Functional Reactive Programming in K12 Education

The Western Computer Camp is a summer camp hosted by Western State Colorado University for students in grades 8 through 12 who are interested in mathematics, physics, design, and computer science. Each session lasts one week, during which time the students build 3D virtual worlds as a means of interdisciplinary learning. The worlds are created using the Panda3D game engine and a Functional Reactive Programming (FRP) Python library. adaptation of the original Fran Haskell library. Students are also able to create their own 3D models to load into their worlds using the Maya modeling system. Panda3D, originally developed by Disney and later adopted by CMU, is an opensource game engine. It is scripted using Python, a language well suited for beginning programmers. Its key features are the ability to load user created models, interactive GUI objects, particle effects, sound effects, and dynamicly generated geometry [4]. Our camp is built around STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) topics. We present a wide variety of topics from mathematics (3-D geometry, coordinate systems, vectors, trigonometry, and calculus), physics (projectile motion, object collisions, colors, and control systems), computer science (functions, loops, decisions, and reactive programming), and design (3-D modeling). Our software fills a gap between systems such as Alice or GameMaker, with fixed interaction vocabularies and only minimal exposure of the underlying mathematics, and game engines programmed through their often complex APIs. Functional Reactive Programming[3]. provides a high level programming environment without the complexity and detail of a full game engine API.