[Edu-sig] Need resource for beginners

[Tamim Shahriar]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. It will help me to design the outline
and content I shall let you know how it goes.


Regards,
Tamim.

On Thu, Dec 18, 2014 at 1:36 AM, kirby urner <kirby.urner at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 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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>>
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