Name: _______________________
Chapter1 Vocabulary
(Learning to Program with
Alice Book)
Date: ___________________
Block: ___________________
Directions: Write the definition of each term provided in the given space. You then
need to draw a picture of each item under the term to help you remember
the definition.
1. Problem-Solving
Skills
Is finding an answer to a question or figuring out how to perform a
task. Computer programming is a pure, distilled form of this.
2. Computer
Program
3. Elegant
Is a set of instructions that tell the computer what to do.
A program is considered this if another human being can easily
understand and appreciate the intentions of the original
programmer.
4. Documentation
Comments in a program, a web page for reference, or an
accompanying written document like a user’s manual that helps
someone else understand what you were trying to do.
5. Sequential
Programming
When you perform a task in a specific order.
6. Conditional
Execution
Perform an action based on a condition.
7. Looping or
Iteration
An action that is repeated for a “given” (numeric or conditional)
time.
8. Problem
Decomposition,
Top-Down Design,
Stepwise
Refinement
9. Reductionism
The process of doing a complicated task by breaking the task down
into a list of smaller, simpler tasks. Once all of the simpler tasks are
done, the complicated task is also accomplished.
Is an ancient, philosophical approach to the process of doing a
complicated task by breaking the task down into a list of smaller,
simpler tasks.
10. Function
11. Calling a Function
In computer programming, this is simply asking a question.
Asking a question so that you can compute a result.
12. Object Oriented
Programming
(OOP)
Most modern computer programming languages in which programs
are organized into a set of methods that manipulate the properties of
objects stored in a computer.
13. Virtual World
14. 3D Models
Is a video game or simulation implemented in 3D.
Are “classes” within Alice that are like a blueprint used to design a
house. The “blueprint” provides the size, color, and other attributes
of the model.
15. Height
16. Width
17. Depth
Measured vertically, top to bottom, in relation to the object.
Measured horizontally, left to right, in relation to the object.
Measured from front to back, forward and backwards, in relation to
the object.
18. 6 Degrees of
Freedom
Properties that each Alice object has and it is the ways the object
can move around in the world; possible directions of motion.
19. Orientation
20. Bounding Box
21. Center
The six degrees of freedom in relation to the object, not the camera.
Is a yellow box that is displayed when you mouse-click on an object.
Each Alice object has a unique one that is not based on a
calculation, but rather determined by the graphic artist when they
first create the 3D model.
22. Distance
23. Position
Is measured from one objects center to another object.
Is the point used from the center of an object within a world.
24. Animation
25. Render
26. Billboards
Is a fantasy of vision, an illusion.
To create.
Flat 2D image one creates elsewhere and imports into Alice.