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Summer Programming Courses Before Heading Off To College?
First time accepted submitter LiteWait writes "My son is heading off to college next year and although he is bright kid with a great background in math and science, he has indicated that he'd like learn some introductory programming skills this summer. The courses at the local universities are pretty sparse and most of the CS101-type courses I've seen offered are too general to meet his needs. Even though he is a self-starter I think he would benefit from actual courses/code camps/etc rather than just slogging through online samples and tutorials. I'd like some advice on possible options for code camps, online courses, or developer training."
Python is considered by many to be a great entry-level language and it's also very popular in the real world. There are many good books on the subject, so it might make for a great self-taught experience.
The best course he could take for computer programming is a touch typing course. And that's by a huge margin.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
A decent self-study course is the Learn X The Hard Way (originally X = Python, now Ruby and C are available as well):
http://learncodethehardway.org/
Focuses heavily on code-as-language, so the early exercises may remind you of typical foreign-language study: "type these things, explain what they mean, etc".
No only do they provide good instruction, but it'll also prepare him to learn skills on his own which is more aligned with what professional developers do on a daily basis.
As for languages, I always recommend HTML for new programmers. It's simple, you get immediate results, you can quickly build practical applications, and it set up a foundation for further learning; scripting, networking, style sheets, etal.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
The best thing to get a jump start would be to find out what texts are going to be used for his courses and to start on them.
Or send him to a summer school in Europe.
You only really learn to properly program when you're working on a project with other people. The rest is bollocks.
Don't learn the material in too much detail before class; or else the actual class will be so boring that you'll never want to go.
It's far more profitable to slog through online samples and tutorials. Being a self-starter, he'll benefit more from developing a passion for the art of programming rather than developing implausible software assignments in an entry-level programming course.
I've spoken to countless now-engineers and professional programmers who started learned programming by playing around with graphing calculators. They're ubiquitous, your audience is huge, and the built-in TI-BASIC language is surprisingly powerful. I'd definitely recommend he pursue that as a means to learn to think like a programmer, skills like structuring programs, prototyping with pseudocode, debugging, and all that. In fact, I wrote a book teaching those very skills. Alternatively, Python is a great beginner computer language in that the syntax is clear and cruft-free (yes, Java, I'm looking at public static void main()...) and crashes are generally graceful and easy-to-debug.
Even though he is a self-starter ...
Okay, awesome! What you should do is get him a raspberry pi then pick up an HDMI cable, a cheap keyboard and cheap mouse (both of which should be wired as it lags to offload wireless processing to the pi) from monoprice. Right now, B&H Video has a deal where you get 2 x 16GB cards for $15 if you add two of these to your cart with free shipping. Okay, I've actually already bought several sets of this stuff from these exact same suppliers and handed them off to a bunch of kids that are loving them right now. So that's all legit. You'll need to have a TV or monitor with an HDMI in and it helps if you have a cheap webcam (one of the tutorials I'm gonna mention uses it). You'll also need a second computer with a way to access SD flash cards (pick up a USB toaster for $5 if you don't have this)> Optional would be male-to-female wires like these with any breadboard so he can tinker with making his own stuff -- you'll probably have to drop more cash on more electronic devices to interface with it if you go this route though.
Next, you might consider this book but I prefer this one more. Okay then you send your kid here to get the hard float raspbian wheezy and you tell him how to figure out how to get it on the flash card to boot on the pi. There's a wiki for all this stuff. Then you send him here and make him do these tutorials. Then you make him read all the issues of the MagPi. And if he's smart enough, you buy him some more peripherals. There should be a lot more tutorials coming out for this device.
Once he has all that stuff, you go to the liquor store. Now, the liquor stores around my house sell a lot of types of vodkas and Absolut is great but I've found that Sobieski satiates me just as well. It's made from this Dankowski rye that makes great gimlets. Try to buy a case of handles and haggle him down to ~$13 a handle (that stuff is really cheap). Then you go to the store and you get some of that Real Lime lime juice. Not the key lime shit, the actual lime juice. You're gonna need a decent blender because this thing is gonna be working all summer long. Also, a bag of hazelnuts. Go home and fill a cup to the top with ice and put in about one finger of lime juice. Fill the rest with Sobieski. Blend that shit up, garnish with a couple crushed hazelnuts to really dry that shit out and kick back. Trust me, your kid is going to come and talk to you about python and apt-get and registers and you are not going to want to have to deal with that. So just get good and fucking faced in the sun all summer long. Your kid will thank you for staying out of his hair. A summer of riproarin' fall down drunk? You can thank me later.
