blockly_proofs

Developing a tool to aid teaching mathematical proofs using Blockly For Education

To get started, download the repository into your local machine.

Components

The process of creating blocks involves 3 parts:

• Generate markdown file for the different blocks
• Feed the markdown into block generator
• Access blockly toolbox

Generating the Markdown

• Open markdownGenerator/index.html

• Blockly Name - A name for this blockly component. Accepts only alphabets.
• Block Type - There are 3 types of blocks:
  • Proof Statement
  • Proof End
  • Proof Step
• Block Name - Name of the block which gets registered in the blockly toolbox.
• Block Content - Content of the block. If the content is going to be multi-line or if it contains mathematical expressions, please check the Math / Multi Line checkbox.
• Math / Multi Line - This checkbox enables the svg image generation. Since blockly is based on SVGs, we are resorting to SVGs to display text in multi-line and with mathematical expressions. Line breaks are equal to \\ and mathematical expressions are based on LaTex.
• Show Preview - Click this to get a preview of the SVG if the checkbox is checked.
• Generate Markdown - Once the preview of the SVG is generated and if its fine, click on Generate Markdown button.
• Download Markdown - Once the markdown is generated, click on the download button which pops up.

Feeding the Markdown to the blockly generator

• Once the file is downloaded, copy it to the src folder of the project.

• Navigate to src and run python generateBlocklyFromInput.py from the command line.

• If the script runs successfully, you should see this message on the command line Process completed successfully. Please check the logfile: ../log/blocklyGenerator.log for more details.

• If it had errors, you should see this message. In this case, check the log file under the log folder of the project -Error encountered during the process. Please check the logfile: ../log/blocklyGenerator.log

• On successful completion,

  • the downloaded SVGs can be found in folder <path_of_project>/output/generatedBlocklys/<blockly_name>
  • the JS can be found in <path_of_project>/js/blocks/output.js

• Now you are all set.

Working with Blockly Toolbox

• Open <path_of_project>/index.html

• Click on Proof pane to display the different blocks which have been generated and drag and drop to start building the blocks

In Progress

• Now that the blocks are in place, they need to be verified based on a rubric.