6 ms·

How the kids stole the show: Young Coders tutorial at PyCon

168 points by jnoller 14y ago

cwbrandsma 14y ago
Just talking on the interest you can get from having kids give talks at conferences... We just had Boise Code Camp 2 weeks ago. We had one talk on Kid Programming, which was given by two 11 year olds (using Scratch) and a 6 year old (using LOGO) -- and two of them were girls. We put the talk in one of our larger rooms and we packed it. People standing in the back and sitting on the floor. As an aside, just about every year we have had a large number of parents attending who would bring one or two kids with them. Out of 400 people I could usually 15-20 people younger than 18. We have not had any trouble because of it. I think there is a lot of interest, both from kids and parents, to learn about programming. A our code camp, I'm hoping to open up multiple sessions for kids (I'd like to have a multiple hour block). Some of those kids already have good resumes going. One I saw in particular was able to talk on Java and C without any difficulty (and he preferred vi as his editor) -- he was maybe 12. For other conference organizers, (if you have room) please consider having talks aimed at kids. But also just encourage parents to bring their tech interested kids with them.
- jetsnoc 14y ago
  Hello. I would like to get involved with Boise Code Camp. We're a small 60-employee software company in Twin Falls. It's exciting you have such an effort and we'd like to get involved. My email is in my profile -- couldn't find yours.
undershirt 14y ago
I was interested in teaching a 6th grade class how to make a video game. I volunteered at Citizen Schools to teach a 90 minute session per week over 10 weeks at a low-income school. Made them a simple IDE where they could draw things and make them move around the screen with high-level Lua code. It was largely a disaster due to classroom management issues, though 3 students did complete a game. I definitely think the 1:3 teacher-student ratio mentioned in the article is necessary to making this kind of thing successful.
- therealkatie 14y ago
  (I'm Katie, one of the teachers! Normally I'm kcunning, but I' lost my password.) I think we would have had a disaster of our own, if we had done this without volunteers. Kids are notorious for not speaking up if they're having issues, and from the front, a kid that is 'getting' it looks the same as a kid that's completely lost. I was surprised at how many people wanted to volunteer, as well! We already have a list of eager people for next year.
enemtin 14y ago
The ways in which kids are going to change the world will be mind blowing. We teach young girls how to code with www.ladieslearningcode.com and the talent that these girls have is incredible. I can't wait for that generation to be the future CEOs and CTOs of the world.
- ChuckMcM 14y ago
  As long as I don't see any posts that say "I'm 12 and I haven't done anything important, should I give up?" here on HN
  - simeonf 14y ago
    Heh. Louis (awesome kid - 12 years old maybe? at PyCon) told me "I can code but I have no original ideas!" I told him to give it time...
    - csense 14y ago
      Original ideas aren't a necessity in this business. Execution and timing are really important too. Anyone remember MySpace? LiveJournal? Xanga? ConnectU? I'm pretty sure they all predated Facebook, were quite similar to Facebook, and Facebook just outmaneuvered them with execution. Or think about Blizzard in the mid-to-late '90s. Warcraft/Starcraft weren't the first RTS games -- Blizzard wasn't an innovation leader -- but they were extremely polished products. Flawless execution beat first mover advantage; have you heard anything about the Dune series lately from someone who's not a hardcore retrogamer?
sophacles 14y ago
“I don't think you'd ever see that kind of experimentation in a classroom full of adults, who would more likely do everything in their power not to break their computers,”... I really think, more than anything, this is why we should be teaching kids to code and so on in school. Most of the good coders I know have been doing it from a young age, and I think a lot of it comes from the fearlessness of youth. Personally, I know I owe a lot to this. I "broke" the computer more times than I can count, by just experimenting, playing and otherwise doing stuff that I now know to be "reckless". There was a guy in the IT department and my dad's work who gave me an absurd number of hours of free tech support and teaching, because I couldn't figure out how to undo some of those mistakes, and would patiently walk me through getting things put right before my folks came home from work. (In retrospect, I don't think they would have minded, but I didn't want to get in trouble for breaking the expensive toy!)
- Dewie 14y ago
  > Most of the good coders I know have been doing it from a young age, As someone who started programming when I was 21, I sometimes feel like I don't stand a chance.
  - gizmo686 14y ago
    Don't worry. I suspect the reason that people percieve that most good coders started young is that people who start young have already demonstrated that they have a lot of interest and passion in the subject. So it follows that they would be good disprortionantly often. If you have the same passion, then starting late shouldn't hold you back that much. Having said that, I am one of the lucky ones who started young.
  - thauck 14y ago
    I know how you feel... I didn't start until I was 21 and I'm 25 now. If you try to compete with somebody who has been coding since they were 10 on pure coding talent you'll lose. But that's fine. Use your cross-functional skills to your advantage... whatever you did from ages 8-21 when combined with the coding you did from 21-present is likely just as (if not more) valuable than the skills a person who's been coding since childhood.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
mcintyre1994 14y ago
This is the generation that can extinguish gender issues, and this is the kind of news that should be coming out of these conferences.
- incongruity 14y ago
  And, honestly, when you look at the number of people involved/directly impacted, this is a much bigger story for PyCon, IMHO.

