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Re: How to introduce 8 year olds to (Perl) programming?

by kutsu (Priest)
on Apr 25, 2005 at 19:49 UTC ( [id://451316]=note: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??


in reply to How to introduce 8 year olds to (Perl) programming?

Having to teach 5-10 year olds I have a few ideas:

I like the computers are dumb angle, calling anything dumb will get a child's attention.

As for your "show them an actual program", I like this idea but physical examples seem to work better with kids so I'd have a prop not a computer screen or situation - one very classic example of this is as follows:

Have the children "program", on paper if you have time, you to make a peanut butter sandwich: when you get an instruction like "open the jar of peanut butter" cut open the plastic with your knife, "put peanut butter on bread" put the jar on top of the loaf of bread. Then write out, or have written out, an actual "program" for making a peanut butter sandwich (pick up peanut butter; unscrew lid;...etc). This should give a good example of AI, basic programming comcepts (add a while(PB area < bread surface){}), and just be a fun example. This was actually my first programming related school work, when I was about 10.

"Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum - I think that I think, therefore I think that I am." Ambrose Bierce

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Re^2: How to introduce 8 year olds to (Perl) programming?
by nimdokk (Vicar) on Apr 25, 2005 at 20:05 UTC
    Gee, when I was 11, I wrote a very basic password cracking program to break into a school computer (never ended up running it, but I wrote one - impressed the hell out of some of my friends at the time :-)

      I started writing terrible basic and qbasic code when I was 6, but didn't start actually programming til I was 16. You had computers at your school when you were 11?...lucky dog.

      "Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum - I think that I think, therefore I think that I am." Ambrose Bierce

        We're talking Apple IIc computers :-) Maybe I was a bit older than 11, but thats what sticks in my mind at the moment. Also wrote a role-playing game in BASIC about that same time too. It did work. Though, I admit, I had help from my dad.

        You had qbasic when you were 6? Lucky dog. I did have computers at school when I was 11 but those were still Commodores, and we did logo on them (and played games of course).

Re^2: How to introduce 8 year olds to (Perl) programming?
by Miss Brain (Acolyte) on Apr 28, 2005 at 14:49 UTC

    When I was in college, Brian Kernighan guest taught the intro CS class, and he did the peanut-butter sandwich algorithm class with a chainsaw and we had to give him instructions on how to cut his beard.

    Do that!! :)) They'll never forget you.

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