General Introduction
Eureka is a kind of software with which we can create simple programs for children. In Eureka there are 7 types and 74 pieces of objects from which we can choose the ones we need to create our programs. They are 6 showing pieces (lamp, colors, etc.), 3 timing pieces (watches), 7 sound pieces (e.g.. animal cries, loud-speaker sound, etc.), 20 number pieces (e.g. counter, signs of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, comparison, etc.), 9 interrupter pieces (e.g. divisor with 2, 3, or 4 exits, touch-pression, button-pression, etc.), 13 text pieces (e.g. name, list of messages, etc.), 6 super pieces (e.g. heart, canon, solar system, etc.). The most interesting pieces are the super pieces. E.g. in the solar system, you can choose among 8 planets, i.e. Earth, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Sauterne, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto. And then you can choose the differences in diameter, day, distance from the sun, mass, density, gravity, orbital velocity. For example, if you create a program in which you want the pupil to find the difference between the gravity of the Earth and that of the Mars, you can choose Mars and then gravity. When the pupil gives his weight on Earth, he can find how much he weighs on Mars. This is more interesting to the curious pupils.
Objective
The objective
of my Eureka program is to reinforce the subtractive ability of a pupil
aging 9-13 years old. My intention is to ask the pupil to do the exercises
step by step. He has time to give the numbers which he wants to deal with,
and he has time to think of the answers, and at last he knows whether the
answer is right or wrong. If it is wrong, he can do it again or has a way
to learn the correct answer.
Description
My Eureka program
consists of three steps. The first step is to put in two numbers in the
two number cases. The first one is simpler since it needs only to click
on the small triangles to enter the number. For the second one, we should
first enter a number and then click on ENTER, otherwise it will not
work. In this way the pupil will have time to reflect whether the numbers
he has entered are the ideal ones.
The second step
is to enter an answer in the number case and then click on ENTER like the
above one. If the answer is correct the lamp will be on otherwise it will
keep off. Now the pupil can do the calculation again by entering a new
answer, or if he find it is too difficult he can find the correct answer
in the following step.
The third step
is, if the lamp is not on, that is to say, the answer is not correct, push
on the mouse and the correct answer will be shown.
Difficulties in the Creating the Program
During
the creation of the program, I encountered two overlapping difficulties:
to know what we can do with the objects and to find an idea. First of all
we should get familiar with all the objects. And then we can decide what
we can do with them. I spent a whole day trying every one of the objects
and at the same time trying to find an idea. I did want to create something
more interesting, for example with the super pieces. But I failed since
I don't think it is useful just to enter a number and find the result directly.
I tried also the "heart" with all the items there, e.g. the weight of the
adults, animals and so on. I tried the difference of the Fahrenheit degrees
and the Celsius degrees too. Still I didn't find anything useful. At last
I went back to the calculations and I decided to do something simple and
useful. Even creating this simple program, without the help of Prof.Mendelsohn,
I don't know how much time I would have spent on it and whether I would
have given it up or not.