[Edu-sig] Need resource for beginners

[kirby urner]

Hi Tamim --

Speaking teacher-to-teacher, I think in terms of an XY graph with X-axis
the techie nuts and bolts and Y-axis the lore / history / storytelling.

Then I draw a curve representing any given students "bandwidth horizon" and
suggest varying the angle along the curve i.e. keep changing the mix of
lore and tech.

Too many teachers neglect lore I think:  where did Python come from, who is
Guido, what is open source, how many languages are there, what are they
used for?

Yes, we can go overboard and have only "fluff" but it's wrong to think of
lore as "fluff" when in a good / healthy trail mix with techie (e.g. the
syntax itself, magic methods...).

What I find is a real time saver and helpful is to *not* start with a blank
canvas i.e. an empty screen and say "now code something".  Rather, start in
the middle with something fairly complex yet understandable (conceptually)
and invite them to make changes (plus they get to keep the code).

I took this approach with middle-to-high schoolers (teenagers) with limited
experience at a summer school.

http://www.4dsolutions.net/satacad/martianmath/toc.html

Each student had a high end Mac.  I had Visual Python installed with my
stickworks.py and other goodies (all free and out there) so they had
something visually interesting, a live animation, right from square one.

But then they could change some things.  I call this "providing
scaffolding".

It's not like you're saying this is a shortcut to learning the language and
people who slog along are wasting their time.  It's not that.  We're just
front loading with concepts and human interest material and recruiting a
few into diving in more seriously as a result of having so much fun.  We're
not hiding the fact that it'll take a lot longer to get good at Python.

Additional resources:
http://www.4dsolutions.net/ocn/cp4e.html

Kirby



On Wed, Dec 17, 2014 at 5:27 AM, Tamim Shahriar <tamim.shahriar at gmail.com>
wrote:
>
> I am going to conduct a workshop next month. I shall use Python in the
> day-long workshop. The workshop will be for girls only (grade 9-10) who
> know how to use computers but not familiar with programming.
>
> If anyone has experience conducting similar workshop and has resource,
> please share.
>
> Also, what do you think I should show them in the workshop? Every girl
> will have access to a computer during workshop? Should I go with solving
> problems from their math / physics book? Or should I try to show them
> simple games to make it more fun? I am waiting for your ideas.
>
>
> Regards,
> Tamim.
> Python Blog : http://love-python.blogspot.com
>
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