From board games to programming: workshop by Papacode
2022-02-24
(Provided by Si Wan College) When students of non-technical programs first learn programming, they need to switch to another way of thinking. The Center for Essential Education, Si Wan College, National Sun Yat-sen University, held an introductory programming workshop and invited Papacode co-founder Yu-Hsien Liu to teach students the basic logic of programming languages through a board game – "Coding Ocean: King of Pirates".
“Now, with the new 2019 curriculum, programming has become a learning trend. But what is programming all about?” Yu-Hsien Liu first asked the students to reflect on this question. “Programming languages let humans communicate with a computer." Yu-Hsien Liu explained that even with a wrong syntax, people can still understand each other. But with computers, one command equals to one step, and a full stop or a missing parenthesis can lead to errors. Therefore, the first step to learn the syntax of a programming language is to understand the logic of the program, which is the core concept of the game "King of Pirates".
The players of the "King of Pirates" have to translate the desired actions into commands and make the boat reach the designated place by arranging and combining commands. One command can only represent one kind of action, and the player can't move forward while turning. Before each sequence, the player must press “start” to set the boat in motion. Another way to play is the field mode, where both players hide treasures on their fields, and the one who collects the other player's treasure first in the shortest time will win. Another highlight game of the workshop was "Legend Decoding", where each checkpoint gives players access to new stories, levels, and clue cards, and the player who draws the last card wins.
“The results were very touching!” said Tzu-Hsuan Huang, a freshman studying NSYSU’s Program in Interdisciplinary Studies. She said that this workshop was aimed at “nurturing thinking by games”. She has just finished her Python course and this workshop let her understand that she “couldn't figure it out because she didn't have the necessary thinking logic". A junior of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature, Wei-Chen Chang, said that he found the “King of Pirates” very interesting and a great way to introduce students to programming. He hopes that the University will organize similar events in the future. Pei-Hsuan Liu, a second-year student of the Department of Sociology, said that incorporating programming logic training through games makes the learning of programming easy for sociology students. “I want to challenge a more difficult version in the future!”
In the age of technology, the demand for software design and programming talents is increasing. Si Wan College encourages students to study across fields and learn hard skills besides one’s discipline to increase one’s own competitiveness on the labor market. In the fast-changing world, even non-IT students still need to have a basic knowledge of programming logic to meet the changing social trends.
(Edited by Public Affairs Division)
(Provided by Si Wan College) When students of non-technical programs first learn programming, they need to switch to another way of thinking. The Center for Essential Education, Si Wan College, National Sun Yat-sen University, held an introductory programming workshop and invited Papacode co-founder Yu-Hsien Liu to teach students the basic logic of programming languages through a board game – "Coding Ocean: King of Pirates".
“Now, with the new 2019 curriculum, programming has become a learning trend. But what is programming all about?” Yu-Hsien Liu first asked the students to reflect on this question. “Programming languages let humans communicate with a computer." Yu-Hsien Liu explained that even with a wrong syntax, people can still understand each other. But with computers, one command equals to one step, and a full stop or a missing parenthesis can lead to errors. Therefore, the first step to learn the syntax of a programming language is to understand the logic of the program, which is the core concept of the game "King of Pirates".
The players of the "King of Pirates" have to translate the desired actions into commands and make the boat reach the designated place by arranging and combining commands. One command can only represent one kind of action, and the player can't move forward while turning. Before each sequence, the player must press “start” to set the boat in motion. Another way to play is the field mode, where both players hide treasures on their fields, and the one who collects the other player's treasure first in the shortest time will win. Another highlight game of the workshop was "Legend Decoding", where each checkpoint gives players access to new stories, levels, and clue cards, and the player who draws the last card wins.
“The results were very touching!” said Tzu-Hsuan Huang, a freshman studying NSYSU’s Program in Interdisciplinary Studies. She said that this workshop was aimed at “nurturing thinking by games”. She has just finished her Python course and this workshop let her understand that she “couldn't figure it out because she didn't have the necessary thinking logic". A junior of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature, Wei-Chen Chang, said that he found the “King of Pirates” very interesting and a great way to introduce students to programming. He hopes that the University will organize similar events in the future. Pei-Hsuan Liu, a second-year student of the Department of Sociology, said that incorporating programming logic training through games makes the learning of programming easy for sociology students. “I want to challenge a more difficult version in the future!”
In the age of technology, the demand for software design and programming talents is increasing. Si Wan College encourages students to study across fields and learn hard skills besides one’s discipline to increase one’s own competitiveness on the labor market. In the fast-changing world, even non-IT students still need to have a basic knowledge of programming logic to meet the changing social trends.
(Edited by Public Affairs Division)
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