My work here is dung.
College math is not the math he already knows. Math is much more important than programming and programming is much easier to pick up on your own. The difficult concepts are not in the basics. Programming is going to be taught from an introductory level onward anyway.
Our daughter signed up for Codeademy (http://codeademy.com/)to help her with a CS course she was taking at UBC. She's in Arts but needed a science and CS fit the bill. She found Codeademy very helpful. She got an A+ in the CS course.
Free as in "the Truth shall set you..."
Sending a kid to a CS-101 type introductory class will very likely bore him to tears and possibly give him a lasting negative impression of programming.
Why not help him pick a reasonable goal (somewhere in between "make a web page" and "write a new operating system) and then just let him code. Programming well isn't something you learn in a classroom, its learned by coding poorly a whole lot, and then learning how to do it better, and then learning how to do it even better, again a whole lot. At some point in that process a classroom might be involved and might even help, but not at the beginning.
-Lod
Check out udacity courses. They are by far the best online courses I've seen covering many topics.
When I got out of college, most of my older coworkers where shocked at how quickly I could type Java code because I learned how to touch type the non-alpha numeric characters pretty well. When you don't have to hunt and peck for those characters, you can actually type out code about as fast as you can think "I'd like to make this change..."
If you want to drive this point home, get your son into a Perl class or doing Perl work. He'll go nuts if he doesn't bother to learn how to do this skill well.
If you are in the Metro-Boston area, or trust your child in Cambridge for the summer, Harvard Summer School admits high school students and has 2 good courses this summer: "Great Ideas in Computer Science with Java" and "Intensive Introduction to Computer Science Using Java." The later sounds like a better match if you're worried about courses that are too simple or slow-paced. "Building Mobile Applications" may be more compelling than more traditional programming courses, but has a higher barrier in terms of prerequisite programming experience and required hardware.
http://www.summer.harvard.edu/courses/subject/computer-science
http://www.summer.harvard.edu/programs/secondary-school
Unfortunately, if he is not near or cannot get to Cambridge, MA, USA, there does not seem to be any good distance courses offered this summer.
Also, Harvard's CS50, Introduction to Computer Science, is available online. This includes lecture video, hand-outs, problem sets, and quizzes. This is a good option if he is truly a self-starter and will allow him to work at his own pace. This is not the usual online tutorial. This is the same lectures and materials presented to students of Harvard College and the University Extension.
http://cs50.tv/
At one point the CS50 lectures were also available on iTunes. I don't know if this is still true.
Tell him to consider re-taking some intro courses at college. For instance, if he's "qualified" for MAT 102, maybe tell him to take MAT 101. It sounds lazy and counterproductive (it also sounds like you're trying to inflate your GPA), but I'm being serious. Oftentimes, you will find that high schools skip certain parts of a course that colleges don't. Alternatively, they teach at a different level. You can teach electricity and magnetism in such a way that a middle schooler will understand it in minutes (I = V/R is something an elementary school student can do), or you can create problems that play on obscure resistance rules to the point where one needs to read the book for an hour to understand what's going on. When this happens, you can quickly get lost and earn a bad grade. I would advise your son to go back a level in such courses, or at least carefully look at the textbook and sample assignments/problem sets to make sure he isn't getting in over his head. Besides, sometimes intro courses are a lot of fun ;)
I know I am about to be modded down, but hear me out.
First off as a freshmen he wont even touch any programming course. More than likely he will take english for poets, speech, intro to worplace management, and Intro to computers 101.
Most universities require you to take that ridiculous intro to computers 101 as many assignments today are group projects done in blackboard which use Outlook, Word, Excel, and even Powerpoint. They do this to emulate work which is a good thing to learn. I learned the Powerpoint slide rule, no more than 3 bullets per slide, etc from my biology professor believe it or not.
