Ask Slashdot: How Can I Make a Computer Science Club Interesting? 265
plutoclacks writes "I will run a computer science club at my high school next semester with two other friends. The club was newly introduced this school year, and initially saw a massive success (40+ members showed up at the first meeting). Unfortunately, participation has decreased a lot since then, down to four active members. I feel that the main reason for this decline was the inability to maintain the students' interest at the beginning of the year, as well as general disorganization, which we hope to change next semester. The leaders of the club all have fairly strong Java backgrounds, in addition to enthusiasm about computer science and programming. We have a computer lab with ~30 computers, which, though old, are still functional and available for use. What are some ways we can make the club have an impacting interest to newcomers?"
Lots of hot smart chicks (Score:5, Funny)
should do the trick.
Re:Lots of hot smart chicks (Score:5, Insightful)
Hookers and coke.
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where is the blackjack? (Score:2)
where is the blackjack?
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Yeah, well, I’m gonna go build my own computer science club. With blackjack and hookers.
In fact, forget the club.
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That works on DoD grant people, but in high school the proper scope is 'free pizza'.
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i think the next step is to be able to raise and lower the lights as the girls enter and move about the room, allowing them to get even closer.
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i think the next step is to be able to raise and lower the lights as the girls enter and move about the room, allowing them to get even closer.
And what about the sweaty stink from the geeks' armpits?
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Normal. (Score:5, Insightful)
First, reduce your expectations.
From your initial 40 'applicants' only 20% will stay, that's everywhere the case, from Pilates to Yoga, from Knitting to Pottery.
So in the best case, you'll get 4 additional members.
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^This. University enrollment is much the same too - Queens U CS started out with 180 I believe - whittled down to 40 every year. Tiny tiny department considering the value of the degree.
#1 thing I could recommend: Don't treat them like idiots. Give them challenges you don't think they'll be able to complete and let them surprise you.
#2 Get the arts involved too. Many computer projects require graphics - get them working on these separate things and show them how they can work together to create somethi
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Also realize that computer science isn't interesting to a lot of people, and you can't really change that. I never tried out for the football team in High School because I didn't find football interesting. That's not because football is a crappy game, or that the school's program was bad; I just wasn't interested.
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Hey, it's the Computer Science Club, not the Math Club.
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"Shouldn't that be 8?"
8 total, yes, but they have already 4, so 4 more is the goal.:-)
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Teach them how to break up blocks of text with the [ENTER] key.
Do something for the school: (Score:5, Interesting)
(Re)Design your website.
Create a course-management tool.
Try to use Moodle.
In general, a year-long project that will have a lasting effect on your high school.
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Keep it interesting (Score:4, Insightful)
As and educator for 20+ years (University level) I can attest that I too have had the same problems. The way to stop the declining numbers it to make it more fun. Have everyone War Drive on the way to the meeting and hand out a $5 gas card to the one who fins the most open AP's. Have a contest to find the most expensive computer on ebay. Have a hackathon over a 12 hour period where they get to try their hand at protecting and attacking computers in a safe environment.
Re:Keep it interesting (Score:5, Insightful)
If you want to bore the pants off people, teach them the syntax of a programming language. If you want to maintain an enthusiastic class, teach the bare minimum language skills (for-loop, not for/while/do-while. std::vector, not std::vector/std::deque/std::stack/std::list. member funcs, not member funcs/operators/static methods/etc), and encourage them to 'build' interesting things (simple games, basic apps, image editing tools, sound sequencers, etc). Enthusiasm for programming and computer science is something that you develop over time. Enthusiasm for being creative and making your own computer game, is something that can grab peoples attention. Just remember that whilst *you* might love the inner workings of a 6502 processor, there will be a large number of people that will find that dull and unexciting! Constantly ask yourself the question: "Why am I showing them this? Is this going to help them be creative?", and you can't go too wrong imho (and try to encourage the people to make links with other passions they may have, e.g. art, sound, etc)
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I agree - when you're talking about a club or even a high school level class, you're going to get people of all skill levels and interests. Since it's a club, find out what the kids want to get out of it, and don't make it about teaching programming, try to make it about learning from each other. If you can find people with similar interests, group them together on projects, even if their skill levels are drastically different. I learned how to write 6502 Assembly when I was 12 by looking over a friend's sh
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Java? Kids? Write a mod for Minecraft.
