[Edu-sig] Teaching python at a Computer Clubhouse

[Brian Wilkinson]

I think that Al Sweigart's book "Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python" can be an excellent resource.  It is a great way to learn Python in the context of creating games.  A link can be found at http://inventwithpython.com/

Brian Wilkinson
Sandy Spring Friends School
Technology Resource Coordinator
301-774-7455 x218

Occam's Razor - The principal that simpler explanations are, other things being equal, generally better than more complex ones.



From: edu-sig-bounces+brian.wilkinson=ssfs.org at python.org [mailto:edu-sig-bounces+brian.wilkinson=ssfs.org at python.org] On Behalf Of Carl Cerecke
Sent: Monday, May 21, 2012 6:23 PM
To: Laura Creighton
Cc: edu-sig at python.org
Subject: Re: [Edu-sig] Teaching python at a Computer Clubhouse

The kids are 10-18. Yes, I won't group them by birth-date. I started teaching myself programming when I was about 10, on a Commodore-64, from books and magazines. If there's a kid that's as keen as I was at that age, then hopefully they'll be able to progress rapidly. The group will be fairly small, I imagine, so they can all be at different levels and rates without too much problem.

Thanks for the snake wrangling reference. Forgot about that.
Cheers,
Carl.
On 22 May 2012 09:03, Laura Creighton <lac at openend.se<mailto:lac at openend.se>> wrote:
In a message of Tue, 22 May 2012 08:54:47 +1200, Carl Cerecke writes:

>I'm thinking of becoming a mentor at a local Computer Clubhouse
>http://www.computerclubhouse.org/. In particular, there are some kids the
>re
>who are quite keen to learn to make their own games, but none of the
>current mentors know any programming (one said that he had done some
>"programming" in HTML).
>I would be grateful for any recommendations for material to help me and t
>he
>kids. I have plenty of programming experience and some teaching experienc
>e
>(at the university level, though). I've written some text-only turn-based
>games in python before (about the level of connect-4), but nothing with
>graphics. The idea is supposed to be that this is driven by the interests
>of the children, but I need to balance that with the requirement for a bi
>t
>of a programming foundation as well if they're going to be successful in
>writing the sort of games they're interested in. I also think I need to
>make sure their expectations are realistic...
>So, any advice/recommendations?
>
>Cheers,
>Carl.
How old are the members of the clubhouse?
If at all possible you should let kids group by interest.
Date of manufacture (birth date) is a rotten way to sort people and your kids,
like everybody else, will be happier if people are sorted by something
other than 'birth date'.

I steal regularly from
http://www.briggs.net.nz/snake-wrangling-for-kids.html

and given that the author is in NZ as well, he might have some insights
that are better shared in person.

best of appreciation for what you are doing,
Laura Creighton

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/edu-sig/attachments/20120522/ecc6c67e/attachment.html>