Between Ladybugs and Building Blocks

In the workshop “Between Ladybugs and Building Blocks,” participants, with the help of our ladybug Kara and our building block figure Robot Karol, get a first glimpse into the world of programming and algorithms. Kara and Robot Karol are programming environments designed for children and teenagers. First, all participants familiarize themselves with Kara and Karol and can discover functions and possibilities on their own. Then, tasks with various levels of difficulty can be solved or participants can implement their own ideas, such as guiding Karol through a self-built maze.

Learning objectives:

• Participants know what an algorithm is and can write small algorithms themselves.
• Participants know what an automaton is and can give examples.
• Participants learn programming playfully.
• Participants can understand the principle of automatons with the ladybug Kara and can write algorithms with the building block figure Karol.

Participants will need:

• Computer or tablet (MS Windows or VM)

• Internet connection

• Robot Karol
  (For Windows: https://www.mebis.bayern.de/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/10/RobotKarol30_Windows_Setup.zip
  For other operating systems: https://www.mebis.bayern.de/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/10/RobotKarol30_other.zip)

• Kara (https://www.swisseduc.ch/informatik/karatojava/kara/index.html)

• JRE 8 (more information, e.g. at: https://openjdk.java.net/)