Comments on: Help Teaching Programming to a Teenager

By: breitling evolution

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By: Marc

Marc — Thu, 14 May 2009 03:59:35 +0000

It may sound crazy, but I first learned to program writing VBScript macros for windows. I used a template, which is available here http://vbscript-macro-template.blogspot.com/ and I just added to it and also tried to understand everything that it did. Now, several years later I am writing my own desktop and database applications.

By: Maurice

Maurice — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 11:13:00 +0000

try python there is a book out and a program to help teach you im a teenager myself i started to self teach but i got caught up in other things but from what i saw it seems like a good bet

By: Tom Varsavsky

Tom Varsavsky — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 22:52:11 +0000

when I turned 12 ,over the summer I went to a camp called cybercamps at Stamford University and took a course on javascricpt and html. Cybercamps are based all over the states and it goes from ages 8 to 18. It helped me understand alot about programming and I strongly recomend it.

By: Jon Schwartz

Jon Schwartz — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 01:23:05 +0000

phrogram.com. nuff said?

By: Charles McCreary

Charles McCreary — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 17:47:28 +0000

Last spring, I volunteered to teach an introductory programming class at the small private school at which my three daughters attend and my wife teaches. I chose python for three reasons:
1. I know it very well
2. No compiling
3. Syntactically easier to deal with. Although issues such as indentation and case sensitivity are still bumps in the road for the kids.

It was a qualified success. Since it was a voluntary class, half of the kids bailed when they realized it actually meant work. The remainder stayed and by the end of the semester had become proficient in using Python up to object oriented concepts.

The text I ended up using is “Python Programming for the Absolute Beginner”, Michael Dawson, ISBN 1-59863-112-8

This summer, I have employed my eldest daughter at $8/hr as a python programmer. She spent two weeks using the above mentioned text to get up to speed on python. She then used the reference “wxPython in Action”, Noel Rappin and Robin Dunn, ISBN 1-932394-62-1, to get up to speed on gui programming using wxPython.

We use subversion for source code control and Bugzilla for the enhancement/bug manager. I assign her a bug/enhancement request, she checks out the latest from subversion, does the work, tests it, and then checks it back in for review.

She will be off to university in three weeks to start her studies in Biology and I’ll miss having her in the office. She has made a slight change in her major, she has elected to pursue the Computational Biology specialty.

My middle daughter (15) is more interested in Java. The high schools have a computer science competetion in Java. The aforementioned BlueJ has proven to be a good tool. I let her pick out the text to use. She really likes it and has made good progress but I do not have the citation at hand.

My youngest daughter (12) is working through the above-mentioned python book. Since it teaches python by building games, she stays interested. It also helps that I’m paying her $10/chapter.

By: David Cohen

David Cohen — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 15:05:55 +0000

The most important thing is to have a “real” project to work on. My first project as a kid was to keep a log of when someone entered or exited my room. I used a Apple IIe and a photo resister attached to the game port to detect movement in the room. Today you could do something really cool like that but instead snap a photo any time you hear a sound, for example.

The resources to learn how to do a specific thing are readily available to be googled at any time. The key is having motivation to do that particular thing beyond just “studying” it. Once you have the motivation to solve a specific problem and have a specific goal in mind, the answer to any problem or question is usually easy to find with examples in any programming language.

In summary, the best resource is a real project and a real mentor to point you in the right direction and provide needed hints.

I’d be happy to act as a mentor in this way via email or in person in Boulder. I don’t think it takes much to help somebody in this situation, as long as they’re self motivated. If not, they probably won’t be a good programmer anyway. Feel free to pass along my email.

By: Nathan Dintenfass

Nathan Dintenfass — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 06:15:27 +0000

Since Chris Pine’s book was mentioned, it’s worth noting there is an online version of the basic tutorial. It runs through some very basic concepts with code samples that show implementations of those concepts in Ruby (and starts with how to get Ruby running). Although this tutorial is an OK way to show someone what it will be like to “program” it doesn’t do a lot, necessarily, to engage the creative juices. But, it’s tough to teach “real” programming while giving projects that seem relevant, since there is so much to learn at the lower levels before you can really start to be creative — I suppose that’s the trick, though.

One way I have found to shorten the time from learning basics to getting creative is to start with the web. Learning a few basic HTML tricks and then introducing some javascript basics can be an easy way to introduce a lot of basic programming concepts but still get some instant gratification — especially when the web pages created can be put up for all of the world to see. It’s important, of course, to not just be teaching the HTML itself but focus on the javascript and what can be done with basic looping, conditionals, expressions, functions, etc.

This is such an important topic. My cousin’s kid is 15 and desperately wants to learn how to program applications for his Macintosh, but few books start from “the beginning” and even fewer seem to come at things from a perspective that engages someone in the art of code conceptually before getting into the details. On the other hand, I suppose that it’s good to learn right up-front that programming involves a lot of (at times frustrating) minutiae.

It’s also good for someone interested in programming to get some higher-order perspectives. For instance:

http://www.norvig.com/21-days.html

Or, possibly event:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Beginning…was_the_Command_Line

By: Deb Miller

Deb Miller — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 05:45:47 +0000

Brad, I think it depends on the kid’s age, gender, previous computer background, and literacy. A few years ago, some friends asked me to teach Java to their gifted, 5th-grade son. He was already into Lego Mindstorms and other “kid” programming. He wanted to learn the “real” stuff. Because my daughter was his classmate, she agreed to join us. We were meeting in a location without Internet access, so we picked a book to use – Simply Java. It seemed ok since it was a hands-on, tutorial approach. What I found was:

- the tutorials were too rote and didn

By: mac

mac — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 00:36:19 +0000

I suggest you look at RUR(PLE)(http://rur-ple.sf.net) which is a very gentle intro to Python.

Scheme is another possibility. Three excellent sources:

(text)
http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html

(video)
http://swiss.csail.mit.edu/classes/6.001/abelson-sussman-lectures/
http://webcast.berkeley.edu/courses/archive.php?seriesid=1906978270

Martin