If you're interested in using Scratc, check out the materials in the UK's Codeclub. I've run a lttle club in a primary school based on Code club and it went very well
Ask HN: How to best teach a group of children how to code?
61–70 of 116 posts
Re: Ask HN: How to best teach a group of children how to code?
#62Check out @ntoll work, I was on one great speech by him at pyconf about teaching kids with micro:bit and Minecraft.
I have no experience in teaching kids how to code, but I have quite big experience in working with kids in scouting, and what I can advise is to do with your students things that really work, and are not considered "boring" - like controlling LED lights, "hacking" websites with dev tools, making computers in Minecraft, etc. Your mission should be to open their minds and spark a passion to coding, then they'll learn a lot on their own and will have own ideas for projects.
Re: Ask HN: How to best teach a group of children how to code?
#63MIT scratch to get the kids excited about programming. Also a great way to learn basic concepts like conditionals and loops.
Then "Teach Your Kids to Code: A Parent-Friendly Guide to Python Programming". Build fun shapes using turtle.
Source: Teaching an 8 year old to code.
Re: Ask HN: How to best teach a group of children how to code?
#64I've done this for several years. Here's what I've learned. TLDR: Focus on getting them to have fun & enjoy learning about 'code'. Don't care so much on how well they learn it. Every kid is unique & will respond to different things. Social & mentors are awesome. It's usually more fun to build with others if possible. Also they will want to easily share & show off their creations with others. Show them how to "hack" G…
I spent some time volunteering at an event where we were paired up with a ~5-6 year old, working with Scratch.
We had a lesson plan booklet to work from, but I found it far more effective to completely ignore it and let the child explore, and then guide the result of that exploration into a result. Seeing the sheer delight on a kid's face when you point out that with a few minor modifications, what he or she has made is in fact a playable computer game is spectacular. (and then beatboxing with them to record "background music" and sound effects is also fun ;) )
Re: Ask HN: How to best teach a group of children how to code?
#65I've done this before as an instructor as a tech camp. One great activity for the 12-16 age group is teaching them to mod minecraft.
This is a little more advanced, obviously, so it's not a great activity for total beginners. However, once a kid learns that they can make exploding blocks just by writing about 5 lines of code, they're totally hooked.
It also gives them an initial idea as to what real software looks like. Once that is demystified, their confidence as coders increases substantially.
Re: Ask HN: How to best teach a group of children how to code?
#66You can get them thinking in a programmer mindset through some board games. There's a whole 'programming' genre out there, where you have to choose the right actions in the right order to play the game effectively. Here are some examples:
* Robot Turtles
* Robo Rally
* Colt Express
* River Dragons
* Walk the Plank!
* Mechs vs Minions
Get them playing the games, and then after they're enjoying themselves and having fun, explain how it relates to programming, and replace the actions in the games with functions ("actions") you can do in apps.
Re: Ask HN: How to best teach a group of children how to code?
#67I taught a class of 10-year-olds an hour a day for two weeks a while back. We used scratch for programming, but the first day, we made paper airplanes. First, two kids sat together while one made a paper airplane and the other wrote down the steps that the first one took to make the plane. Then they traded instructions and tried to follow someone else's steps. This got them thinking literally, and they had very little trouble with missing details after that.
After getting a jumpstart, they started building games using Scratch and sending them to each other to play (test). That's the hands-off part. The prep was simple instruction in reaching a goal with code, including the importance of accepting feedback from others. The school had already taught them to be respectful, so I didn't have to deal with a lot of egos. The boys all knew that some of the girls would be better programmers, and didn't fight it.
Re: Ask HN: How to best teach a group of children how to code?
#68Check out @ntoll work, I was on one great speech by him at pyconf about teaching kids with micro:bit and Minecraft. I have no experience in teaching kids how to code, but I have quite big experience in working with kids in scouting, and what I can advise is to do with your students things that really work, and are not considered "boring" - like controlling LED lights, "hacking" websites with dev tools, making compute…
+1 for @ntoll and his work. He's an approachable guy and really enthusiastic about helping kids learn tech.
Re: Ask HN: How to best teach a group of children how to code?
#69I've done this for several years. Here's what I've learned. TLDR: Focus on getting them to have fun & enjoy learning about 'code'. Don't care so much on how well they learn it. Every kid is unique & will respond to different things. Social & mentors are awesome. It's usually more fun to build with others if possible. Also they will want to easily share & show off their creations with others. Show them how to "hack" G…
+1 for the DOM Inspector. I have found that kids LOVE pulling back the curtain on a website to see the wizard and play with the code. A fun activity is to have them go to a news site and have them edit the headlines and replace the images to silly things and take screenshots to share with their parents. What really impresses me with this exercise is how quickly some kids will figure out some intermediate hacks when t…
New Weekend Project - A website that teaches the console by leading you to modify the website via the console.
Re: Ask HN: How to best teach a group of children how to code?
#70I've been volunteering for three years in the classroom on behalf of a non-profit [0]. We teach HTML, CSS, and jQuery. Here are some high level lessons I've learned:
* Don't teach unnecessary details. For example, students get hung up on the tag because titles are usually at the top of the page. Just skip or defer teaching it - it's not important to their end goal of understanding code.
* Reinforce that the computer is dumb. I tell my kids outright that the computer is stupid. What this gets across to kids is that when they talk to this box, they need to be very precise with their language. Syntax errors---a constant demoralizer---then become not a shortcoming of the student but of the machine.
* When you craft / select exercises for practice, make sure they always fit two criteria: instant gratification and fun. By the former, I mean the students are producing code and instantly seeing a visual reward for it. With the latter---adults always forget that kids are kids. They couldn't care less about "Hello world". But an "About me" page is fun because they get to express themselves. When you talk arrays, don't push and pop fruits. Push and pop Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande.
I might expand on this in a blog post. Happy to talk more offline.
[0] - https://scripted.org/
PS - if you're in the bay area OR NYC and want to teach underserved high schoolers how to code, reach out!