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Getting kids started

e14 Contributor

I work at a small science & history museum in North Carolina. The science portion is aimed primarily at kids from 1st grade to 8th grade.  I am retired (so I have more time on my hands) and have the responsibility for new project development.  Because I have a background in programming (REXX & VBA) and a computer experience (OS/2 & Windows, but no Linux) I am really attracted to the RP.  We are planning on setting up some type of program to teach kids how to program (and how to use something besides Windows).

 

Here's my question:

I'm going to teach myself Python and I've installed Debian on a laptop so I can start learning the basics of Linux.  We have order the Pi (they seem to be back-ordered!) and I'll begin playing with it as soon as I receive it.  I'm a pretty good teacher and don't think I will have a problem teaching basic programming.  It's where to start, not with programming, but with the entire project.

 

One idea I had was to create an application myself that the kids would think was really cool, then tell them that's what we're going to build by the end of program. We'll get there in small steps making projects of ever-increasing complexity.

 

So, if anyone has experience introducing kids to the Pi and to programming, give me some direction, please.

 

 

Brian Grawburg

Imagination Station Science & History Museum

bgrawburg  at  imaginescience  dot  org

Parents

  • Brian & Paul,

    I'm headed down the same road you two are.  The primary target is kids at my grand-daughter's school (grades K-8).  I'm still wrestling with which language to use.  I originally planned to start with Scratch and progress on to Python.  But, I have no experience with either of those.  I do have a fair amount of experience with VBA for Excel, but my favorite going back nearly 30 years is Pascal.  I did a little poking around and found a free version of Turbo Pascal and a free version of Borland's Delphi.  Now I'm wrestling with whether to go with my strength but a language that's a dead end or jump in and learn yet another language.  Also, I have no experience teaching younger children and no experience teaching programming.  In fact, I had a professor in a Management Science course who announced mid-semester that we had two areas left to cover, statistics and computer programming.  He then declared that statistics could be taught but not learned and computer programming could be learned but not taught.  He pretty much proceeded to validate both assertions image.  Anyhow, if I come up with anything I'll let you know and I'll keep an eye on this thread.

     

    Best regards,

    Ralph Shade

     

    BTW - since we're sharing location information, I'm in Southern California - Ventura County specifically, but was born and raised in South Carolina.  So Brian, we're kind of almost neighbors!

Reply

  • Brian & Paul,

    I'm headed down the same road you two are.  The primary target is kids at my grand-daughter's school (grades K-8).  I'm still wrestling with which language to use.  I originally planned to start with Scratch and progress on to Python.  But, I have no experience with either of those.  I do have a fair amount of experience with VBA for Excel, but my favorite going back nearly 30 years is Pascal.  I did a little poking around and found a free version of Turbo Pascal and a free version of Borland's Delphi.  Now I'm wrestling with whether to go with my strength but a language that's a dead end or jump in and learn yet another language.  Also, I have no experience teaching younger children and no experience teaching programming.  In fact, I had a professor in a Management Science course who announced mid-semester that we had two areas left to cover, statistics and computer programming.  He then declared that statistics could be taught but not learned and computer programming could be learned but not taught.  He pretty much proceeded to validate both assertions image.  Anyhow, if I come up with anything I'll let you know and I'll keep an eye on this thread.

     

    Best regards,

    Ralph Shade

     

    BTW - since we're sharing location information, I'm in Southern California - Ventura County specifically, but was born and raised in South Carolina.  So Brian, we're kind of almost neighbors!

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