Drawing project

In this project you will make a drawing using Python's turtle library. It's up to you to make a drawing you actually care about making. Chris will help you choose a project that's a good level of challenge.

Examples

Requirements

Process

Due to time constraints, this process is optional for LAI 676. In a semester- or year-long course, we would spend at least as much time on open-ended projects as we do on labs. Student work would be structured using a planning process and regular milestones.

Planning

This is a big project, and you will get lost or frustrated if you don't do some planning up front. You are required to write a project design document and get it approved by a teacher. Planning can take multiple forms:

You might want to start by collecting some inspiration images
Create one or more sketches of the drawing you want to make
Plan out the code. Are there parts of your drawing which could be dealt with on their own as sub-problems? Are there features which will need to be repeated? You could write functions to deal with these.

Milestone

It's easy to underestimate the complexity of a project and end up not getting as far as you wanted to--or worse, end up with half a project which doesn't work at all. To avoid this, it's important to set a milestone.

What would it mean to be halfway finished with your project? Describe something that would be easy to observe, such as a certain function being complete and drawing part of the project.

Debugging

You are going to get stuck on this project, and you're probably going to feel incredibly frustrated at some point. We will discuss strategies for debugging, but for now, please remember to take a break when you feel frustrated and to ask for help.

Assessment criteria

	Approaches expectations	Meets expectations	Exceeds expectations
Concepts: Functions	BUT the sub-functions don't help break down the complexity of the project. They may be irrelevant to the project's drawing, or they may simply cut-and-paste lines of code from the main program.	Your project breaks down the complexity of the drawing by defining and using new functions.	AND each function is responsible for its own work. At least some functions are generalized, accepting parameters and not making prior assumptions about the state of the turtle.
Concepts: Iteration	BUT your project doesn't benefit much from the use of iteration. Constructs may be used incorrectly or in ways which don't have much effect on the project. Your project may contain repetitive code which could have been simplified using iteration.	Your project reduces the complexity of the drawing using iteration. The project contains at least one iteration over a list or a range.	AND Your project achieves a complex effect which would have been difficult to do without using iteration.
Practices: Learning through reflection	BUT You do not have enough commit messages, or they may be terse or generic.	Your commit messages (`mwc submit`) show an ongoing process of reflection as you work. You have at least three commit messages over the course of your project.	AND your commit messages provide meaninful updates on your project. The trajectory of your project is apparent from reading your commit messages.
~~Practices: Planning~~	BUT you might be missing required components of the README, not have enough commits, or not have enough detail in your commit messages.	~~Between your README and your commit messages, a reader can understand the process by which you designed, developed, and debugged your drawing project.~~	AND your process documentation contains evidence of reflection, showing what you have learned or how your thinking has changed over the course of this project.