TORTIS: Toddler's Own Recursive Turgle Interpreter System

Abstract

TORTIS is a device for preschool children to communicated with and program the turtle. It consistst of several boxes (currently 3 button boxes and two blox boxes) designed so that only a few new concepts are introduced at a time but more can be added when the child becomes familiar with what he has. Hopefully transitions are gradual enough so that the child never thinks talking to the turtle is too hard or that he is "too dumb". And hopefully playing with the system should teach such concepts as numbers, breaking large problems into small solvable steps, writin and debugging procedures, recursion, variables, and conditionals. Most important of all, it should teach that learning is fun.