Pencil Code is an educational programming language and website. It allows programming using Scratch-style block coding or CoffeeScript. Code runs directly in the web browser and can be shared with others. The language centers on a model of a pencil programmatically drawing on a 2-dimensional screen, with the pencil cursor visually depicted as a turtle.
A 2019 study by Deng et al. in an eight-week teaching intervention comparing text-based and block-based environments found that students learning in a mixed environment had improved confidence and computational thinking.
History
Pencil Code was created by David Bau and his son in 2013. It was inspired by Logo, the 1967 programming language for drawing on a screen using a Lisp-like programming language.4 Google has funded improvements to Pencil Code via Google Summer of Code projects.5
External links
References
Bau, David; Bau, D. Anthony; Dawson, Mathew; Pickens, C. Sydney (2015-06-21). "Pencil code: Block code for a text world". Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children. ACM. pp. 445–448. doi:10.1145/2771839.2771875. ISBN 978-1-4503-3590-4. 978-1-4503-3590-4 ↩
Edwards, Luke (2023-06-29). "What is Pencil Code and How Can It Be Used for Teaching? Tips & Tricks". TechLearningMagazine. Retrieved 2024-05-09. https://www.techlearning.com/how-to/what-is-pencil-code-and-how-can-it-be-used-for-teaching-tips-and-tricks ↩
Deng, Wenbo; Pi, Zhongling; Lei, Weina; Zhou, Qingguo; Zhang, Wenlan (2019-10-17). "Pencil Code improves learners' computational thinking and computer learning attitude". Computer Applications in Engineering Education. 28 (1): 90–104. doi:10.1002/cae.22177. ISSN 1061-3773. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cae.22177 ↩
Bau, David (2013). Pencil Code : a programming primer (Second ed.). David Bau. ISBN 978-1-4943-4744-4. OCLC 900971005. 978-1-4943-4744-4 ↩
"Google Summer of Code wrap-up post: Pencil Code". Google Open Source Blog. Retrieved 2023-02-11. https://opensource.googleblog.com/2015/09/google-summer-of-code-wrap-up-post_18.html ↩