Bundy%EDXA@sri-unix.UUCP (10/25/83)
From: Bundy HPS (on ERCC DEC-10) <Bundy@EDXA>
I have a research grant from the UK Social Science Research
Council to study methods of teaching Prolog, especially to
non-scientists who may lack a strong background in mathematics.
This grant funds a postdoc research fellow, Helen Pain. Our
first subgoal is to come up with a good 'story' to tell students
about how Prolog works. A wide (too wide) variety of such
stories can be found in Kowalski's logic for problem solving
book, and the Clocksin/Mellish primer. These include OR trees,
AND/OR trees, Byrd boxes, and several others.
I have produced a note (too big for the Digest) which discusses
and compares six such stories. We plan to build a modular story
which combines the best of all those we can find. Modular here
means that the full story will contain information on everything
you want the students to know, but different parts of this
information will be displayed according to the aspect you are
focussing on at any given time.
This message is to inform Prolog users of our project and to
seek further Prolog stories and feedback on the utility of
particular stories in teaching Prolog to different sorts of
students.
-- Alan Bundy
[ The Prolog stories are available at SU-SCORE as
PS:<Prolog>Bundy_LPStories.mss
and
Bundy_LPStories.Figures
The report can also be ordered from:
Alan Bundy
Department of Artificial Intelligence
8 Hope Park Square
Meadow Lane
Edinburgh, EH9 25G
Scotland -ed ]