[Edu-sig] Beginner programs?

[Jonathan Pennington]

You'd think I'd know better. Accidently sent this to Kirby.

----- Forwarded message from Jonathan Pennington <john@coastalgeology.org> -----
* Kirby Urner <pdx4d@teleport.com> [010207 13:40]:
> What I would suggest is you find out what these same students are 
> learning in other course work, and try to play off that.  Allude
> to their other subjects or tackle them directly.  Whatever they're
> doing in math these days, do something in the same ballpark in 
> Python.  But you needn't limit yourself to math.  There should 

This is similiar to what I would suggest. I take an upper level
petrology class that consists mostly of thermodynamics and
calculus. There are a lot of problems that we have to work out on
paper again and again, plugging numbers into the same equation for
different compositions, depths, heat sources, etc.

I've started teaching a few fellow students to program, and use this
as our base. We sit down, figure out the program, work it once or
twice on paper, then step through a small program that will crunch the
same equation, plug those results into this series, etc. I can't guage
right now exactly how effectively it works, but those with whom I'm
working are beginning to see a *relevance* which, in turn, builds an
interest. They've started asking questions like "Hey John, can I write
a program to build-widget-text-stuff-yada?" And I always say "Sure,
you got a minute?"

I'm hoping to do the same thing at the middle school, where I have
both 7-8th grade students and faculty in the same class. My plan is to
start with some text/number processing to introduce variables, lists,
etc (couple classes, maybe class/each main topic), 
then begin on a final project that the
students will be able to take with them and use. One student is a
librarian, and want's some stuff to help her work (cataloging,
processing, etc), so she'll do that. The rest can work on a different
project too (if they feel comfortable) or the main project which is a
mailer program for email (SMTP/POP stuff will be abstracted from most,
and we'll start with opening text files first. 

The mailer program is a good idea to me,
because it can be extremely simple (parse out the header using the
first blank line as a break) to incredibly complicated (uh, yeah).

No full plans yet, meeting with principal tomarrow to discuss times,
etc. The plan I do have is to run it like a lecture-less lab. After I
feel they understand the basics, we'll do some excercises pertaining
to the project and the rabbits will be allowed to sprint (and help
others) while I "teach" (read: help) here and there. Important to keep
the options open for all, so people who pick up will be able to
ignore/half-listen to my lectures to the ones who are having a harder
time. Nothing I hate more than being forced into a snails pace of
learning by the teacher- except being forced into a too fast pace.

Don't know if this idea helps, thought I'd add it. My main thrust is
to work (only?) on tasks that are relevant, or interesting. No parsing
strings just to do it, we'll parse a string when we *need* to, so that
it matters. That's ideal, we'll see about the real.

-J
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----- End forwarded message -----

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