Career Day for Elementary School Kids?

Chris Curtin writes "My daughters' school is having a Career Education Day next month and I'd like to do a presentation. My kids are in Kindergarten and Third Grade, but I could present to Fifth Graders, as well. How do I explain what a programmer does to the kids? I was thinking about building a web page for the little ones, maybe show the older ones some visual logic with VB, where I change a basic program and run it from my laptop, showing keyboard and mouse inputs, music, and so forth. I have VB6, Java, HTML and Windows 2k on the laptop I'll be bringing. Any thoughts on how to 'wow' the little ones and make the older ones want to learn more about programming?" If you were going to make a computer presentation to a class full of children, what kind of things would you talk about?

Comments

Little pieces, big pieces

[Mr. Darl McBride]

If you really want to capture their imaginations, keep it light. Show a little bit of simple source code. Make it basic if you like. But intersperse that with presentations of what software can do. Mention video games and show video if you're able. Explain just a brief smidgen of code, such as a string copy operation, then tell how that can be used to find files, how those files can be combined to tell a computer how to draw and save drawings to a file, then how those files can be put together to make a movie - boom! You know all about a piece of what made (fill in a hot computer animated movie) possible!

From there, explain that it's all building blocks. Hundreds, thousands, millions of tiny little pieces like that which all work together. Your presentation can be mostly handwaving and neat video clips or pictures. Just understanding that there are little details which add up to wonderful things is enough to capture their imaginations.

And of course, if they ask how they can do it too, mention the wonderful learning opportunities that can begin with learning Linux^W UnixWare, only $1399 a seat. Compiler extra.

Speaking as a Former Elementary Computer Teacher..

[TheWanderingHermit]

...I'd have to re-emphasize some of the earlier posts. Keep it simple. Really -- keep it simple. While kids have a capacity for learning that is amazing, you DO NOT want to get too technical. You're not clear if you're presenting to K,3, & 5 grades at once, but that is a huge spread, and you're almost certain to lose either the K or 5th grade. If you're doing separate presentations, that'd be much better.

Take in logo (I think I saw an open source or downloadable version somewhere) and show them the direct connection between typing in a command and the logo turtle responding. Let them discover, o n their own, that when you type in RT 90, the turtle turns and when you type in FD 50, it goes forward. At that point they have a basic understanding that your commands effect the computer. Then show them a simple logo program -- maybe start with a long command line that draws a square, then load one that draws a face and run it. Let them see how complex it can get in stages.

After that, you can link the kind of program that controls a turtle to the kind of program that draws pictures and makes web pages. Focus on small stages. If you keep in mind things like the thousands of details you know, you'll lose them.

And remember, good teaching is often good entertainment as well. I'm not saying do a fancy show, but you have to keep them entertained to hold their attention.

Good luck!