| Nice exercise developing an embeddable BASIC interpreter in Rust. I've experimented with teaching 11-year old school children Python in a single session. To obtain the immediacy effect that the original poster mentioed (which reportedly were liked by his kids), I use Turtle graphics module inspired by logo (import turtle - see also https://vegibit.com/how-to-move-the-python-turtle/ ). Here's what you can do in a single two-hour session: 1. First I explained the children how points can be addressed using x and y coordinates (Cartesian coordinate system - which they hadn't had in maths classes at the time). "Each dot has two numbers that indicate where it lives, like house numbers." 2. Then I gave them the task of drawing a house only using straight lines (no curves permitted). 3. Next I asked them to convert the lines that made up their house into Python code based on forward(), right() etc. commands inspired by LOGO (which was, after all, inspired by education work with children ast MIT). 4. Let them try out their program on a computer. 5. Tell them that if they liked this exercise, they should ask for a Rasberry PI from their parents as a Christmas present as an affordable way to get into programming (early). |
https://el.media.mit.edu/logo-foundation/resources/software_...