On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 1:54 PM, Carl Cerecke <c...@free.org.nz> wrote: > I'm thinking of becoming a mentor at a local Computer > Clubhouse http://www.computerclubhouse.org/. In particular, there are some > kids there who are quite keen to learn to make their own games, but none of > the current mentors know any programming (one said that he had done some > "programming" in HTML).
Hi Carl -- A lot of kids say "games" because that's what's in their vocabulary and it most closely approximates the idea of a bright buzzing world with fun interactivity. I would recommend immediately coming back with "simulations" and identifying Sims as one of those, "not just a game". Then point out how all the Sims and their houses and furniture (and cities) are Objects and Objects have Attributes and Behavior. With all that as background, I find many kids will then amuse themselves with core Python, imagining the "game" in their heads, but in reality just doing primitive classes and functions. They pass the CS-1 level pretty quickly, if the latter is imagined as purely procedural only (not many of those left I hope). In other words, I hope you succeed in giving them excuses to learn core Python and get some clear concepts, as that will help when you introduce PyGame in the next meeting. Kirby PS: congrats to New Zealand for already having some of the more visionary and forward thinking computer science curriculum promulgators. Isn't Nat Torkington still there --or did he move again? http://nathan.torkington.com/ I figure everybody knows everybody in a place that small, like the Shire. _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list Edu-sig@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig