Import and Turtle

Just as cooks don't catch their own fish and teachers don't write their own textbooks, programmers don't create their entire program themselves. Instead, they rely on modules that are written by others to help provide added capabilities.

In this lesson, we'll be learning to use the turtle module. The turtle module is used to do simple drawings. Try out the following...

import turtle

turtle.forward(50)
turtle.left(90)
turtle.forward(50)
turtle.left(90)
turtle.forward(50)

This is what each of the line does...

import turtle : Load the turtle module, allowing us to use it in our program.

turtle.forward(50) : Run the forward function in the turtle module. Moves forward by 50 steps.

turtle.left(90) : Run the left function in the turtle module. Turn left by 90 degrees.

Challenge 1. Complete the Square

Here's the first challenge. Modify the program above to make the turtle complete drawing the square.

Challenge 2. Experiment!

Experiment with the following functions. See if you can figure out what they do!

turtle.right(45)
turtle.pendown()
turtle.penup()
turtle.color('lightgreen')

Challenge 3. Other shapes

What other shapes can you draw? Can you draw... * Triangle * Square * Rectangle * Pentagon (5 sides) * Hexagon (6 sides)