Hundreds of Children Programmers Gather for First International TurtleArt Day CAACUPÉ, Paraguay, Octo er 1", 2$!% - Sugar La s)*), educational non,ro-t pro.ider of free and o,en&source learning software for children, is proud to cele rate TurtleArt Day [1] in Caacu,2, Paraguay, with 23" students, their parents, and 77 teachers. They were joined by educators and Sugar de.elo,ers from 8 countries throughout the Americas and as far away as Australia. Additional TurtleArt Days are planned for Peru, Costa Rica, Argentina, and Malaysia; the ne9t will be Octo er 1"th in Monte.ideo, Uruguay4 Caacu,2 has been the focus of a one&to&one learning program run by Paraguay Educa [2] since #$$6. The foundation is acti.e in 3" schools, wor;ing with 3<" teachers and 9,70$ children. The children of Caacu,2 li.e in areas with high po.erty le.els: 6$% of them are street wor;ers and most ha.e at least one parent li.ing a road. Much of the coordination was done by ":.olution@ children, youth leaders in Caacu,2 who attend school in the morning, teach in the afternoon, and on wee;ends su,,ly technical su,,ort to school programs4 TurtleArt is a programming en.ironment with a gra,hical "turtle@ that draws colorful art based on sna,&together elements. Its "low floor@ pro.ides an easy entry point for beginners. It also has @high ceiling@ programming features that challenge the more ad.enturous student. TurtleArtBs roots are in Logo, the first programming language for children, created by Seymour Pa,ert, Cally FeurDeig, Daniel Bo row, and Cynthia Solomon in 1=<7. LogoFs friendly turtle, which relies on instructions from children to mo.e, has ins,ired ada,tations from Logo for the A,,leG II to (egoG MindstormsG, TurtleArt, and Scratch4 An international grou, of TurtleArtists tra.elled to Caacu,2 with the generous su,,ort of BEHA Ean; to launch the first TurtleArt Day. Also partici,ating was EduIamJ [3] attendants, a grou, of de.elo,ers who wor; on o,en&source educational software. Caacu,2Fs partici,ants en5oyed wor;sho,s to create TurtleArt pro5ects; interacti.e programming that in.ol.ed ro ots and sensors; and discussions where educators and children shared their e9,eriences4 @(ogo was designed to be 'mathlandB; TurtleArt is 'artlandB, says Artemis Pa,ert, co&creator of TurtleArt. "It allows us to bring together art and programming. While you do art, you also do ,rogramming, math, and geometry -& the tools you need while focusing on doing art. We ha.e o ser.ed that artists become more comforta le with programming and programmers become more comforta le with art when they use TurtleArt4@ Erian Sil.erman, co&creator of TurtleArt, o ser.ed: "I was amaDed at the passion of the children that came to TurtleArt Day. They were wildly enthusiastic and maintained their focus for si9 hours. They came to the e.ent ha.ing had only rudimentary e9,erience with TurtleArt and they left ha.ing more understanding a out its artistic potential4@ Cecilia RodrKgueD AlcalL, E9ecuti.e Director of Paraguay Educa, said, "The as,ects of TurtleArt Day highlighted by the E.olution team included cultural e9change between the children and the international community, and children teaching each other, pursuing their personal interests, including pro5ects in.ol.ing physical&world interaction4@ Claudia Urrea, an educator and mem er of the Sugar La s O.ersight Board, said, "Cith TurtleArt, the children en5oyed programming the ro ots and using sensors, creating artistic images, engaging in the concrete use of mathematical conce,ts such as varia les and random num ers, realiDing how quic;ly the pace of their learning e.ol.ed, and disco.ering the multi,le a,,lica ilities of com,utation4@ Andres Aguirre of the Butia pro5ect, a ro ot programmed with TurtleArt, said, “:.en though the children had limited time to use the ro ots, they were a le to e9,eriment with some high&le.el ,rogramming conce,ts such as conditionals and control structures4O 0!] htt,://turtleartday.org 0#] htt,>PP///4,araguayeduca.org 0%] htt,://cei al5am.org A out Sugar La sG: Sugar La s, a volunteer&dri.en, non,ro-t organiDation, is a mem er pro5ect of the Software Freedom Conser.ancy. Sugar La s coordinates volunteers around the world who are passionate a out pro.iding educational o,,ortunities through the Sugar Learning Platform. Sugar is installed on more than three million com,uters. Sugar La s is su,,orted by donations and is see;ing funding to accelerate de.elo,ment. For more information, please visit htt,://www.sugarla s.orgP,ress or contact pr@sugarla s.org4 'ugar La sG is a registered trademar; of the Software Freedom Conser.ancy. Other names are trademar;s of their res,ecti.e owners4 RRR .