How to design a CS curriculum for middle/high school? • Hacker News Board

Re: How to design a CS curriculum for middle/high school?

#11

Post by mtogo » Fri, Jun 24, 2011, 3:08 PM UTC

The best way to teach programming to middle/high school students is to teach them programming. Forget things like alice and scratch. Just hand them a python prompt and a book or tutorial, or perhaps Hackety Hack. Middle school students are a lot more intelligent than those programs give them credit for and are completely capable of learning actual computer science.

+1 for bhousel's suggestion for LPTHW.

Re: How to design a CS curriculum for middle/high school?

#12

Post by clp16 » Fri, Jun 24, 2011, 3:16 PM UTC

mtogo wrote: post #11

The best way to teach programming to middle/high school students is to teach them programming. Forget things like alice and scratch. Just hand them a python prompt and a book or tutorial, or perhaps Hackety Hack. Middle school students are a lot more intelligent than those programs give them credit for and are completely capable of learning actual computer science. +1 for bhousel's suggestion for LPTHW.

The problem is that you couched this in teaching kids programming, but I what I really want to teach is computer science. It's really more about answering the "why" question for the kids and showing something that stimulates curiosity. Granted for some people this is programming, but for others it's about showing the effect of computer science and how to be a part of that effect.

Re: How to design a CS curriculum for middle/high school?

#13

Post by clp16 » Fri, Jun 24, 2011, 3:21 PM UTC

bhousel wrote: post #10

I'd probably just use Zed Shaw's Learn Python The Hard Way as a model: http://learnpythonthehardway.org/ at least for the programming parts. Ruby For Kids is interesting too, but I think it's a little too advanced for an intro course: http://ruby4kids.com I agree that history is important too. Some of the more applied CS can be interesting (graphics) but I wouldn't delve too deeply into the more difficult stuff (cryp…

That anecdote is really helpful. It's good to know that kids already think that technology is going to benefit them in the social zoo of school! I am interested to know if anyone approaches CS from this more holistic point of view that I want to express. It's like English class where those few kids that are obsessed with it become writers or what not. These kids in my class would be the developers or what not, but at least everyone else would be interested enough to understand how tech affects their lives, much like how English class allows one to better understand pop culture. I want to capture the attention of that broader audience, but also show kids they can nerd out about the other parts of CS, like the math, design, science, or psych sides, not just coding.

Re: How to design a CS curriculum for middle/high school?

#14

Post by mtogo » Fri, Jun 24, 2011, 4:33 PM UTC

clp16 wrote: post #12

mtogo wrote: post #11

The best way to teach programming to middle/high school students is to teach them programming. Forget things like alice and scratch. Just hand them a python prompt and a book or tutorial, or perhaps Hackety Hack. Middle school students are a lot more intelligent than those programs give them credit for and are completely capable of learning actual computer science. +1 for bhousel's suggestion for LPTHW.

The problem is that you couched this in teaching kids programming, but I what I really want to teach is computer science. It's really more about answering the "why" question for the kids and showing something that stimulates curiosity. Granted for some people this is programming, but for others it's about showing the effect of computer science and how to be a part of that effect.

I see, i read your question too fast. Using scratch/alice/nxt/what-have-you as a tool to show what compsci is and how it can be exciting is fantastic, i just wouldn't use it as a method for teaching programming. My bad.

Another thing to look at is the Lego NXT robot, which uses very Scratch-like software (drag and drop action and control flow elements) to control a real robot that they can put together with Lego pieces.

I wouldn't downplay the importance of having a python prompt or a c compiler available, though. It may not seem as exciting as drag and drop programs, but to some kids it is more exciting (it was to me when i started programming, certainly).