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I agree that it has to be made more fun. One fun thing is making money.
Many high schools let clubs do fundraising activities, and the computer club is a good place to showcase money making software. In my high school days, I wrote a matchmaking program that matched people up based on a survey. We printed out surveys and gave them to everybody in the school a few days before Valentine's day. Then on Valentine's day, we set up tables at the cafeteria and people could buy their matchmaking results for 50 cents
ask them (Score:2)
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"Ask them what they want and adapt accordingly.
A pony in which language?
2 words (Score:2)
Robotics (Score:2, Interesting)
Build an autonomous Ardurover. That will raise lots of interest.
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Kudos and ideas (Score:3)
First of all, congratulations for starting the club. Too many students sit passively by in high school.
A couple of things that could help. Do you have a dynamic teacher in your building that might be willing to sponsor the club? They can help you with recruitment and ways to keep people interested.
Also, try to have some really clear goals. Can you build an app for students in the building? Can you collect scraps from your IT person, and build some extra computers for the cafeteria for students to use or to give to underprivileged students? Can you find some local places to visit on a field trip or two? As much as I wish as a teacher that students would readily join clubs for their own edification, typically you need to find a "hook" to get them in the door. Once they've built something or seen the glory that is coding, they are going to be more likely to stay in the club. Try to find something they can SEE at the end of the year. Nothing beats seeing the fruits of your labor.
Good luck! If you need more advice or ideas, I could introduce you to some great AP computer science teachers.
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In case others are too lazy to look it up, it's lower than the rate for those who majored in accounting, business or finance: http://www.studentsreview.com/unemployment_by_major.php3?sort=Rate [studentsreview.com]
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Just to answer your question
~3.7%, and not even for a bachelors, that is 2 year MCSE sorts and above, well below the official jobless rate of 7.5%
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Getting kids into coding is like getting them interested in meat packing or textiles -- industries which are career dead ends. No business hires domestic programmers anywhere, especially when a call to Tata can get guaranteed results for a fraction of what a full time employee would cost, not to mention the other benefits (smaller payroll tax, less building space needed, one less employee that you have to worry about suing at a drop of a hat.)
You really, really, really need to get out and experience the world around you some more. That whole sentence pretty much summarizes the world view one would have if the only source of interaction is through news headlines. It basically says "hello, my name is AC, i have no fucking clue - although I think I do"
Re:Please don't delude the kids... (Score:4, Insightful)
especially when a call to Tata can get guaranteed results
it's all a matter of what that guarantee stipulates.
Step #1: toss Java. (Score:5, Interesting)
Step #2: understand that Computer Science isn't the same as Computers.
Step #3: decide what the current club members want to do.
Redesign the school web site? Robotics? Arduino/RasPi hacking? Learning new languages? Etc etc.
Installing FreeDOS and writing graphics programs in C that directly write to the VGA memory while controlling the sound "card" is an interesting first project. You learn a lot about the h/w, too. Then there's manipulating the FAT in assembly, banging bits out of the serial and parallel ports, etc, etc.
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+1 to that. CS is stuff like formally proving the search efficiency of data structures. Don't try to attract high schoolers with that. It's interesting stuff, but you need a gateway drug.
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I agree. "Computer club" should not be "code-monkey training"; the point is to engage and play, not to teach practical job skills.
Keep as far away from the stereotypes as possible, eg. don't show a screen full of unintelligible symbols for doing something with numbers.
Make it easily accessible, eg. drag and drop, sliders, concrete results rather than abstract results, difficult/impossible to make syntax errors (eg. tile-based languages).
Make it lenient. Getting a parameter wrong in a procedural image genera
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If watching American teen movies has taught me anything, the computer club will become the envy of all their classmates and the cheerleaders will certainly agree to go to the prom with them. Cheerleaders dig x86 assembly experts who can talk for hours about the file allocation tables in obselete file systems.
Sufficiently advanced high school programmers can create themselves a Kelly LeBrock.
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Sure it's old and out of date. But it's simple, and there's a great virtue in simplicity [salon.com] when learning computers.
Computing At School is your answer (Score:4, Informative)
Take the time to visit non-profit organization Computing At School. [computingatschool.org.uk]
Their own description of themselves is:
The Computing At School Working Group (CAS) is a grass roots organisation that aims to promote the teaching of Computing at school. CAS is a collaborative partner with the BCS through the BCS Academy of Computing, and has formal support from other industry partners.
