Greenfoot is an integrated educational programming environment aimed at novice programmers. It supports easy development of highly graphical, interactive programs, such as games and simulations. Greenfoot was designed to teach concepts of programming in a highly motivating setting, offering immediate feedback and engaging functionality.

Stride is a language similar to Java in expressiveness with an editor that combines elements from block-based programming (such as Scratch or Snap) and traditional text-based programming. As such, Stride is an ideal language to either transition from a block-based system to a more general-purpose language, or as an entry point to programming for Key Stage 3 pupils.

Greenfoot also supports later transition to standard Java.

A large amount of teaching material is freely available, and an active online teacher community (the Greenroom) provides support for teachers throughout the year.

Workshop Summary

In this workshop, we will discuss how to teach concepts of traditional object-oriented programming with Greenfoot and Stride. We will introduce the tools of the environment itself, discuss the Stride language (which is quick and easy to learn), and present pedagogical considerations: How do you best teach with Greenfoot? How do you create motivation? What are good teaching examples?

Teachers will go through hands-on exercises of using Greenfoot and Stride, and work with a number of programming examples that can immediately be used in a classroom.

Target Audience

Teachers of computing courses, especially key stage 3. Some knowledge of programming (in any language) is assumed.

Further information

• Software: greenfoot.org
• Teacher website / teaching material: greenroom.greenfoot.org
• Information about Stride: blogs.kcl.ac.uk/proged/stride/