In college excel is used in math, statistics, and computer science with datasets. Most bright kids today know how to type but do not know even how to set a margin in Word! They just tab all over the place and wonder why formatting errors occur etc. These can be bright kids but just are not used to doing office tasks on them.
Have your son learn this and get a certificate in it so he can exempt from that course and save himself/yourself $2,500 in student loans. He can probably get his WPM typing up too so can get done with papers quicker too.
http://saveie6.com/
Might I suggest he gives a shot at Robocode? If anything can give him motivation to program, making robots shoot each other will.
Help I am stuck in a signature factory!
Harvard and Stanford both offer many introductory programming classes online for free.
Give him a ZX81 or Spectrum 48k and manual. Plus, no internet or anything else! Lock him in a dark room for 6 months. Presto, open the door and you have an IT expert.
char*f="char*f=%c%s%c;main(){printf(f,34,f,34);}";main(){printf(f,34,f,34);}
if he hasn't expressed interest in taking a summer course, i wouldn't try to force him to. when i was a kid i love programming, but nothing in the world would have made me take a summer course. he'll have around 4 years of college to learn stuff. how about taking a trip to another country with him instead?
There are a lot of free resources on the web. My nephew did this http://cs50.tv/2011/fall/ class when he was fifteen with iTunes U. It is from Harvard. I was impressed with the class and he followed a long and completed the class, I had the "joy" of reviewing his assignments. For someone completely new to programming that wants to learn with a classrom like structure I thought it was a cool resource.
~Rob
Check your state school. I attended Camp CAEN every summer and learned tons. Something like this is the best way to get good at programming. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_CAEN
Find a real world coder and have him give you son some grunt work.
Look through some of the online course offerings on Coursera. There are a number on programming: https://www.coursera.org/category/cs-programming .
It is a new initiative for sharing university courses for free on the internet. A number of universities have done courses on it.
In my educational career (which involved a lot of wandering between schools), I found that *every single school* forces you to re-take cs101, even if you already know the language, even if you've already (literally) take 4 other cs101 courses. So your son should be aware that taking a programming course won't get him into higher level courses. Of course, programming is a whole lot of fun, so if he wants to take a course for it's entertainment value, he should go for it. Check your local community college - I've had great luck with community college courses (though I've never tried programming courses at one, more like networking and IT courses). Don't even think about a vocational school. If possible, try to find one that teaches C/C++, since most computer science courses in college are in Java, which isn't that useful of a language. Avoid C# courses, since C# teaches poor programming habits. Lastly, and slightly off topic, if your son wants to avoid a college career of nomadically wandering between schools, then make sure he realizes that the main objective of school is to learn things, including things that aren't as much fun to learn (like African History or Music Theory).
He's going to college. Isn't the point of going to college to take courses?
If he really wants to learn more about programming before/outside of college, the best way IS to be a self-starter and use the near infinite resources of the Internet to do it. If he doesn't want to do that, why force him? In either case, if as you say the local programming classes aren't very good, why not just let him wait to take one when he starts in the fall?
Get through half and you are a better programmer than most. https://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html
PS the recommendations in the first part of the post are not applicable to a beginner.
Believe it or not, I am dead serious about the Pi. There's a 13 year old kid from Lithuania staying with my boss and I brought over the exact same setup I mentioned above and just showed him briefly how scratch works. This was his e-mail to me a mere one week later:
Sorry, that I didn't wrote a letter for you long time.
I was working on Raspberry Pi and I am still working on it.
I am learning to program some games, and I have made one already. It is just a simple game. Now it have some things that don't let it work, and I am trying to fix them.
I made a little movie in the Scratch too.
Raspberry Pi is a very good computer. Sometimes I am thinking how could it work being so small, and it's almost a real computer.
I have heard, that root terminal needs a pasword to work. In this Raspberry Pi, I don't need pasword. When the program starts, it put a letter that I don't need pasword to run a program.
Thank you for opportunity to work with this computer, it is so interesting and good.
Sincirely,
Aivaras
I asked him if he needed the root password I setup Debian with, that's why he said it doesn't need a root password. The great thing about the Pi is that it's cheap and you can do as little or as much with it as you want! I'm 30 years old and I love it! Seriously, when I tally up all the stuff I listed in that post, it comes to under $60! That's like a PS3 game disc ... how can you afford not to buy this for your kid -- whatever the age or gender?
