SAP Tech in Schools

TurtleStitch

Bringing Programming and Math to the real world

Masibambane High School learners begin their quantum leap into programming.

Creativity, computer science education and critical media use are key competencies in the ongoing digital revolution. As a globally operating software company, SAP wants to enable people of all ages and backgrounds to actively shape these developments. To strengthen its foothold in Africa, SAP is looking for young minds skilled in and excited about computer science. Therefore, SAP has initiated a strong digital literacy initiative of which Snap! and TurtleStitch are an integral part!

On Saturday, 16 March, the SAP will conduct a workshop for young minds as part of Siyakhula's pre-festival events. The workshop, the first of its kind at the school, will equip Grade 10 learners from Masibambane High School with skills to code African designs.

During the workshop, the learners will also explore embroidery as a connection between traditional handicraft and modern computing. Using the blocks-based programming language TurtleStitch, the learners will create visually and mathematically appealing designs that will be brought to life with a digital embroidery machine. And along the way, participants will learn basic programming constructs like loops, variables and conditionals.

Hands-on and fun sessions…

Workshop outcomes showcase

turtlestich

TurtleStitch is a dialect of Snap! (https://snap.berkeley.edu), a browser-based, open-source programming language that is collaboratively developed by researchers at SAP and UC Berkeley. On the outside Snap! looks and feels just like Scratch, a beginners programming language. But inside it provides expressive concepts for abstraction otherwise only found in the most advanced and sophisticated programming languages from AI research. Snap! supports multiple programming paradigms such as imperative, structured programming, functional programming and object-oriented programming. These make Snap! suitable for an intellectually rigorous introduction to computer science at the college and high school level.

On Thursday, 21 March, the learners will present their workshop outcomes to the Siyakhula delegates.