This is a bit dated, but it's a good start:
Ask HN: 12 year old tech savvy girl – books, programs, events, advice?
31–40 of 91 posts
Re: Ask HN: 12 year old tech savvy girl – books, programs, events, advice?
#32Saying "tech" isn't much information. What do they want to do?
If it's electronics, buy some starter kits, a good iron, and get them a book on electronics. (Maybe also show them some people like EEVBlog)
If it's computer science, but some computers, get them an internet connection and let them have at it.
Although I always say this: no one will learn unless they have a project they need to do. This is no matter the field. If you're not interested you're not going to learn in the first place.
Re: Ask HN: 12 year old tech savvy girl – books, programs, events, advice?
#33Saying "tech" isn't much information. What do they want to do? If it's electronics, buy some starter kits, a good iron, and get them a book on electronics. (Maybe also show them some people like EEVBlog) If it's computer science, but some computers, get them an internet connection and let them have at it. Although I always say this: no one will learn unless they have a project they need to do. This is no matter the f…
+1 on eevblog. I started watching when I barely learned basic physics E&M and calculus, and now I'm confident that I can tackle all sorts of electronics all thanks to him.
Though I was a highschooler back then and I had so much free time and watched 600+ videos in about 6 months, so not for everyone imo.
Re: Ask HN: 12 year old tech savvy girl – books, programs, events, advice?
#34I'd help her get connected with a mentor / tutor she likes. Having a resource to bounce ideas of and help guide her through tough spots can be very helpful.
Re: Ask HN: 12 year old tech savvy girl – books, programs, events, advice?
#35My advice to someone that age is that if the technology is too difficult to learn then just move on to something easier. I wasted too much time at that age trying to learn things that were just too difficult (assembler, etc). Back then though I didn't have access to mentors or people who could suggest more appropriate technology.
I suggest Maker Faire, arduino and raspberry by, wearables, etc.
Re: Ask HN: 12 year old tech savvy girl – books, programs, events, advice?
#36https://www.girldevelopit.com/ would be a great place, it's a female centric coding club that is very welcoming. At 12, most beginner coding courses via codecademy or similar outlets are probably within her intellectual grasp. Also, I'd suggest getting your friend to set up a project related to her interests with an end "product" in mind and then seeking out advice on how to build it.
Re: Ask HN: 12 year old tech savvy girl – books, programs, events, advice?
#37Checkout Girls Who Code--maybe they have a summer program near her. It might be geared towards older girls but she might be able to get involved in some of their other events.
Re: Ask HN: 12 year old tech savvy girl – books, programs, events, advice?
#38If she wants to do software then Python with one of the many excellent free and non-free books for kids available. Just look them up on Amazon.
If she wants to get into hardware start with a RPi or Arduino.
Also get her running Linux. Start with something simple like Mint or Ubuntu. Teach her how it is "like Windows and OS X" but a bit different. Do some basic command line stuff like making a folder, opening a file, etc.
Setup Minecraft which I would assume she already plays if she likes tech. Show her mods, maybe even a little Java to make mods although I feel Java with its strict OOP and compile/run can be a bit daunting for even an adult so maybe wait until she understands Python a bit.
The main thing is just explore all the different things. Tech is awesome today as if you have a computer you can get so much stuff free thanks to the FOSS community from the OS to everyday software to programming languages to books etc. And little hacker hardware like the RPi is affordable by almost all with a little spare income.
Re: Ask HN: 12 year old tech savvy girl – books, programs, events, advice?
#39She should get her own computer if she doesn't have one already. How about a Raspberry Pi or two?
Or just a pre-owned system from Gumtree. You can pick up a solid ThinkPad with an i5 under £100 easy. I like ThinkPads as they are solidly built and can usually always run Linux without much hassle.
Re: Ask HN: 12 year old tech savvy girl – books, programs, events, advice?
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think Python or any scripting language is better to ease someone into CS especially at that age. It is rewarding and helps to see "Hello world!" on the screen immediately in a line of code as opposed to wrangling with IDES and cryptic messages for missing semicolons.
From experience hello world is actually a terrible first thing to show someone in a scripting language since it is pretty much a dead end. Seeing "Hello world!" is not really that rewarding when compared with something like a = 3 + 2 print a
Maybe if it's the only thing you show someone but most tutorials will start with hello world! and then progress to variables, string interpolation, expressions through a sequence of:
1. Try changing the statement print your name.
2. Having to type the same thing over and over is unnecessary, we can save it in a variable.
3. You can use variables inside the print statement through a process called string interpolation.
4. In addition to strings, variables can hold many types of values, including numbers.
5. Operators can be used to manipulate values. Do some math with the variables.
6. Receive input and save in variable.
From there you can go to conditional statements, loops and functions.