My work here is dung.
Sorry, he's not a self-starter. A formal education in computer science theory is one thing, but you say he wants to learn "some introductory programming skills". That's exactly the sort of thing he could pick up on his own, by following a tutorial or example online. There's no need for a course -- unless, of course, he's not a self-starter and needs to framework of a course for actually give him assignments that he does. There's nothing wrong with that, but you're not describing him correctly. If he is a self-starter, then you need to ask him what he's done to learn anything on his own.
Tell him to stop worrying about college and just enjoy the summer. Once you go to college, it's all about studying and doing well, then summers are for working jobs to pay off some debt and have spending cash during the school year, then back to school....and once your graduate and get a job, all of your freedom is gone!
Have him enjoy his last moments of freedom from responsibility and have fun with his friends.
Besides, if I had a dime for every kid in Intro to CS that thought he knew how to program but couldn't grasp the idea of simple design patterns...I wouldn't have had to be a TA.
Udacity and Coursera both offer free online college-level courses in programming. Udacity's focus is primarily on Python (at least in the courses I've taken), but it looks like Coursera's offerings include C++. Any of these should give him a good start in object-oriented programming.
If he's good at math, he can tie learning programming into mathematical concepts..he might
like codebymath.com....
"although he is bright kid with a great background in math and science, he has indicated that he'd like learn some introductory programming skills this summer"
As written, this sounds like "although my son is a bright kid with a great background in math and science, he'd like to learn something that is not up to his capabilities!"
The Summer Science Program is an astronomy summer-camp originally formed in the Cold War fears. Students observe Near Earth Objects, then use their observations to update the orbital determinations with Harvard-Smithsonian Small Bodies Institute. This means teaching programming, calculus, physics, and astronomy for direct application to a valuable real-world problem.
I went in the dawn of time (2001), and it was the first time in my life I ever had to work hard. But the very best bit? Going through the program means joining the most spectacularly diverse, creative, and helpful alumni network I've encountered in universities, professional organizations, or other short-term projects. I regularly donate half my vacation days each year to volunteer for the program, making sure the next group of students continues to have high-quality experiences. Alumni also pick in with sufficient donations to keep student fees below-cost, and offer substantial needs-based scholarships. You can read more reviews of the program here.
The program is open to international students who are rising juniors (entering their final year of high school).
Aren't there a bunch of do it yourself introduction to programming and practical application courses online? That are you know, free? The language isn't important, it's critical thinking, logic, basic and general understanding of computers that is. Syntax and language logic is the last thing you'd want to teach, but actually it's the most helpful when trying to do something to show that you're learning.
If language is a consideration, i would recommend something that isn't painful (ADA), has object oriented programming in it (C++, C#, java, etc), can be used in a web based environment (all the rage), an understanding of xml and web apis.
But just programming is boring. Get him experience with computer hardware, low level instruction sets, how to fix/put together his own computer, databases (SQL based) and some low level i/o programming. That should be a pretty basic round-a-bout education for starters. Then see what he's really interested in and let it fly.
Just please don't get him excited about making video games, he'll be let down later in life or used and abused.
artofproblemsolving.com offers some introductory programming courses that are probably great.
There are excellent summer math programs for high school students; probably similar programs exist for computer science but I don't know what they are.
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Remember
Just Say NO to Code!
[...] Even though he is a self-starter I think he would benefit from [...]
;)
[...] he has indicated that he'd like learn some introductory programming skills this summer [...]
[...] the CS101-type courses I've seen offered are too general to meet his needs[...]
Thuppathuppathuppathuppathuppathuppa...
No offense, but one of those things doesn't jive. Either you want him to waste his last summer of freedom learning something his uni will already present at a painfully slow pace... Or you over-estimate his degree of self-starting.
In college, I had two very distinct types of peers in my CS classes (no, I don't plan to make this into a "people who know binary" joke). Half of us already knew a few programming languages and casually discussed our latest projects (both in the "toy" and "real employment" senses). And half of "us" switched majors to Tech Writing (the "philosophy major" of STEM) after failing the first semester of Analysis of Algorithms (assuming they even made it past Intro to Programming).
