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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?"
I am a systems administrator,
tedius
primarily Unix/Linux
boring
and enterprise NAS/SAN storage,
snore
working for an aerospace company.
BINGO!
There's a lot of angles you could approach your job from but if I can give you any advice, keep it entertaining. I volunteer to teach grade school kids occasionally and what we do is an engineering challenge for each class. We do many different challenges but an example is handing out limited supplies to each team and having them build paper planes. Sometimes we throw in random stuff like paper clips or rubber bands to see what the kids try to do with them. While they work, we talk about engineering in general. At the beginning we'll give them specific requirements in a childish Statement of Work style which lay out how we are selecting the best airplane or bridge or tower or whatever.
At the end of the session we start to ramp up the specifics as we do the final tests on the stuff they made and hand out candy. I'll start to talk about structural integrity, how we use math to make things better, etc. As I get more technical, I'll start to lose kids but there are usually a few that get excited and that's why I'm there.
If you go there set on talking about just IT, you're going to lose them and--worse--possibly turn them off to technical jobs like that. Stick to the end product of what you actually provide. Try to think of fun facts to keep them entertained--don't say petabyte, figure out how many times around the world one string of text will go that a petabyte can store. Then tell them how many of those you are in charge of. I also suggest you start out generic--ask the kids what an engineer does and then get more specific with your job and place.
Also, my company always has junk left over from bring your child to work day, hand that stuff out like prizes or give one to each student if you have enough.
My work here is dung.
Explain that software is like a city... pipes, houses, roads, bridges. Explain that there are people who design the stuff, make it, repair it, and use it. Explain that this is the world they will live in, and give examples they can relate to: the phone network, the Internet.
Give them the understanding that IT is about stacks, layers, stuff that is old and deep, stuff that is fresh and useless...
Don't use technical words, don't try to teach anything specific at all, and don't try to sell Linux or open source (kids tend to respond to sales pitches cynically and negatively).
My advice above all is to explain how it's about people, doing things, making things, working together.
My blog
System administrator, eh? You can start by showing your scars.
Have fun. Really. If you are having fun, they probably are, too.
My job involves explaining things to idiots. Then the idiots make decisions based on misinterpreting what I said. Then it is my job to try to fix the massive problems caused by the bad decisions. Eventually, rumors overwhelm facts, and I give up. In the final phase, I assign blame to an unpopular coworker. So whatever you do if life, don't be unpopular.
Translation: "I am a garbageman. I spend most of my time with a lot of expensive and neat looking hardware cleaning up the messes of people who think they are better than me. You know the neighbor across the street who tosses a bunch of leaky, smelly trash bags on the ground every week and doesn't bother using a can? That's Bob, the engineer over in building 4 who manages to run processes that ABEND every single time because he's an idiot, but he blames the network anyway. The guy down the street who always piles up dead branches and lawn clippings until it stops anyone from walking on the sidewalk? Meet Sue in building 3, who seems to find a way to generate 900GB of crap data that then crashes the network file share. Or perhaps the family down the street with the can so smelly nobody will get near it? That's Ralph, who corrupts his files on the network store at least once a month and needs a total restore from tape.
The only really big difference is that a garbageman has more job security and is probably paid better. Stick with that or plumbing- you'll go far since people will pay anything not to have to deal with it."
"Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
What's really funny, is that it's an adequate explanation for those who don't know and don't care about acronyms.
is to make your kids friends think your son has a cool dad.
System admin work is BOOooring to 4th graders.
Keep it a little more general, keep 'data' reasonably abstract.
Talking about computers to 4th graders is now like talking to 4th graders about the phone system. We all have phones, we all know how to use them, we all have the nifty features. It just works. Hard to make the interesting.
Give some examples of things going wrong and how you saved the day. Explain how rockets wouldn't be able to go without you. Kids love rockets.
Explain how rockets would explode without you. Make yourself a hero and make is sound like you are 'da man'.
I have a 3rd and a 5th grader, and I expect my time to give a presentation to the class is coming. As a programmer I am going to need to keep it lively. I will probably do some quick Lego robotic programming so they can see the reward for my work immediatly. I'll give the class a couple of decisions on what I will do.
Good luck.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Explain to them how Teh Lunis is a living god, how open source is the only thing saving the world from the destruction of the evil closed source overlords, and how Bill Gates is the antichrist.
You know, keep it real. Just say everything Slashdot would say.
And don't forget to spew some anti-Vista FUD while you are there! Remember, the goal is long enough and loud enough- then they will believe.
1 digital camera, and connecting USB cables.
What you want to do, is involve the kids in the building of a quick web site, while talking about the technologies that make it all work. The network connectivity, the HTML that places THEIR pictures on the page, even talk about the various cables necessary to connect the computers, the camera to the computer, and explain what happens when they press ENTER. Literally trace the content down the wire.
Prepare a template ahead of time, take pictures of the kids, use some cool filters in Photoshop, and then add them to the web page. In the end, the kids get jazzed over seeing their picture on a web page, and will enjoy your explaining how it worked, from the camera to the page.
Dont be a dufus and go on about the wonders of DHCP, and all that. Its got to be applicable to what they care about.
Anyway, that worked for me, and I got a dozen calls from parents asking me for follow-on advice, as their kids demanded tools to build their own sites.
If you remember the principle of demonstrating how IT effects their lives, you will have a captive audience. I guarantee that if you get into IT from a nuts and bolts perspective, rather than applying IT to what kids care about, you will get snores.
Give it like the elevator speech. Pretend you are pitching a movie idea to a film exec or talking to a CEO. Both have the IQ's of fourth graders.
