I had an opportunity to volunteer some time for Kidzmash at Codemash. This is a great way to try to influence young minds to stay on a technical career.
The slides and sample code that I was "planning" on using can be downloaded here.
Jim Holmes, told me that he did not know how many kids will come or what the ages were. Well, I have volunteered before at my son's school, and I had 30 kids in the computer lab [previous post]. Of course,the kids at school were 10-13yr-olds that knew how to read and type on a computer..... ;)
Hello KidzMash..!! I had like 10+ kids with their parents showing up. Oldest one? 9-year-old.!! Youngest one? 5-month baby... yikes..!! I asked who knew how to read.? like 4-5 hands went up.
After about 5 minutes of Kids Programming Language (KPL), where you could hear crickets on the background, I decided to dump KPL, and I switch to Scratch.
Scratch is programming tool developed by MIT, to teach kids about programming concepts. I have download Scratch about 2 weeks ago, and I have put it to the test with my kids and they were able to use it within 5 minutes. Since this program is aimed at a younger age, I decided to use this program.
Kids were more receptive to this program. Thanks goodness.!! Here is the link for Scratch:
Doodle Game included:
The intuitive editor for some of the graphics is just plain simple, they were able to draw, and play with this one character all of the time.!!
I have asked for volunteers helpers, and they were all raising their hands to take a turn at using the laptop. :D
Once again, this was just another way to influence young minds to the wonderful world of programming.
2 comments:
Arnulfo influencing young minds...
...that's what restraining orders were created for.
blindman...relax, now you feel sleepy, very sleepy.... now, pretend you are a smart dba... when I snap my fingers you will wake up and feel that ORM's are good for you and that you were wrong all along... ;)
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