They are dedicated to finding and sharing the best ways to teach IT to the young(er) generations, and they have a proven track-record with great results.
I am not affiliated with them; but I use their website and material for my own children, because nothing better is available to me locally.
You can join their online Educators Community here:
http://community.computingatschool.org.uk/door [computingatschool.org.uk]
- Jesper
Make something cool (Score:5, Informative)
Make something cool; something you can show off to people outside the club, that will impress them and make them want to join in.
Something involving robotics or sensing devices, perhaps -- that seems to engage young imaginations somehow. It's 20 times cooler to make a turtle robot draw a picture, than to draw the same picture on a screen. What about a Raspberry Pi powered school weather station that tweets the current wind speed and temperature, and serves visualisations of historical data on the web?
See if you can come up with a project that can scale -- so your 4 core members can make a start on it, but other people could be brought in whenever they show an interest?
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How do we know? (Score:2)
But I would suggest that if coding is going to be part of what this club is that you get a group consensus on what kind of project they'd like to do and start something on SourceForge or the like. It'll get some public recognition even if it's not too great and people will see their name on the web. People like that kind of thing.
I do a public astronomy outreach with my local amateur
Scratch (Score:2)
MIT's scratch is pretty fun:
http://scratch.mit.edu/ [mit.edu]
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Scratch *is* fun, and would be a great fit for an elementary school computer club.
I think by the time you're in high school, you should be aspiring to something more powerful/advanced.
Having said that, for complete beginners to programming, I'd be tempted to use Scratch just for long enough to introduce a few core concepts. It's wonderful to have an environment where syntax errors are impossible.
some thoughts (Score:2, Insightful)
1. Serve others. For instance, offer to tutor kids in lower-level programming classes. This won't be well received if you just end up doing their work for them.
2. Prepare, as a group, to enter local programming contests. Where I grew up, there were one or two schools in the area that had "
Something people can do. (Score:3)
Right, simplest way to maximise the number of people who stay.
give them something immediate which they can do and see a result.
Get them thinking about other things they'd like to do.
It could be as simple as getting people to design some 3d objects then dropping them into garrys mod and letting people play with them.
Immediate small success is more important than technical significance
some basic scripting perhaps, the sort people can build on later without any setup like bash for linux/mac and vbscript for windows (even if VBscript is a horrible language)
confidence and socialization (Score:2)
I remember the CS club in my school back in the day and as I recall, it was a room full of very bright students but they all pretty much kept to themselves, not because they were mean or bad or anything, it was just a room full of introverts - if my experience is any indication I would recommend any activity that gets the group working together to meet a goal and or have them share what they are tinkering with and offer to help others and receive help. the club in my school got a lot better when it was take
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To bring people out of their shells -- and I am not joking here -- make something, and make it with agile activities . No, don't get all anal-retentive about Scrum methodology, but:
- Make design a group activity. Whiteboard. Write user stories on index cards.
- Invite some kids who are *not* interested in coding, to be "stakeholders" -- have them help you write user stories, show them your work in progress, gather their feedback
- Pair program (when I was at school, we were two-to-a-keyboard due to hardware s
Invite speakers (Score:4, Interesting)
Find some interesting guys in your neighborhood who are doing interesting things.
Try the local businesses, colleges, IEEE chapter, etc.
That's a "speaker" who comes in to describe his work, but then you spend an hour just hanging out with him or her.
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Experienced folks can teach real CS in interesting ways too.
I've got a standard gig I do when asked to do "anything" which involves a fist full of pennies and notecards. In about 1:30 I teach the kids from 2nd-grade through high school how to send each other uncrackable encrypted messages (usually described in terms of teachers or CIA depending on the grade level). They get a touch of information theory, Boolean algebra and cryptography, but I don't use such lofty terms, I just encourage them to be subver
Simple answer (Score:2)
You all are mostly familiar with Java. So create some sort of large project that is based in Java. Minecraft mods come to mind as an easy one, but there is still the possibility of some sort of web app/game that you all could participate in creating.
