HOW I TAUGHT A 10-YEAR-OLD TO LOVE PYTHON

AND PROGRAMMINGby Eric Matzner

SKILLS REQUIRED FOR THE FUTURE

NOT JUST THE FUTURE

IT IS IMPORTANT NOW!

BUT HOW TO GET KIDS INTERESTED?

• Overwhelmed with learning

• Don’t want more “homework”

• Short Attention Span

• Usage of technology != understanding or desire to create it

INTERACTIVE AND INSTANT GRATIFICATION

Scratch Lego Mindstorms NXT

SCRATCH

• Free

• Interactive

• Created by MIT

• Online Community

NXT LEGO MINDSTORMS

EASY TO TEACH THE BASIC CONCEPTS IN REAL WORLD

POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS

• Autonomous Robots • Color Sorters • Rubix Cube Solvers • Rube Goldberg Machine • Etc…

HE LEARNED, BUT MY MOM DIDN’T :(

LUCKILY THEY SHOT A SLOW-MO HORIZONTAL…

NXT HIGHLY RECOMMENDED• If they like Legos, they will

like NXT

• Simple Build Instructions

• Teaches Code While Demonstrating

• Very Easy To See Feedback

• Great Intro To Concepts

TIME FOR PYTHON!

• All of this work was to subtly ingrain programming concepts

• Interested, but wanted him to write real code.

• What do kids love?

GAMES

MAKE GAMES INSTEAD OF PLAYING THEM

• Creates functional program

• Fun to share with friends

• Learning is subtle and interspersed

• Concepts taught as needed

HANGMAN

TEACHING THEM HOW TO BE INDEPENDENT

!

• Teaching them to know what they don’t know

• Even experts Google everything

• Try first, then call me

5TH GRADER PROBLEMS

OUTDATED

REPETITIVE

FRACTION SOLVER

THAT’S HOW WE GOT HERE

WHAT’S NEXT?

• Drones

• 3D Printing

• Raspberry Pi + Arduino

• Jasper

WHAT IS MISSING?• Schools seriously slacking

• Lack of options in classes and after school programs

• Programming languages instead of foreign languages

• Parental guidance and interest

• Make code cool and fun

THANK YOU TO ETHAN, VERONICA, GARY AND ALL OF THE CREATORS

AND EDUCATORS OUT THERE WHO POST GREAT TUTORIALS

AND VIDEOS TO HELP KIDS LEARN

FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER @MATZNERD FOR LINKS TO THE

SOURCE CODE AND EXTRA RESOURCES