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How Do I Talk To 4th Graders About IT?
Tsunayoshi writes "My son volunteered me to give a presentation on what I do for a living for career day at his elementary school. I need to come up with a roughly 20-minute presentation to be given to 4-5 different classrooms. I am a systems administrator, primarily Unix/Linux and enterprise NAS/SAN storage, working for an aerospace company. I was thinking something along the lines of explaining how some everyday things they experience (websites, telephone systems, etc.) all depend on servers, and those servers are maintained by systems administrators. I was also going to talk about what I do specifically, which is maintain the computer systems that allow the really smart rocket scientists to get things into space. Am I on the right track? Can anyone suggest some good (and cheap/easy to make) visual aids?"
Flowcharts, and keep it simple. Visual aids really help.
"Talk to your kids about IT ... before someone else does."
"It's all about cookies. Who wants a cookie??"
Start with the basics and work your way up from there.
I'd suggest axiomatic set theory first coupled with computing history, linear algebra and analysis. Throw in some logic into the mix for good measure. Once they got the basics point them towards the linux kernel and start discussing the more interesting issues of SMP, scheduling, latency and memory management.
It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be yourself no matter what they say
"See the Internet is a series of tubes! And you have to understand that those tubes can get clogged up!"
As one of the 21st centuries greatest thinkers said:
"And again, the Internet is not something that you just dump something on. It's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes. And if you don't understand, those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it's going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material" - Ted Stevens
Put it in nonsensical pop music format. And keep it shorter then 3 minutes.
There are no loopholes. It's either legal or it's not.
You've got a chance to save lives here!!!!
If your manager can understand it, a 4th grader should have no problem understanding what you do!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
As much as I hate to say it, MS actually got one right. They ran a webcomic (Heroes Happen Here) for a while, most of it wasn't too great. The 1st page is a kid asking his dad what he does for a living so he can give a school presentation about it. The dad goes on about what he does as a developer and it goes way over the kids head. So the kid tells everyone his dad drives an ice cream truck.
http://blogs.technet.com/hhh_comic/archive/2008/01/29/hhh-comic-releases-day-1-comic.aspx
See if you can blow something up.
Kids love that stuff.
You can't talk about Wikipedia's flaws on Wikipedia
their attention span is like 30 seconds.
A video or two from RedTube should fix THAT. Then, once you have their UNDIVIDED attention, point out that what you do makes it possible to see this kind of stuff from any internet capable machine on the planet.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Don't forget to explain the difference between tubes and dump trucks
Since all the 4th grade boys think girls are icky, it should be an easy sell.
... let me know how, so I can explain it to my parents.
Use your head, can't you, use your head,
You're on earth, there's no cure for that - S. Beckett
Not far off. Here is a script you can use:
You: Do you kids know how Mommy and Daddy put Elmo on YouTube when it's time to "clean the master bedroom?"
Them: Yes.
You: I make sure Elmo keeps playing until the room is clean.
First step is to let your child know, in no uncertain terms, that volunteering you for anything in the future will result in two months grounding.
--I'm not talking about dance lessons. I'm talking about putting a brick through the other guy's windshield.-
You're a Unix sysadmin who reads Slashdot.
You don't expect us to believe that you have enough social skills to get to the point of having had children do you?
All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
the tom hanks/ bill paxton/ kevin bacon movie with the famous "houston, we have a problem" line
freeze frame when they cut back to ed harris and ground crew strategizing, point to some guy in the background fiddling with some equipment, and say "that's me"
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
.. the same way you would talk to the executives.
Step one is get a couple of those anatomically correct dolls. Step two cover the whole good touch/bad touch subject. Then jam your fist up the backside of one of the dolls.
Shut down the schools system and refuse to bring it up until they buy you lunch.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
If you want to keep it exciting and still realistic, just present a slide show of dilbert comics.
Yes, kids love being blown up.
Oh, did I say that out loud?
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Tell them that they're no longer needed, and give your lecture to some kids in a less-expensive country.
For added realism, have them train their replacements.
"I always get jealous of IT folks when I see that they get to work with racks of equipment"
huh, I always say the same thing about porn.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I'd suggest you start here. The explaination of differences between a hard drive and a floppy is especially effective. Modify as needed for your own audience. Use of a lucca libre mask is optional, but recommended if you want to hold the respect of a class of 4th graders.
Shameless plug for my photos on Flickr
System administrator, eh? You can start by showing your scars.
All of my scars are on the inside :-(
Your child has condemned himself to the humiliation of having everyone know his father is a big nerd. Well, it's his own fault for volunteering you. Unfortunately, his respect for you will now plummet and you will have trouble keeping him off drugs three years from now. After several minor run-ins with the law, he will end up studying general accounting at community college, and take a job cooking the books for a corrupt tire warehouse in Des Moines. His wife will commit suicide at 32. Your grandchildren will be spoiled and ugly.
You can, however, prevent all this by claiming to be an astronaut.
