Programming

Very quickly even the youngest students get to the most fascinating aspect of
Logo programming:inventing new words. This really is programming, but in
LOGO we call it inventing words or writing procedures.

Logo is set up in a way that students can save any sequence of commands under
a name that they choose themselves. They can then use that name as if it were a
part of the language. In fact, it actually does become part of the language. For
example, suppose a student has discovered how to draw a triangle. If she saves
the commands under the name "tri," she can draw a triangle just by typing "tri."
So, in a very real way, the student can construct the language to her own liking.

Her triangle procedure might look something like this:

to tri
forward 50
right 120
forward 50
right 120
forward 50
right 120
end

Notice that the first line begins with "to." The last line contains "end." This is
true of any definition in LOGO. Students first tell the name of the procedure in
the "to" line. They signal the end of the definition by typing the word "end."

Older students eventually get into more complicated math and geometry. Logo is
a natural for teaching coordinate graphing and translations in the graphic plane.
Younger kids usually learn a lot of math you would normally expect only older
kids to understand. I have worked with third graders who had little trouble
using x and y coordinates to make the turtle jump around the screen. Their