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How Do You Explain Software Development To 2nd Graders?
First time accepted submitter zimania writes "At the start of every school year, my kids' teachers invariably ask if any parents have any special skills they can present to the students. As a software engineer, I'd like to give a presentation to the classes about developing software. The tricky part is making a presentation fun, inspirational, and easy enough for 2nd and 4th graders to grasp. Has anybody been brave enough to attempted such a thing? Are there kid-tested prepackaged presentations freely available? Would it be best to present the development of a simple game? Web page? Any advice is welcome."
Have them stand together and execute a "program" as if each of them are "utilities". Something like getting an apple onto the teachers table, but each person does one thing and one thing alone. Then let them have fun seeing what they can figure out to do - so long as they still only do that one thing. This isn't about "code" it's about a way of thinking!
CS majors know the time/space tradeoff, but they never get taught the 3rd, crucial, tradeoff of the set: comprehension!
One of the most engaging presentations I've seen on this was the making of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich where the students write out the instructions and you execute them -- very literally, as a computer would do -- illustrating the attention to detail and error checking required for programming.
I recall seeing the knife go through the lids for the peanut butter and jelly jars, the jars being placed directly on slices of bread, peanut butter being spread on the bread wrapper, etc.
This would be something to incorporate into a larger talk, probably at the end (to keep their attention going).