Legomom Posted May 20, 2015 Share Posted May 20, 2015 After listening to Richard Rusczyk speak about the importance of coding, I have been re-inspired to encourage my kids to learn. Richard talked about coding when he was young and basically needing to code his own computer games. This reminded me of my experience in high school in the early 80s. Our school had approximately 6 computers for our programming class and one of the things that we did was type in the code for a game called The Oregon Trail (maybe it was called Westward Ho--can't remember for sure) and it was actually quite engaging. I would type in a few pages of code at a time and then run the program and look for bugs (typos) to get the program run smoothly. I feel like it was a decent learning experience, at least as something to start with. I think that it was written in Basic. Fast forward to present day and I don't have any knowledge about coding, but think this would be a fun approach to start my kids with. Does anyone know if it would be possible to do something similar nowadays? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halcyon Posted May 20, 2015 Share Posted May 20, 2015 We are using codeacademy.com for Python. Well, the boys were learning some other languages there, but we'll switch to Python next year. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaderbee Posted May 20, 2015 Share Posted May 20, 2015 He didn't mention these two, but HSBC has specials on Game Salad and Game Design and I wonder if they're along the lines of what you're looking for? And I never knew you could mod Oregon Trail! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmilyGF Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 I think the Khanacademy tutorials are fun, a good way to get kids started. You have simple codes that make pictures and can manipulate them. I'm going to start my 10-year-old with them when he can type 30 words per minute with 95% (he's up to 23 words per minute with 95% accuracy right now). I don't think you should start coding with a kid who can't type quickly and accurately because coding can be frustrating enough without having typing errors thrown in. Emily (who knows a lot about late night coding errors) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 Coding is nice for training a child to think logically but it's not the only way. For my postgrad computing class, the aptitude test to qualify to take the class feels like a LSAT exam. We had a few laptops that we loaded Linux for kids to try programming on but those died of "old age". Now I might just get them a raspberry pi each to experiment since they can combine the raspberry pi with their mindstorm if they want to. I have killed too many computers and servers with my programming by overworking the hard disk and overheating the computer. I rather keep the laptop use for online classes free from my kids "programming experiments". I'm going to start my 10-year-old with them when he can type 30 words per minute with 95% (he's up to 23 words per minute with 95% accuracy right now). I don't think you should start coding with a kid who can't type quickly and accurately because coding can be frustrating enough without having typing errors thrown in. My kids started Khan's coding modules when they type with only their pointer and middle fingers :lol: I didn't learn any typing before writing and then typing my first Basic program using only pointer fingers back in the 80s. I am lucky I did not need to use punched cards (Hollerith cards) for programming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 I am reading this thread and the main one about his lecture with interest. My STEM heavy kid is growing up in a rather low-tech family, and it's difficult to sort out what is really worthwhile. There are way too many options, and much if it feels like busywork. I have noticed that the coding games that require DS to actually type the code (Code Combat?) are more challenging for him, and after 30-45 minutes he goes over to a simpler coding game for a breather. The various coding "languages" are way over my head ( :ack2:), but I am trying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wintermom Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 University fo Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, has free computer/coding/problem solving tests and solutions for grades 9 and up on their website. They are fun to try. Scroll down to the bottom for the Beaver Computing Challenges (it had to be a beaver! ;) ) http://cemc.uwaterloo.ca/contests/past_contests.html 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penguin Posted May 23, 2015 Share Posted May 23, 2015 wintermom, thanks for that link. It looks awesome! I posted a link to CS Circles on another thread. Same university, I believe. http://cscircles.cemc.uwaterloo.ca Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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