Turtle graphics for early Java programming education

Abstract

Turtle graphics, first introduced in the Logo programming language in the late 1960s, have since been widely used in programming education. Turtle graphics is excellent for programming training, providing an intuitive platform for understanding the fundamental procedural programming principles, through its simple graphics functions allowing visual feedback for programming. This paper introduces a new and original application of turtle graphics to Java programming language, particularly targeted to early Java programming education. The aim of the proposed Java language turtle graphics library is (a) to use turtle graphics to provide intuitive understanding of fundamental procedural programming principles, (b) to provide an easy tool for the students to create visually interesting programs in the early stages of programming education, and (c) to stimulate the motivation of students to improve the learning effect of programming training and encourage further self-study. The proposed Java language turtle graphics library was introduced to 1st year college students with minimal Java language programming training, to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.