Hello World...? (Score:2)
My philosophy is simple: Hello World is stupid. When I started programming in C at university, it bugged the hell out of me how long we took struggling with the language before being allowed to actually do something. The real way to start C is to start teaching the *n*x command prompt, and start making simple programs for shell extension commands (square, square root etc). That's the quickest way to get to something conceptually useful, because you're starting with divide-and-conquer and effectively teac
Clubs Often Work That Way (Score:4, Informative)
As someone heavily involved in clubs in high school and college, let me first say that it is entirely common to have the numbers thin out quickly. Everything I've ever been involved in has mostly been done by a "core" group of say 3-6 people, everyone else is only helpful here and there on temp basis. Do not let that discourage you as it did me in the beginning. You don't need or even want too many people that actively involved or it will be a nightmare to manage. Instead, I would say get your core group together and vote more or less on an interesting project to work on. Build a robot, set up new computer labs in the school (with linux? ;-) ), contribute to an open source project mutually agreed on, or whatever makes your boat float. Cool things happening will get interest from others, who will then start to participate.
The other thing I can say about attracting newbies is that you have to be sure you don't make things *too* technical up front. Some people have an interest but do not know where to begin, and will get scared off if the first meeting is too focused on the cool advanced projects everyone has. Make sure you include some plain "social" events to make people feel comfortable. Maybe with a computers theme. Maybe participate in a Distro Release Party (openSUSE I think encourages everyone to plan a pizza party and play with the new release every time it comes out, maybe try that? social but gives new people a chance to learn something new in a non-threatening environment). Remember: there are probably more people with interest in programming, but did not learn it yet, and so you have to be sensitive to their emotions. Not everyone teaches themselves programming at age 8 (for any number of reasons), so just remember your first priority is fun with friends with an interest, and then from that build a core that does cool stuff (maybe the core has extra meetings in addition to the monthly social meetings that attract new members). Contests are often a good way to get interest because it gets people involved. Maybe have some fun computer related contest (jeopardy! type game, whatever) and have some cheesy prize for the winner.
Do you have a faculty sponsor? Having a teacher at bat for you can help you get resources: computers, software, pizza, or maybe even just get permission for use of a certain room as the club hangout and lab. An area to call your own is always good at getting people comfortable and happy to join.
In any case, do not worry *too* much about planning to attract help. Just be involved in the school, have a lot of enthusiasm and do cool things, above all be casual and friendly, and people will naturally start showing up and helping out. Have a lot of fun and good luck!
Oolite (Score:2)
The OXPs (expansion packs) use javascript and open-step plists and graphics can be produced with Gimp etc.
There is also a big community behind it so there's plenty of support available.
The game is great fun, and it is easy to make expansions - your kids will be able to produce good results quickly.
Get rid of the 4 regulars (Score:4, Funny)
Get rid of the 4 regulars because they are driving everyone else off.
Robots (Score:2)
Throw in a 3D printer and there will be all sorts of interest.
Field Trips (Score:2)
I'm not sure if this is as relevant as it was when I was in a computer explorers club in the late seventies, but the coolest thing we did was go on field trips after school to see what sort of equipment and jobs were out there. Someone's parent or friend of their parent would usually take us into the "computer room" and explain the equipment and what they were doing. It was pretty cool.
Of course, I did grow up near the Johnson Space Center and most of our field trips were NASA contractors and NASA itself,
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Of course, I did grow up near the Johnson Space Center and most of our field trips were NASA contractors and NASA itself, so that probably helped. And it was the late 70's, so paper tape, 9-track, punch cards, disk packs, etc. were the norm.
Strange how compared even to something like the original Gameboy, that much less computing power could look more fascinating.
You could actually SEE how data is processed. And seeing is believing. This clearly sparks more intrest in "computers"
Back then, the basics (e.g. a simple "guess the number" game in Basic or Pascal) was much much closer to professional data crunching in a big iron computer room. geting "Guess the number" working was a success. Today it's a disapointment because it doesn't have 3D-grap
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You could actually SEE how data is processed. And seeing is believing. This clearly sparks more intrest in "computers"
Exactly. Everything was a lot less "black box" back then. You could see the bits light up on a panel as they were processed at sub KHz speeds.
Maybe OP could have them build a simple "slow" computer with regular transistors to help understand the whole concept of registers and binary math as it happens in a machine. Start with something that adds two numbers and go from there.
