Algorithmic Thinking with TurtleStitch
AIMSSEC’s algorithmic thinking project began during AIMS’ 20th anniversary festival, Siyakhula, when learners from Masibambane Secondary School explored geometry and computing through the visual programming language TurtleStitch. Each learner created a unique digital design, which was then embroidered, providing a tangible take-home item. The project quickly grew, attracting interest from other schools, and evolved into ‘Algorithmic Thinking for Digital Art’, using free online resources to help learners visualise geometric concepts, understand mathematical relationships, and develop algorithmic thinking skills. Learners engage with creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving while connecting mathematics to their cultural heritage, such as reconstructing patterns from traditional Shweshwe fabric. Workshops include an “invisible curriculum” that teaches practical digital skills, public articulation, and collaborative problem-solving, while learners work alongside AIMS Master’s students in a Pan-African knowledge exchange. Teachers also benefit, discovering innovative ways to integrate STEAM, coding, and algorithmic thinking into their classrooms. The TurtleStitch programme shows how mathematics can be a living, collaborative discipline, where learners, teachers, and researchers co-create knowledge, recognise each other’s contributions, and explore high-expectation learning in inclusive, culturally meaningful ways.
Culturally responsive teaching
Culturally responsive education is about teaching in ways that recognise and value who our learners are and where they come from. In culturally diverse classrooms, this means connecting strong subject knowledge with learners’ cultural backgrounds and everyday experiences. In this project, we draw on traditional South African Shweshwe fabric as a powerful bridge between culture and learning. By working with familiar patterns, learners explore mathematics, computing, and design in ways that feel relevant and meaningful. As they reconstruct and deconstruct the designs, they uncover ideas such as shape, repetition, pattern, and algorithm. In doing so, their cultural heritage is not an add-on to the lesson — it becomes the starting point for deep mathematical thinking.
