Teaching with p5.js
If you’re looking to teach JavaScript to your students, don’t skip the p5.js library. The P5.js library is an excellent tool for introducing students of all ages to the wonderful world of coding.
At a glance, p5.js is a graphical library for drawing and animating shapes on a canvas using javascript.
However, what makes p5.js appealing to education is its API design. All functions exposed by this library were carefully design to appeal to code newbies and to facilitate the teaching process.
You can use p5.js in three ways:
As a downloadable library
You can download the library from the p5.js website and then incorporate it into your HTML projects. This is an advanced option that requires some basic notions of HTML as well as requires setting up of a coding environment (usually a separate download)
Using the p5.js online editor
The p5.js foundation, the producer of p5.js library also offer an online editor for writing and running javascript code using the p5.js library. This option doesn’t require any separate download or install and is a good option, especially for college based classes. The online environment may not be as appealing for younger students.
Using codeguppy platform
codeguppy.com is a free coding platform that incorporates the p5.js library at its core. The platform was designed from the beginning as an educational platform and comes with other resources that may appeal to a wider range of students: example projects, game design assets, and libraries, etc.
Since codeguppy.com is based on p5.js, you can quickly migrate to / from other p5.js environments such as bare-metal p5.js sketches (as supported via options 1 and 2 above) or other educational platforms such as the Khan Academy coding platform.
🎥 If you want to get a better understanding of the coding experience on the codeguppy.com platform, you can also check out the Coding Adventures YouTube channel.
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