On 05/24/2012 12:01 AM, Marc Paré wrote:
Hi Doug,
Le 2012-05-23 11:41, Doug a écrit :
Spreadsheets (LibreOffice Calc) are confusing even to those who are
comfortable with algebra. The notation is clumsy! I wouldn't think
that is something that should be inflicted upon kids under 13!
In our school, we teach:
MSWord -- starting in grade 4
PowerPoint -- starting in grade 5
Excel -- starting in grade 7
There is no reason to get kids to work with spreadsheets even as early
as grade 6 (11 yrs of age) in a school setting. They are ready for
this and do quite well. In fact many math text books will have for
assignments work that is asked to be represented inside a spreadsheet.
This is quite common in math studies, and, at the elementary school
level. Whether or not these are undertaken rests on the ability of the
classroom instructor.
LibreOffice in this context makes for a great learning tool.
Also,
I also usually am part of a teacher-team for lego robotics and we
start training our kids who join the lego-club as of grade 4 (9 yrs of
age), we also join competitions with the kids after less than 6 months
of working with the robotics kits (even if this is a very simple
programming language). It give enough experience at basic programming
to get them interested in perhaps going further in highschool
I also taught logo programming to kids as of grade 4 through 8 in a
"school club" setting, and by the end of grade 8, students were able
to do self-programmed "slideshows" and one team even created their own
font and had the alphabet run through their font as a slideshow with
letter flying around their screen.
I have also taught logo to a grade 2 class over the span of a year
with a lot of success. The kids loved it.
There is normally a long waiting list to get into the clubs and some
teachers hoping to help even have to wait to join for lack of
hardware. The clubs are very popular.
Kids are awesome learning sponges!
Cheers,
Marc
Thanx for the input, Marc. As an engineer (now retired) I always found
ways NOT to use a spreadsheet unless it was some kind of
scheduling or accounting problem. There are so many math programs that
treat math like you would write it on paper. But I suppose if
you are taught from the cradle, as it were, to use Excel you will be
used to it.
Logo! I haven't heard that word in thirty years, at least! I'm
surprised it's still around. Never really got into it, but it seemed
like fun,
at least from a distance. I started using BASIC, and then learned and
used Pascal. Not being (professionally) a programmer, I never
learned C.
--doug
--
Blessed are the peacekeepers...for they shall be shot at from both sides.
--A.M. Greeley
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