168 points by jnoller 14y ago

Just talking on the interest you can get from having kids give talks at conferences... We just had Boise Code Camp 2 weeks ago. We had one talk on Kid Programming, which was given by two 11 year olds (using Scratch) and a 6 year old (using LOGO) -- and two of them were girls. We put the talk in one of our larger rooms and we packed it. People standing in the back and sitting on the floor. As an aside, just about every year we have had a large number of parents attending who would bring one or two kids with them. Out of 400 people I could usually 15-20 people younger than 18. We have not had any trouble because of it. I think there is a lot of interest, both from kids and parents, to learn about programming. A our code camp, I'm hoping to open up multiple sessions for kids (I'd like to have a multiple hour block). Some of those kids already have good resumes going. One I saw in particular was able to talk on Java and C without any difficulty (and he preferred vi as his editor) -- he was maybe 12. For other conference organizers, (if you have room) please consider having talks aimed at kids. But also just encourage parents to bring their tech interested kids with them.

jetsnoc 14y ago
Hello. I would like to get involved with Boise Code Camp. We're a small 60-employee software company in Twin Falls. It's exciting you have such an effort and we'd like to get involved. My email is in my profile -- couldn't find yours.

undershirt 14y ago

I was interested in teaching a 6th grade class how to make a video game. I volunteered at Citizen Schools to teach a 90 minute session per week over 10 weeks at a low-income school. Made them a simple IDE where they could draw things and make them move around the screen with high-level Lua code. It was largely a disaster due to classroom management issues, though 3 students did complete a game. I definitely think the 1:3 teacher-student ratio mentioned in the article is necessary to making this kind of thing successful.

therealkatie 14y ago
(I'm Katie, one of the teachers! Normally I'm kcunning, but I' lost my password.) I think we would have had a disaster of our own, if we had done this without volunteers. Kids are notorious for not speaking up if they're having issues, and from the front, a kid that is 'getting' it looks the same as a kid that's completely lost. I was surprised at how many people wanted to volunteer, as well! We already have a list of eager people for next year.

enemtin 14y ago

The ways in which kids are going to change the world will be mind blowing. We teach young girls how to code with www.ladieslearningcode.com and the talent that these girls have is incredible. I can't wait for that generation to be the future CEOs and CTOs of the world.

ChuckMcM 14y ago
As long as I don't see any posts that say "I'm 12 and I haven't done anything important, should I give up?" here on HN
- simeonf 14y ago
  Heh. Louis (awesome kid - 12 years old maybe? at PyCon) told me "I can code but I have no original ideas!" I told him to give it time...
  - csense 14y ago
    Original ideas aren't a necessity in this business. Execution and timing are really important too. Anyone remember MySpace? LiveJournal? Xanga? ConnectU? I'm pretty sure they all predated Facebook, were quite similar to Facebook, and Facebook just outmaneuvered them with execution. Or think about Blizzard in the mid-to-late '90s. Warcraft/Starcraft weren't the first RTS games -- Blizzard wasn't an innovation leader -- but they were extremely polished products. Flawless execution beat first mover advantage; have you heard anything about the Dune series lately from someone who's not a hardcore retrogamer?

sophacles 14y ago

“I don't think you'd ever see that kind of experimentation in a classroom full of adults, who would more likely do everything in their power not to break their computers,”... I really think, more than anything, this is why we should be teaching kids to code and so on in school. Most of the good coders I know have been doing it from a young age, and I think a lot of it comes from the fearlessness of youth. Personally, I know I owe a lot to this. I "broke" the computer more times than I can count, by just experimenting, playing and otherwise doing stuff that I now know to be "reckless". There was a guy in the IT department and my dad's work who gave me an absurd number of hours of free tech support and teaching, because I couldn't figure out how to undo some of those mistakes, and would patiently walk me through getting things put right before my folks came home from work. (In retrospect, I don't think they would have minded, but I didn't want to get in trouble for breaking the expensive toy!)

Dewie 14y ago
> Most of the good coders I know have been doing it from a young age, As someone who started programming when I was 21, I sometimes feel like I don't stand a chance.
- gizmo686 14y ago
  Don't worry. I suspect the reason that people percieve that most good coders started young is that people who start young have already demonstrated that they have a lot of interest and passion in the subject. So it follows that they would be good disprortionantly often. If you have the same passion, then starting late shouldn't hold you back that much. Having said that, I am one of the lucky ones who started young.
- thauck 14y ago
  I know how you feel... I didn't start until I was 21 and I'm 25 now. If you try to compete with somebody who has been coding since they were 10 on pure coding talent you'll lose. But that's fine. Use your cross-functional skills to your advantage... whatever you did from ages 8-21 when combined with the coding you did from 21-present is likely just as (if not more) valuable than the skills a person who's been coding since childhood.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

mcintyre1994 14y ago

This is the generation that can extinguish gender issues, and this is the kind of news that should be coming out of these conferences.

incongruity 14y ago
And, honestly, when you look at the number of people involved/directly impacted, this is a much bigger story for PyCon, IMHO.