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Ask HN: I need ideas to impress fifth graders with technology

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Re: Ask HN: I need ideas to impress fifth graders with technology

#121

Post by OliverJones »

I hack, and I volunteer at a kids drop-in center in public housing. (Similar target audience to yours.)

Drones! Especially if they can control them.

Animations! If they have access to chromebooks, get a free stop-motion animation app and show them how to make their own cartoons.

Video chat, maybe. Again, use the chromebooks if they have.

Remote controlled robot gadgets, if you can get them. Kids love stuff where they can control something physical from a screen. https://www.sphero.com/ might have some good stuff.

Beware games. All kids know all about games. You'll be bringing peat to Newcastle, and you'll lose them into the game anyway.

Re: Ask HN: I need ideas to impress fifth graders with technology

#122

Post by [deleted] »

payne92 wrote: post #38

I've done an interactive "do you know how many types of engineers there are?" for this age group that's worked really well. Timeframe: 5-15 minutes "Can anyone name a type of engineer?" and for each shoutout, talk a little about what each does. The guessing keeps everyone's attention. Types: software/computer, electrical, mechanical, chemical, environmental, civil, nuclear, aeronautical, etc. Bonus: bring 2-3 props (…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: I need ideas to impress fifth graders with technology

#123

Post by tunap »

cheesymuffin wrote: post #90

Do a presentation on all of the problems technology has caused for humans. Bring in a small aquarium full of fish and dump crude oil in it and dissect the fish. Talk about research on the effects excessive technology use and automation have on the human brain. You can use cardboard cutouts to represent different neurotransmitters. Show them videos of the war in Syria. Then talk about how you're helping them by gettin…

My idea was to run a "smart" phone through wifi router & be amazed while i.d.'ing all the easter egg packets and servers connecting to fuel the surveillance economy. But alas, kids don't care and "have nothing to hide". Your idea sounds more better... let's skip hurting the inbred fry mill types, just grab one from a local water body & test for pharmacology, perhaps.

Re: Ask HN: I need ideas to impress fifth graders with technology

#124

Post by Uptrenda »

penagwin wrote: post #45
payne92 wrote: post #38

I've done an interactive "do you know how many types of engineers there are?" for this age group that's worked really well. Timeframe: 5-15 minutes "Can anyone name a type of engineer?" and for each shoutout, talk a little about what each does. The guessing keeps everyone's attention. Types: software/computer, electrical, mechanical, chemical, environmental, civil, nuclear, aeronautical, etc. Bonus: bring 2-3 props (…

Oh gosh I just realized I don't have the self control to teach children. Context: I'm a software engineer. All my explanations would be the "realistic" but kinda sarcastic answers. Computer Engineer - Copy's pastes code until it works. Rocket Scientists - Spend 50% of the time designing rockets, and 50% of their time hoping the rocket doesn't explode. Locomotive Engineer - Whoops this isn't a real engineer! /s /s

Well, you made me laugh. Have a free +1

Re: Ask HN: I need ideas to impress fifth graders with technology

#125

Post by behringer »

a1exyz wrote: post #120

My Dad did the coolest one for my fifth grade class that everyone still remembers. He showed us how binary addition in a calculator/computer works by giving us all 0 or 1 notecards. Then since the class is already arranged in a grid, each row is a single digit (8 bits). Then He gave input numbers and we raised our cards according to which bit we were an the person to the left of us. Honnestly I don't remember the spe…

That's an interesting idea. You could take three groups of kids, group 1 is register A, group 2 is register B, group 3 is the output, and you have one for carry/overflow. You can add or remove bits and make other flags to get everyone included. Then you just tell them the rules for any operation you want to run!

For example, adding A and B together you do from right to left, and carry gets to raise his hand when you overflow.

You could do other simple operations like subtract, shifts, ANDs and ORs, etc.

That could be a blast.

Re: Ask HN: I need ideas to impress fifth graders with technology

#126

Post by philshem »

I once attended a banquet dinner and shared a table with a female FBI agent and her husband. The entire table was enthralled by her fascinating stories of the field. Someone finally asked the husband what he did. He said “IT”. The conversation quickly shifted back to his kick-ass wife.

Re: Ask HN: I need ideas to impress fifth graders with technology

#127

Post by punnerud »

[All low price ideas]

+1 for the Browsers Dev.tool

Live "code" in the browser using MachineLearning with the whole class interacting: https://teachablemachine.withgoogle.com

Code.org - Even my 2 1/2year old son love it! And he both laugh and have sympathy for the Ice Age character when he jumps into the water

Change/Show the traffic between Apps/phone and the server using using MITMproxy. Playing games on the phone will never be the same, when you see how easy it is to "hack" both the App and the leaderbords.

Change the cookies in code.org to make the browser display that you have finished games. These are "persistent" changes and reasonably easy to understand.

Teach them that they can count to 1023 on their fingers

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