Perhaps he really does have an interest in programming, perhaps you want him to have an interest in a moderately in-demand and well-paid field. If you make him spend the summer grinding to get a leg up on the other freshmen, though, you can pretty much guarantee that if he graduates in 4-5 years, he'll have a degree in French Renaissance Literature.
More seriously, if he wants to figure out if he really likes programming, and wants to get an edge over his peers - Have him look for an internship (probably unpaid if he can't actually program yet).
I was in the same boat the summer before college. Wanted to learn more about programming but wasn't sure about it yet. I chose a course at the local community college which was affordable and no hassle to register for. It was C++ but focused on beginning programming which was probably not the best route to learn programming but it gave me a good start to everything. You might find more topical courses at community colleges if you're trying to stay away from the "general stuff".
Ive seen suggestions for other online courses, but not UNSW Computing 1 - The Art of Programming
https://www.openlearning.com/courses/unsw/computing1
It uses C and some custom assembler for 4/8 bit processors. Be forewarned: it's a computing course, not a programming course, so it won't teach you all the C syntax you'd ever want to know, but introduces you to how computers operate from a programming point of view.
You sound like a helicopter parent. You should back off your kid, and LAND.
Udacity.com
Would you start a musical instrument at 18 and expect to compete with those that started 10 years earlier?
That ship has sailed. He will never be a good programmer. It's just too late.
Good programmers start coding as soon as they have the tools. These days they start as soon as they have the tools to get the tools. You can't stop them.
Perhaps you should get him a book on marketing?
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
If I had to choose, I would choose C and Python. C is the classic and it's operation is found in all of the other languages, plus it has memory management (While going out of style, people should still learn). I would also suggest Python, because it is an Objective Oriented and great language to learn Objective Oriented programming.
Linux O Muerte!
https://www.coursera.org/course/algo About the Course In this course you will learn several fundamental principles of algorithm design. You'll learn the divide-and-conquer design paradigm, with applications to fast sorting, searching, and multiplication. You'll learn several blazingly fast primitives for computing on graphs, such as how to compute connectivity information and shortest paths. Finally, we'll study how allowing the computer to "flip coins" can lead to elegant and practical algorithms and data structures. Learn the answers to questions such as: How do data structures like heaps, hash tables, bloom filters, and balanced search trees actually work, anyway? How come QuickSort runs so fast? What can graph algorithms tell us about the structure of the Web and social networks? Did my 3rd-grade teacher explain only a suboptimal algorithm for multiplying two numbers?
Go ahead and hate all you want, Linux FOSS zealots. But the IOS/Objective C development series on iTunes U is spectacular. Watch the 20 hours of videos, do the assignments. Know how to write iPad/iPhone apps before you even get to college. If he's truly a "bright kid" he'll be interested in having a marketable skill set. Who knows, he might have a great app idea and sell enough apps to pay for college.
NOTE: It's wonderful that you could *also* learn how to write a Linux device driver, putz around with Python, etc. I've done that, do that too. But the moble app stores are a way for you to create a product and immediately get it to a massive, worldwide MARKET. The *Apple* store in particular is the best, fastest way to have a chance at immediate financial gain. But don't listen to me. I'm just a guy who runs a profitable software company with 80 employees.
Most self-motivated hackers and science types learn something well before HS graduation. And often something is now taught in HS computer classes. Half my freshmen college class knew some programming. And that was before there were home computers.
Coursera, too ( at coursera.org ). I know they have several programming classes in rotation. Not sure which ones will be available during the summer window, but it would be pretty easy to find out or keep an eye on as they open up. I dabbled with a class that involved Python programming to create computer games, and it was both well presented and slightly more fun than the average non-games-programming class. (Proper link: https://www.coursera.org/course/interactivepython - currently TBA.)
Depending on timing, there may also be related topics (databases, math, logic, mobile devices, etc.) if he wants to take a couple of classes at once. I'm currently taking a databases class from Stanford (previously also released once via Coursera) that's proving educational and quite challenging.
The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
The kid is in the prime of his youth with testosterone pouring out of his ears. Give him a 24 pack of condoms and let him play in the sun with all the nice girls that distracted him in science class. If he wants to tinker with coding, let him follow his passions in the direction of his own choosing. Let him be bored now and again and allow him to daydream a bit. It may give him more focus and direction than you realize.