I piss off bigots.
Bring a wireless or two, and maybe throw in a few internets for good measure.
Start with a basic discussion of SysV vs. BSD, then move on to shells and explain why the Bourne shell his historically prefered to csh for scripts.
You might demonstrate a little sed and awk, but keep in mind that these are just kids, so you might just jump ahead to perl. Maybe wrap it up by talking about NFS and how network filesystems have changed since Samba came along.
Oh, and if you feel like you're losing them along the way, you can probably win them back with an Itanic joke :-)
Umm .. while I agree with the sentiment, depending on what aerospace company the person works for, this could be a bad idea. While the kids might get a kick out of a recreation of the Challenger disaster, it is kinda morbid.
Dear Slashdot:
I am trying to talk with my PHB^H^H^H^H fourth grader about IT.
Can you help?
Signed,
Frustrated at Work
You'll need to do a few things to give the kids a proper flavor for the job.
First, for no good reason whatsoever, insist that the meeting be held at 3AM, give no warning of this - just page them all at night.
Second, ensure the classroom is a cold as possible.
Third, in the background play some extremely loud fan noise.
Begin the session with recriminations, belittle the children for their lack of psychic abilities.
Repeat the same information to the children over and over a few times to see if the same phrase magically has a different effect. Berate the children for not doing what you think they should be doing.
End with demands that this never happen again.
Nullius in verba
Tell them you make computers do your job.
launching furniture does not count as aerospace...
I was thinking more of:
*BOOM*
"An explosion, like the one that just shattered the classroom windows, demonstrates how much energy is released from igniting hydrogen and oxygen mixed together. This energy, properly contained, can propel a spacecraft - or this wastebasket. Watch!"
You can't talk about Wikipedia's flaws on Wikipedia
See if you can blow some kids up. Teachers love that stuff.
Bark less. Wag more.
he's not going to keep their interest if all he talks about is how his job's going to be outsourced...
just imagine you're explaining what you do to your boss.
Nullius in verba
I am a systems administrator,
tedius
primarily Unix/Linux
boring
Nonsense ... these kids are the perfect audience for a 20-minute talk on the joys of awk and sed.
If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
System administrator, eh? You can start by showing your scars.
All of my scars are on the inside
Showing children goatse.cx would be a bad life decision.
Indeed, a true visionary.
Is he out of prison yet?
The Internet is a series of Tubes, you see...
Flappinbooger isn't my real name
Also let me know so I can explain it to my fellow employees. They arent "getting it" when I talk to them like adults, so I gotta try a different tack.
(No Bob, rebooting your PC is NOT pushing the button on your monitor or logging off and back on again.)
Explaining it to 4th graders? Don't you already use the same approach when talking to senior management?
I don't like internets, they take days to deliver. They're not a truck you can just dump stuff onto, you know!
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
Teachers. Blowing. Kids.
Somehow this sounds all wrong.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
I know what you mean. Even though they're called Chips, they're apparently not edible.
What?
This is rubbish. You do have to be interesting, but don't expect that fourth graders are stupid and all they want is flashy bullshit.
Actually, if you type that in the first result you get is a link to this page. So yes it is that good, in a way! ;)
which is totally what she said
I arrive at work, drink some coffee and start to go to my office to play some games (sudoku IS better than WoW).
Right at this time my boss comes to me with an alarming news: someone has KILLed the web server! In a hurry, I put my detective hat and go to solve this mistery.
I start in the server's HOME. By reading his LOG I try to figure if he had any enemies, but all I see are empty FILEs.
Next, I look WHO were his friends. I try to LOCATE some images, which I FIND near his PING-pong trophies. In there, I only see the picture of one strange guy. WHOIS him? I try to LOOKUP any INFOrmation about him and I manage to GET his ADDRESS and ZIP code, WRITtEn by the victim in a hurry in a NOTEPAD that was in his DESK's TOP
I start to CONNECT the /DOTS, but when I was EXITting the building, something HITs me in the neck and I pass out.
When I WAKE UP, I find I'm tied to a chair in a dark room, full of PIPEs scattered around. Then I hear a voice. I recognize it as the MANAGER's one. When he comes to the light, I see he looks as if DAEMONized, with his EYES glazed. I try to escape, fiddling with my FINGERs through the rope's knot. I do manage to untie it, and FREE myself. The manager tries to punch me, but I KICK him first and he passes out.
I call the police and tell the OPERATOR what happened. Soon they appear in the house, FLASHlights in hand, to RESCUE me.
After all that, I can only think of my next vacations in AVAHI.
Tesla? Is that you?
-- T. A. Edison
You can't talk about Wikipedia's flaws on Wikipedia
I believe he's moved on to a job performing 'detainee interviews' for the CIA.
You can't talk about Wikipedia's flaws on Wikipedia
Yea. Great idea. Show all those inquisitive 10-year old kids how to disassemble their dad's computers.