It's Logical

Logic.ly Software

My goal with the CS Principles course this year is to make connections. We've been working on if/thens in C++ for the past week. Tomorrow we transition over and start looking at logic gates. My hope is they connect all the binary and hardware stuff we did at the beginning of the year to the logic we have been using to write if/then statements.

I have been playing with several logic gate emulators to find one that is a good fit.

• Logic.ly This is my favorite interface for these programs. it is easy to use, and the graphics of a switch and light bulbs help make it clear what these tools are doing. This is not free, it costs $29.99. There is a good on line demo that is free, but students cannot save their work.
• Logic Gate Simulator   This one is shareware. Great interface and I love that I can send it home with the students if needed.

So far so good - now I just need to figure out how to asses this. It is easy to test if the students can add binary numbers, or create a specific logic gate, but trying to tell how much they get at a conceptual level is much harder.