Left MS Windows for Linux Mint and never looked back!
Vote for Bernie in 2016!
Get your son a Raspberry Pi $35
I work with college interns and use Pi to teach programming, networking, database and web servers.
Most of the students we hire have practical experience colleges rarely provide this.
Use magpi online magazine to learn all the programming you need.
http://www.themagpi.com/
Have him go through the Pi tutorials and Kahn Academy.
http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/review-python-for-kids-is-a-playful-introduction-to-programming-20130117/
http://www.khanacademy.org/science/computer-science
He will learn alot on the web. Most college programs do not cover much quickly.
I have a CS Grad degree and worked at Los Alamos on my thesis on Human Genome Project.
My son is using Pi for building interface projects he is in college as a high schooler.
http://www.raspberrypi.org/
Pi Database
http://www.jeremymorgan.com/tutorials/raspberry-pi/how-to-raspberry-pi-file-server/
http://www.raspberrypiblog.com/2012/11/getting-started-with-databases-on-pi.html
Web Server
http://www.instructables.com/id/Raspberry-Pi-Web-Server/
http://lifehacker.com/5963554/set-up-a-raspberry-pi-as-a-personal-web-server
http://www.jeremymorgan.com/tutorials/raspberry-pi/how-to-raspberry-pi-web-server/
Learning the basics of wireless networks would be a first step.
http://www.raspberrypi-tutorials.co.uk/set-raspberry-pi-wireless-network/
Network monitoring is an important job requirement.
http://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/3802/raspberry-pi-as-a-network-monitoring-device
I learned programming by writing code for stuff I was interested in. I am now a senior systems engineer at one of the biggest tech companies in the world, and the software I write impacts over 200M users... All of that, and I still don't have a formal degree, yet earn in excess of $100K USD in salary. In addition to that, I am the sole author of significant tech patents, author of graduate-level text books, and many articles in tech publications (magazines). If you own any tech with chips in it, the software I wrote runs most of the factories that built those chips.
In the end? If you like solving real-world problems, then programming today is the path to dealing with that. And finally? Have fun doing it! :-)
Take a course or two at the local community college.
Don't forget to submit the transcript to your University. Seriously. They demand the transcript, even if the courses do not transfer.
Starting off with the Google's Python Class, https://developers.google.com/edu/python/ , looking for "online course python programming" is the fastest and fun way to get a grip on what programming is.
For the serious and the bitten, a free and open course aimed at students with little or no prior programming experience:
Guttag, John. 6.00SC Introduction to Computer Science and Programming,Spring 2011. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare), http://ocw.mit.edu/ (Accessed 07 Feb, 2013). License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA
To go beyond syntax and algorithms, expose yourself to elegant open source python code and libraries
--------
* Sigh *
Try this>
www.udacity.com
or
www.edx.org
http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/ has full text of the corresponding book (which you might buy for more comfortable reading.) This was MIT's introductory programming course for many years, and is a brilliant exposition of many important ideas in computer science and programming. More recently, it was replaced by a course using Python rather than Scheme. Other possibilities emphasizing program design principles include "How to Design Programs", http://htdp.org/ , which was meant to improve on the MIT course. Some think it did, some do not.
Don't bother. The fact that you/him are already considering a programming course indicates he is probably well ahead of the curve. My biggest disadvantage going into a CS program was already knowing how to program. It made the course (and the entire curriculum) excruciatingly slow. I eventually dropped CS and switched to a major I did not have prior experience with.
If he already has a foundation in math, then just get him a book on logic or abstract algebra or some other kind of discrete mathematics. You can learn programming by practising a lot and discover a lot of the stuff that is common sense (like brain dead design patterns that are needed to work around the limitations of different programming languages) but he'll be hard-pressed to come up with logic or algebra all on his own unless he is a genius in the league of John von Neumann. People tend to think that programming is about knowing hardware and pointer arithmetic or design patterns or particular platforms. No, real programming is a mathematical activity first and foremost. Plus, if you work with a book, a pen and some paper you can work out in the sunshine and jump into the lake without having to worry about someone stealing your laptop. Oh, and it might ease the transition from school to college if he has already seen some of the stuff he's likely to encounter. Programming (as in coding some loops that don't to much) is the least part of a good CS education.