And yeah, we
10% does not seem bad. (Score:2)
10% of people staying on for a year does not sound to bad (especially for a disorganized group). I would say that making the group accessible to people during the year (certainley the first term) will help boost numbers.I highley doubt you will achieve more than 25% of people to stay. I would say that 20% is really the best you can hope for. If you want more people your probably better off trying to get more people though the door (although this will drive down your %)
Have goals, - what do you want to achie
Remove the computers (Score:3)
How to increase interest in a club .... (Score:3, Insightful)
I currently run a club with about 230 members about 100 active on a weekly basis. Here is the principles I use to run the club.
Basic principles:
1. Challenging
We try and target classes and projects just slightly above the students current level.
2. Fun
Let's face it if it's not fun people don't come.
3. Sense of achievement
People do not want to feel like they wasted their time. We give certificates for specific achievements.
4. Do what you promise
This is a way to make sure your club does not die. If you say you have meeting you have to have a meeting regardless if 1 person pitches or 100.
This is the only way I know how to do it. And it seems to be working.
I was president of my high school club (Score:4, Insightful)
I've heard from other places though that the biggest success is always building some sort of overclocked, ultra-high storage, superocomputer but sort of an ironic one number-wise since nobody ever has the budget for a brand new one. Basically, throw together a ton of spare parts in a gigantic 1995 era-case with other computers' hard drive cages glued in for like 10 used drives with PCI IDE controllers (like $10 on ebay) and dual power supplies. You can get cages, fans, drives, and all that donated from people who just want to get rid of their junk computers laying around at home. Then run through how to run a proper chkdsk on them all and other technical stuff and definitely paint it and anyone into computers at all will love the project.
make a theme / activity "story arc" (Score:2)
I suggest you develop some sort of "story arc" or pathway or series of activities that build on each other, but where each step is fun on its own. Then new members can see how things will evolve over time, and not just be a purposeless hangout time that's easy to replace with Final Fantasy XX when that hits the shelves.
As an example, they probably already know about Minecraft. For a minimal cost, you can get two Raspberry Pi units, then expand as kids start acquiring their own. Get them interested in th
I think you're asking the wrong questions... (Score:2)
Do people want to build video games? If so, show them pygame. Show them scratch.
Do people want to do robotics? There are only a bazillion cheap robotics kits that use Arduino's, raspberry pi, etc.
You need to figure out what direction you want to take the club and go in that direction.
Just my two cents. I've been actively involved in running a LUG (http://www.wlug.org) for more than a decade. This formula
Call it a "Hacking Club" (Score:2)
Oh That's Easy (Score:2)
Try something other than Java (Score:2)
IMHO, Java is the Visual Basic of the programming world. Try playing around with Raspberry Pi.
Go Knuth (Score:2)
Raytracing (Score:2)
Make sure you launch them into something interesting. I would recommend a raytracer - the basics are incredibly simple, but they can be expanded to great levels of complexity. There is direct visual feedback, so rather than just printing out a load of numbers the users can field like they have achieved something more substantial. Numerical optimization and data structures can be introducted gradually and immediate results can be seen. Raytracers provide a great environment for introducing object oriented pr
LAN PARTY (Score:2)
We have a computer lab with ~30 computers
Even old computers will still run plenty of good games...Quake, Warcraft, Halflife, Unreal Tournament, etc.
Quake and Quake 2 in particular made it easy to create your own mods. Why not spend time hacking on the games and the rest playing the games? Great way to keep it interesting and fun.
Games and Thinking (Score:2)
As someone who was a VP of the comp sci group in my highschool years ago, the way we did it was we played games. We met twice a week, once to play starcraft (or other games... usually starcraft) and other games on the computers, the next to discuss coding and logic
Often the logic would be strategies to figure out how the AI worked in games, but then we would talk about breaking through the schools firewalls, key loggers, etc. The Comp Sci teacher actually encouraged us to help him find security flaws for
Long-term project (Score:2)
Pick a fun and innovative project for the whole group to participate in. That way, people will have a reason to come back every week.
The project should be:
1. Fun - but not necessarily a game. Fun to compy geeks means "has interesting puzzles to solve"
2. Innovative - do something new. Invent something that nobody has done before.
3. Important - do something that matters.
4. Focused. Don't try to create the Ultimate Framework of Everything. It will take too long, and people will become bored and leave.
5. Ac
It worked when I was in HS (Score:2)
Do something fun ! (Score:2)
Why don't you try writing a demo in Java ?
It'll develop the creative part and help you discover Java in depth. And it's easier than writing a game !
