Ask HN: Second generation of intro to software dev for 3rd graders

2 points by xrd 2 days ago

I posted this last year asking for help in creating an introduction to software development for 3rd graders:

  "Next week I'm going into my daughter's classroom to teach about software engineering. I want to teach them about the magic of it."
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42056775

The best suggestion was

  "I think about the PB&J demo a lot."
It was a big hit! I took a lot of the suggestions and had so much fun. I'm going to do it again for my 4th and 5th graders classes and could use some help in improving it.

A few highlights from last year:

  * I brought a serrated knife and ketchup packets. When they said put the jelly on the bread with the knife, I gripped the serrated end and pretended my fingers bled (ketchup works great as blood). 
  * I brought in vaseline AKA petroleum jelly. When they said put jelly on the bread, I contemplated aloud "Well, you said JELLY, and this says JELLY!"
I offered to give the sandwich to one lucky kid afterward, but surprisingly, no one took me up on the opportunity to eat a sandwich with peanut butter, vaseline and ketchup. Kids these days are so spoiled, 6-7!

This year I want to do it again. But, I want to add some ideas:

  * importance of teamwork: I think this differentiates good software teams from bad teams.
  * importance of good communication: I was thinking about teaching them about how important communication and planning is. Last year I had slips of paper where I asked a different scribe to write down the instructions, and then I took those, reordered them with class input and then took action. But, perhaps I can expand on that and really drill into them the value of planning and good written communication.
  * managers: I was thinking about talking about how the managers are often the best paid, because they take responsibility for all the moving pieces, and the success or failure of the project.  I expect this might be a controversial take here on HN!
Any suggestions?
gus_massa 2 days ago

I'd take a different approach. Just make a simple game in html and edit it in front of them to add features, change the size of the monster, ... Wait a minute, it's 2025, probably use Kotlin or React to show the game in a tablet.

  • xrd 2 days ago

    Unfortunately, I won't have a computer and probably have 15 minutes max. It's an interesting constraint.

    • gus_massa 19 hours ago

      15 minutes, that's hard. I have to resort to the equivalent of https://xkcd.com/722/ :)

      My older daughter works in a software company to make a program to administer collections of videos, lots of videos. In particular a small part is a feature to upload some videos to YouTube using the API. A few years ago, when we told that to my younger daughter, she understood that her sister worked in YouTube. The younger one was extremely happy and and full of admiration. Even if my older daughter gets a Nobel price, she will not reach the same level in the appreciation scale.

      I'm not sure how to apply this to your talk, specially because they are older children, but ensure to explain that some guys/gals like you make YouTube work.