Designed to improve students' thinking, learning, and creative skills while they learn to program a microcomputer in BASIC programing language, this instructional manual for beginning learners provides a brief section of information for each new topic together with a sample program to enter, run on the computer, and observe; a suggested change to clarify the principle being taught, and a challenge requiring use of the new principles. Each chapter includes a review. A discussion of input procedures describes string variables and use of the commands INPUT, SPEED, INVERSE, NORMAL, and FLASH. Additional topics include arrays and string arrays, time delay, and the commands REM, FOR-NEXT, and STEP. An explanation of the creation of graphics covers the use of the commands PLOT X, Y; GR; TEXT; COLOR; COLOR=0; HLIN; and VLIN. The following math operations on the computer are also explained: add, subtract, multiply, divide, and raise to the power. Reference charts summarize commands and math symbols and their functions. Separate color coded project books for elementary, junior high, and high school/adult students are available for this manual. (Author/LMM)