Here are some examples:
http://pouet.net/search.php?what=java&type=prod&x=0&y=0 [pouet.net]
RoboCode (Score:2)
Make it a competition amongst the members of the club. This is a little more modern take on old clubs where the main focus was usually Chess, Checkers, etc.
For a little more advanced stuff, you could fork Mana World [themanaworld.org] or create bots for the server and improve the game overall.
Make an IRC MUD [wikipedia.org] using PircBot [jibble.org] or any of the other libraries out there. I've always wanted to do this but have never gotten around to it.
Lastly, the most advanced option... research into making another Linux Distro ("
To quote Kaiser cement trucks (Score:2)
"Find a need and fill it"
Why did you start the Computer Club? Was it because you and a few friends wanted to start one, or was there some burning issue/need that no one else in the community/school were addressing?
I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess it's the first one, and I will go even further and speculate that it was an idea shared by you and three of your friends.
Successful groups form when they address needs, concerns or interests of a number of people - what are the needs, concerns or interests of t
Booze (Score:2)
Use of Javascript (Score:2)
The javascript suggestion is very good. The Kids could use javascript to make expressive and/or functional websites for themselves.
Just Do It (Score:2)
Know how I get adults and kids excited about learning computer science? APPLIED COMPUTER SCIENCE.
Seriously. It's just like "Rocket Science" -- Few actually give a damn about the Science, its the ROCKETS that matter.... at first, but if you want to have more fun with rockets, you end up doing more and more science.
So, what are the applications of Computer Science that are simplest to understand at a base level and high level, yet have unfathomable depths in between?
Video Games, Artificial Intellige
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that's pr0n, you insensitive clod ...
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Meet in a Go-Go bar...
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Re:Forget Java (Score:5, Insightful)
Heavy languages like Java/C++ are tedious for kids/adolescents. Program in something fun and lite like Python/Ruby/Perl.
Javascript is better still. No compiler, near instant results. You just need a text editor & browser.
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Agreed. JavaScript and HTML5 is the way to go. Lightweight, capable, and ubiquitous. And it's probably going to be the most generally useful language for what people want to do these days.
Unfortunately, JavaScript itself has some major warts. You might want to read Crockford's JavaScript: The Good Parts and avoid some of the worst of the language.
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Agreed. JavaScript and HTML5 is the way to go. Lightweight, capable, and ubiquitous. And it's probably going to be the most generally useful language for what people want to do these days.
Unfortunately, JavaScript itself has some major warts. You might want to read Crockford's JavaScript: The Good Parts and avoid some of the worst of the language.
Every programming language I've encountered has its warts. However, I believe JavaScript is the best language for beginning programmers, precisely for the reasons you outlined above. I don't think that they should ONLY learn JavaScript though.
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warts, Java... well....
of course, the first step is getting them interested in computing as more than just porn and video games. Once you've got them coding anything, then they can figure the other languages out themselves. Maybe they'll get a job in the industry and then they'll end up supporting someone's shitty old legacy Java code too :-)
So the trick is to do something fun and easy. I think games in js is probably the best choice - especially if that can be game in js they can play on their phones (or
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How about Processing? Dead simple to get some impressive results quickly. It will build on your Java skills and it's easy to branch out into cool electronics projects with arduino etc. Most importantly, there's a huge community of people that are willing to help.
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No compiler, near instant results...just need a text editor, browser...so how are Python/Ruby/Perl different? Oh, you don't need a browser...
You need Python/Ruby/Perl installed, which might not be the case.
You probably do have a browser installed.
Not that I'd personally use JS for teaching.
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It's not just a matter of tedium, but of time.
It's the time and meta-programming overhead of environment, precompiler directives, massive API knowledge it takes to actually GET ANYTHING DONE.
In the small amount of time highschoolers get to actually concentrate on any one topic, you can't really get all that far into it.
Something that lets the kids get the flow in a shorter period of time is critical.
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When I was a kid, computers were interesting enough all by themselves. It's a sad state of affairs that they no longer seem to be...
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It's no longer the computer that is, or should be, interesting. It's all about what you can do with them. How about a hac^H^H^Hprogramming club instead?
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1. Ask the some of the kids that left why they did so
They thought they would learn the secret of how to "hack facebook" at the first session. Dispointed that it would require hard work.
Re: (Score:2)
I think you've confused Computer Science with Chemistry and Mechanical Engineering.