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Teaching Computer Programming to Underserved Kids

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Re: Teaching Computer Programming to Underserved Kids

#4

Not sure if it is by design, but their website starts echoing some underscore.js tidbits if you start hammering on the keyboard: http://scriptednyc.org/ Word.

Haha. I'm happy someone saw that. I wish I could say that it had something to do with my theory of Social Catamorphism, folding our disparate talents into a better future, or something. Unfortunately, no such theory exists, and I just picked a piece of code that I enjoy and looks attractive.

Re: Teaching Computer Programming to Underserved Kids

#5
Neat! I donated.

This semester I've been volunteering to teach middle-school students how to "program a game!" with the very wonderful Citizen Schools program[1]. We've been developing a curriculum that takes elements from the Bootstrap curriculum[2], using the Khan Academy CS environment[3]. (Yes, we've been following the back-and-forth with Bret Victor carefully.)

It's been challenging, but very rewarding, and I hope other engineers take seriously their obligation to apply some of their good fortune and education for the benefit of others.

[1] http://www.citizenschools.org/

[2] http://www.bootstrapworld.org/

[3] http://www.khanacademy.org/cs

Re: Teaching Computer Programming to Underserved Kids

#6

Neat! I donated. This semester I've been volunteering to teach middle-school students how to "program a game!" with the very wonderful Citizen Schools program[1]. We've been developing a curriculum that takes elements from the Bootstrap curriculum[2], using the Khan Academy CS environment[3]. (Yes, we've been following the back-and-forth with Bret Victor carefully.) It's been challenging, but very rewarding, and I ho…

That's really excellent. It's funny, although not entirely surprising, but we have also been using parts of Khan and Bret Victor. The students seemed to really enjoy the sandbox of Khan as a starter to what is possible with code. Repl.it was a big help as well. The hard/fun part is transitioning between the experimenting and learning with these out-of-the-box tools to experimenting and learning by actually making your own stuff. I - and I'm sure the other ScriptEd folks - would love to hear more about your experience (scriptednyc@gmail.com).

Re: Teaching Computer Programming to Underserved Kids

#10
I've been working with a group of volunteers from Freshbooks to teach to middle-school kids at the Yonge Street Mission here in Toronto. We're into our second class now - we've made some real life games to introduce concepts and have moved into using MIT's Scratch.

I've been thinking a lot about where to go next - great to hear about extra resources and that other people are doing similar stuff!

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