[Edu-sig] Starting Python

[catherine curley]

Kirby

Have just read another email about a new site for moodle - possible say your
response - have responded to that.  Any interested in any way of trying to
get my 12 year old interested in programming.  Am myself one third through
Alan Gauld tutorial.  Have my 12 year old going through the lessons in
Rur-ple.  Hopefully at the end he will be interested in moving forward - he
is a good maths student and if he would relate to something that you are
developing, it would be great.

Catherine


On 1/28/06, kirby urner <kirby.urner at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: kirby urner <kirby.urner at gmail.com>
> Date: Jan 27, 2006 5:15 PM
> Subject: Re: [Edu-sig] Starting Python
> To: adam <adam at monkeez.org>
>
>
> I think the Python curriculum for children that young is still in its
> infancy, yet we've already seen many promising developments, Pygame being
> one of them (although the package by itself is quite low level -- best to
> start with working code, as Adam is doing).
>
> I've had some success with Madlibs at that age, i.e. fill-in-the-blank
> stories, where the reader/user supplies the missing nouns, verbs and so on.
> After playing user for awhile, you get to pop open the source and change the
> story itself, preserving syntax.
>
> I'm teaching 8th graders once a week this year, and learning a lot doing
> it.  That's a little bit older than 12 though, more like 15.
>
> In the meantime, I'm working on a moodle to define a Algebra with Python
> course that isn't overly age/grade specific, i.e. an adult could use it.
> It's directed primarily at teachers, but I expect some of the more curious
> students will find it and flip through it, just for kicks.
>
> My hope is to get a guest password for members of this list, so other
> teachers can eyeball my latest and greatest math/cs hybrid (yes, it's
> basically more of the same).
>
> Kirby
>
>
> On 1/26/06, adam < adam at monkeez.org> wrote:
> >
> > Catherine,
> >
> > > Adam
> > >
> > > I'm an old COBOL programmer/analyst that have moved on to other areas
> > over
> > > time.   I'm trying to get my 12 year old interested in computers
> > instead
> > > of
> > > just playing games.  I've gone through a number of the tutorials
> > available
> > > on the internet but haven't come up with suitable examples that would
> > be
> > > suitable for a 12 year old to try.  He can enter the instruction in
> > some
> > > of
> > > the tutorials but he can't comprehend how he might use python.  Have
> > you
> > > come across any simple exercises for kids.
> > >
> > > Catherine
> >
> >
>
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