Then ... Else ... EndIf)
• exercise: show in order two strings entered by keyboard (5 mins)
• exercise: show a comment on the temperature entered by keyboard, suggesting the use of the keyword ElseIf; the students have to discover the use of the help of the IDE(10 mins)
• comment of a proposed solution of the previous example
• comment of two easy examples of the use of the loop commands (For ... To ... Step ... EndFor)
3. Lesson 2: Brick I/O (presentation ppt, see materials)
• exercise: the display in Text Mode, sliding text (10 mins)
• comment of a proposed solution of the previous example 2 and introduction to the program style (insertion of comments, declaration zone at the beginning of the program, indent, try changes to learn, action - reaction of a program)
• exercise: the display in Graph Mode, a pattern with a single loop (10 mins)
• comment of a proposed solution of the previous example 3
• the buttons, asynchronous mode (when the moment of program's reading is different by the moment of the physical change) and synchronous mode (when the program read the current status of the buttons)
• exercise: move the robot with the buttons
• comment of a proposed solution of the previous example 4, two different approaches, elegance of the software

Comments: The interest and the reaction of the students to the lesson has been very good, so I have had the possibility to accelerate during the exercises, to mantein a high level of partecipation for the whole lesson. We'll see the results (remember or forgot?) in the next lesson.