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Summer of Code/2016/TeachingKidstoCode (view source)
Revision as of 20:49, 17 March 2016
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My project is called Teaching Kids to Code. It is my response to the project, Beyond Flashcards: Programming to ReadJS, proposed by Walter Bender.
My project is called Teaching Kids to Code. It is my response to the project, Beyond Flashcards: Programming to ReadJS, proposed by Walter Bender.
* Describe your project in 10-20 sentences. What are you making? Who are you making it for, and why do they need it? What technologies (programming languages, etc.) will you be using?
* Describe your project in 10-20 sentences. What are you making? Who are you making it for, and why do they need it? What technologies (programming languages, etc.) will you be using?
Teaching Kids to Code is a program that introduces kids to coding through a series of activities that make use of Turtle in Python. It will act as an introduction to object-oriented programming for late elementary school-aged kids. Computer science is sadly under-taught in the vast majority of public schools, something that will need to change as the subject is recognized for its importance relative to the core subjects (math, science, English, history). Kids need an easily accessible, fun way to learn how to code, starting with an introduction that gives them an understanding of the fundamentals of coding and the opportunities computer science allows, without overwhelming them with all the details.
The basis of the project is that students start with a simple tutorial and are challenged to apply their cumulative knowledge to increasingly difficult games and activities. To make the whole of the program more game-like, the activities will be written in a story-like manner where the turtle is the main character, which can be named by the user. The tutorial will focus on controlling the turtle object’s basic movements with a fill-in-the-blank approach. Once students complete the tutorial, they will be able to apply the learned movements to at least two activities: one in which they move their turtle object to “collect” objects on the screen in a treasure hunt of sorts; the other in which they navigate their turtle through a maze. These activities lead up to drawing-centered games that utilize the skills previously learned in addition to teaching new structures, like for loops, again starting out in a fill-in-the-blank-style tutorial. In one activity, students will be challenged to redraw shapes that are shown on the screen, and they will be scored for how accurately drawn and concisely coded the shape is, and given suggestions for improved code. Students will not be expected to code from scratch, rather there will be a set of constructs to choose from for each line. Finally, using this same pseudo-coding from scratch approach, students are asked to draw one of three prompts of varying difficulty, given according to the score achieved in the shape drawing activity. This is a great opportunity for teachers to set up a final project that will showcase the learned skills of the students, or simply for students to bring together all of their newfound skills in a satisfying way.
Some concerns that I have are:
* How to give feedback for the final activity, if teachers are not directing students’ use of the program?
* I have minimal experience with Javascript. I have begun reading “Eloquent Javascript” to teach myself and I believe that much of the javascript necessary for this project would be something that I could quickly learn, but I believe I would struggle to achieve the glossy finish that I would hope for.
* I am not familiar with any libraries that would be useful in constructing this project, but I am open to suggestions!
* What is the timeline for development of your project? The Summer of Code work period is from mid-May to mid-August; tell us what you will be working on each week. (As the summer goes on, you and your mentor will adjust your schedule, but it's good to have a plan at the beginning so you have an idea of where you're headed.) Note that you should probably plan to have something "working and 90% done" by the midterm evaluation (end of June); the last steps always take longer than you think, and we will consider cancelling projects which are not mostly working by then.
* What is the timeline for development of your project? The Summer of Code work period is from mid-May to mid-August; tell us what you will be working on each week. (As the summer goes on, you and your mentor will adjust your schedule, but it's good to have a plan at the beginning so you have an idea of where you're headed.) Note that you should probably plan to have something "working and 90% done" by the midterm evaluation (end of June); the last steps always take longer than you think, and we will consider cancelling projects which are not mostly working by then.