[Edu-sig] Queens, NY - PYTHON Programming for Kids

Dustin James Mitchell djmitche@cs.uchicago.edu
Thu, 13 Jul 2000 12:35:33 -0500 (CDT)


On Thu, 13 Jul 2000, Thomas A. Williams wrote:

> Hi Dustin,
> Let me know if I am going against list ettiquette to repond to you
> and the listsserve.
> Thanks for the info.  The group I will be working with will be from
> 7-17.  I will be breaking these up into groups 7-9, 10-12, and
> 13-17.   I may be too ambitious starting out yet something need
> to be done for the kids/youth in my community.  We hope to
> have fun teaching PYTHON and give them a beginning
> foundation in programming skills.

When I did a similar thing, I was also too ambitious.  Just plan ahead,
and be ready to scrap your plans every day, and do something completely
off the cuff.  It's fun -- I loved it!

> > Also, make sure they have the freedom to spend a good deal of time
> > exploring, especially after they've got some programming under their
> > belts.
>
> Please explain a bit more...

As in, don't just ask them do do exercises, but also give them some free
time to do what they want with Python, perhaps with some suggestions (e.g.
use slicing to get as many English words as you can out of "hippopotomus
anthropologist"), but allowing them to play and do what interests them.

Dustin

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|                         Dustin Mitchell                )O(        |
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