This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
If you are looking for something fun... take in some old junk.
How about an older CPU and some memory. You would even bring a mouse and ask the class if anyone knows what it is. Someone will of course. ADD needs things to keep them interested. I would even take some pictures of a datacenter and explain that their are entire buildings full of nothing but computers.
Don't underestimate 4th graders. They use computers, they play games, and actually quite intelligent.
4th graders are smart enough to think abstractly, and draw the lines between analogies and real life. They're not like 1st graders, where they haven't been alive long enough to have encountered all the normal things, like computers or chat. Most of the boys will be playing video games, and most of the girls will have brothers who also play video games, or know what goes on.
But you still have explain stuff like networking. They know computers "talk" to eachother, but not how. And they don't want to hear about TCP/IP, IPv4, routers, or other jargon unless its explained by the activity. So what do I suggest?
If you got the time and space, have the kids stand in a line, and then have 2 or 3 kids be the "servers" who ask yes or no questions to the "data" who are other kids. Say the goal is to "sort" all the kids by boy and girl, or hair color, or where they sit in the room, or who likes Pokemon and who doesn't, or anything like that. We're not explaining a metatags system, so keep it pretty binary by only needing two groups, or as few choices as possible.
This interaction will be like a game to them, and they will have fun, but the application means the ones who won't learn from lecture actually get something out of it. Add more labels or levels to the interaction if you want, with things like, "Some computers speak only a certain kind of language." and make the kids speak in code words to differentiate. Use cans on a string for "cable," and cones made out of paper or cardboard for "wireless."
Once they understand that you maintain the computers and the lines that let you do that, you can explain the aerospace stuff, and how it's used in our business. You allow multiple people to work on the same documents, so make copies and let one kid hand them out, or other kids have to ask him for the documents. You could explain SSL certs by saying only kids with a special badge on could pick up a copy of the documents, and they got to be handed out by a trusted third party like... well, that may be a couple layers of abstraction above even 4th graders.
Bring stuff you can pass around. As much stuff as possible. Short network cables. A small hub. Some system upgrade CDs (ones that are old enough that you don't mind fingerprints on them. A ring binder. Snapshots of server rooms, wiring closets, etc. A punchdown block and a punchdown tools. You know, stuff.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
It's modded funny, but wouldn't that be the best opening for his presentation? I'd go for it!
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a 747 filled with CD-ROMs.
Yeah, that part wasn't anywhere near as bad as it has been made out to be. It's a reasonable analogy for a non-technical audience. The rest of it IS really bad though:
"Ten movies streaming across that, that Internet, and what happens to your own personal Internet? I just the other day got... an Internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday. I got it yesterday [Tuesday]. Why? Why? Because it got tangled up in a big ball with all these things going on the Internet commercially. "
I tell you, all the Internets I get come faster then that.. I guess Thunderbird is a good Internet pipe.
Blessed are the pessimists, for they have made backups.
> I'd suggest a brief talk on satellites and then show them Google Earth.
I am not sure the satellites are essential, but Google Earth is a great idea. It shows how "software as a service" works, and why servers are useful. If the OP gets the concepts of hardware/software and client/server across, that should be a good result for 20 minutes.
i'm kind of surprised at the funny mod too, i wasn't trying to be funny
that's really the best way for a bunch of grade school kids to appreciate an IT job at an aerospace company
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
A lot of people have already displayed this sentiment by proposing demonstrations. But it is important to have something that the children can interact with in a meaningful way.
A Hopper Nanosecond is one example, where you can show them something, hand it around, and have them hold something meaningful. It may also be relevant to what your work, since the network is just a bunch of wires. An old EPROM with the crystal window, or an old 486 or 68040 with the silicon exposed, is neat too because they can see the insides of a computer chip. Simply popping open a computer or a hard drive is pretty cool too. Particularly the hard drive, if you can have it running, but the open computer is cool too since very few of them would have seen the insides. If you do any programming on the job, maybe show them (and the teacher) Scratch (http://scratch.mit.edu) since that is something a 10 year old can play with. It is also very visual.
This is probably outside of your line of work, but something that really snags their interest is showing them sound and letting them make the sounds that they will see. Squeak will allow you to show them voice prints or a fast fourier transform (they do start talking about frequency at that grade level, as pitch, so it's neat to see the pitch of a boy's, a girl's, a man's, and a woman's voice).
If you're in a classroom with a reading area (a.k.a. the carpet), asking the teacher to have them sit there (rather than in desks) is handy. It cuts back on the number of distractions, and they seem less likely to drift off. Some will chat though, but I wouldn't worry about that too much if they are chatting about things you pass around.
But most of all, just try to have fun yourself. Kids that age seem to respond positively if other people think something is fun or interesting. (Alas, the opposite is true too.)
They're in 4th grade. "Working with computers" is as specific as you need to get, because that's all they can really handle. It's an introductory presentation. You're not hiring any of them any time soon... so yes, you are "selling the product". Anything you do to get them interested in computers, just thinking about them as a career path, is good. It's like explaining physics to a 4th grader... you say "gravity is what keeps the ball on the ground". You don't start them with trajectory calculus.
My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
Kids love to see the inside of computers. Believe me, it's like you're unveiling the mysteries of the universe to them.
Bring hardware that you can turn on while disconnected (fans, hard drives, power supplies). Assemble a working system (ie. hook it up to a monitor) without the pieces in any case.
Then, pull out a rackmount system (obviously something small, probably just a frame), and explain that placing the computer parts in them is like working with legos. I guarantee that this will work.
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