I know - Excel is the bare-minimum introduction to "programming" that most folks get.
Honestly, I think the industry has failed a bit here - we haven't really provided a good substitute for the spreadsheet when it comes to letting complete non-coders do elaborate computational tasks. I mean, Octave is a great tool for scientists, and I've seen some fun graphing calculator apps... but for some reason Excel endures. A kid wants to graph a formula? They do it in excel, even though that means they have to find a way to provide all the X-coordinates.
Typically, Excel is a checkmark in 'computer skills' or to facilitate presenting tabular/graphed experiment data.
Color me surprised if the curriculum involves VBA or conditional formulas. Lego mindstorms might suit the OP in terms of creative And computational successor to hypercard.
Honestly, I think the industry has failed a bit here - we haven't really provided a good substitute for the spreadsheet when it comes to letting complete non-coders do elaborate computational tasks. I mean, Octave is a great tool for scientists, and I've seen some fun graphing calculator apps... but for some reason Excel endures. A kid wants to graph a formula? They do it in excel, even though that means they have to find a way to provide all the X-coordinates.