Ask HN: How do you teach Comp.Sci to your 6-10yo kids? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How do you teach Comp.Sci to your 6-10yo kids?

2 pointsmezod8 comments

By Comp.Sci I mostly meant: coding basics, logics, sparking curiosity with fiddling with tech in general, develop their own little projects.

They have already played with things like Scratch but it eventually becomes repetitive and they lose interest. They have played with the Turing Tumble and similar. Robotics might be a nice thing to try.

We could make 3 categories, resources they can consume with your guidance (1), resources they can consume alone (2), and games (3).

I'm particularly interested in (1), what resources/projects have education in mind while having an adult guiding them through it?

Thanks for any suggestions!

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Thinking algorithmically. For example, sequence, selection, and repetition. Compare a task to something a computer would do. Find humor in repeating an operation, or taking an instruction literally. Multiplication as repeated addition.

Problem decomposition. Reward attempts to spell a word based on what they know (phonetics). Show a word is made of letters, and sounds combine letters, and solving the smaller piece helps to get the larger whole. "You can figure it out if you can break things down small enough to something you can handle."

Abstraction. When something funny happens or "what if" is asked, imagine a world where it's possible. Ask what would be true in that world; what is discarded to simplify, and what is kept to define constraints.

Data structures. Make adhoc notebooks out of stapled paper. Fold and cut index cards. Show page numbers as a way to "address" other pages. When a container is full, mention overflow.

Composition. Use a copy machine to compose a scene. Copy an object, copy that plus another object, and repeat.

Thanks!

Take it one step at a time and make it fun. Little lessons when they're in a good mood. You'll figure it out.

I'd start with little text games in something like basic where you go over things like if statements, for loops, arrays...etc. Maybe start with figuring out a very bare bones game and figure out what the core components are. Maybe it involves accepting a string argument from the user, then has some if statements or something. Teach those components one at a time over a week. Then show how it can be combined in a simple text/console game.

There are people on here that will say not to teach something like CS at this age. My daughter is in that 6-10 age group and we went over some econ books for kids and she hasn't stopped talking about econ with me almost daily for the past year and can understand a lot of the basic concepts from a high level. It's just stuff we talk about before bedtime and in the car. CS should be no different.

Maybe just don't try to foist Comp.Sci on young kids which from your description don't seem to be particularly interested in the topic. Your kids interests don't have to be and likely won't be the same as yours.

Have you tried something like https://docs.python.org/3/library/turtle.html

ohh this looks like the WinLogo :P

I was precocious but programming BASIC at the age of 10, maybe Python would be equivalent today.

Maybe show some of the 2D cellular automata.

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