I am currently a sophomore at BYU studying computer science. My High School did not offer any computer science classes because it was too small, so I didn't know any programming languages when I entered BYU (although I did know a good amount about computers). The introductory programming class (CS142 in my case) was perfect for me to learn C++ from scratch. It wasn't too fast or too slow, and I got a good understanding of programming and C++. I would suggest that instead of attempting to teach himself and potentially learning bad coding habits or burning himself out without guidance, he should take an intro programming class when he gets to school.
TL;DR -- College Intro to programming courses are designed for people who don't know how to program, he should probably just take that.
DigiPen offers a game development camp during the summer months, with roaming camps offered in many good-sized cities across the US, and many sessions in their home base of Redmond, WA. Your child may or may not be interested in developing computer games, but its an engaging way to present a good variety of CS topics and for your student to get their hands dirty with real code.
The camps are taught by Digipen upperclassmen who typically are among the top students, and who attend ~4 weeks of training themselves, before leading their own classes. If you don't live in one of the metro areas their camps service (and don't have family who do that would let your child couch-surf for a week), their on-premise courses will usually hook camp-attendees up with DigiPen students (who's roommates may be home for summer) for room and board. Its not required to do so, but one advantage is that the student is usually willing to provide light tutoring/help with homework, or include your child in their usual (age appropriate) social activities. The school also provides social activities for camp attendees.
Since nobody suggested it, I learned way more from competing on IOI (http://www.ioinformatics.org/index.shtml) that my entire CS degree.
The number one thing that programmers need to learn, and from what I have seen, don't at University, is how to read documentation and apply the learnt concept to their code. The easiest way to learn to do that is to learn by doing. Programming is probably the easiest thing in the world that requires a fair amount of knowledge to do without formal education - the resources are vast and great. A mixture of a good language (personally, a huge fan of Python, and it's often considered a good language to learn, but really, anything with a large standard library will do), it's documentation, Google and StackOverflow will be enough.
-- Lattyware (www.lattyware.co.uk)
For a student with a strong math/science background, MATLAB might be useful to learn especially if he decides to pursue engineering. It helps you to learn fundamental programming (at least procedural programming) concepts while not requiring too much time to get up an running. The symbolic toolbox along with more traditional capabilities will also give him a massive leg up in doing assignments and projects because he can focus on learning concepts in most of his classes rather than executing procedural mathematical techniques (matrix operations and PDEs, I am looking at you...).
P.S. I know a TI-xx can do some of this, but calculators are the slide rules of the 21st century...
Atheist: Buddhist in a Prius
Haha! At my university, they had "Information Systems Management" instead of "Tech Writing". Same thing though.
He may want to look into the many MOOCs that are being offered. The MITx/Edx introductory programming course using Python was very good. Coursera and Udacity also offer intro programming courses.
He just finished high school. He has a couple months till college. Why not do something enjoyable together? If you are really set on programming, maybe you can do a family web site of some kind? I do hate to break it to you, but online tutorials and samples are the way a lot of stuff gets learned nowadays. Or just by letting the kid run and go do stuff he finds "cool".
You could also work on college life skills like laundry and cooking.
But really, it's probably the last significant break he's going to have until he graduates. It's highly possible that next summer he will be doing an internship somewhere, then back to school, then off to work.
Ask him to take C or C++ class at a nearby community college. They do baby sitting, but he can learn if he wants to. He can take it as an audit course without fear of passing or failing. Next ask him to take or audit "data structure " class. So, when he goes to class he will know what is syntax, logic and data structure etc. Also ask him to audit a "logic " class so that he will understand that an algorithm is created based on deductive logic based thinking. Ok he will have enough tool kit for his college. He needs to interact with others and learn to cooperate and coordinate his learning in a group setting. Loners are ultimately unhappy people to a large extent.
Harvard and MIT are both offering a FREE "Introduction to computer programming(computer science)" online. You also get a certificate if you pass(60%).
You can register on www.edx.org
Enjoy!
At this point he might just be better off just learning about the various tools he'll be using. The college courses seem to gloss over editors, build systems and debuggers. Being constrained by your setup wastes a lot of time. Learning the basic steps involved to compile code for C, C++ and Java, build systems (make, ant, maven,) editors, project layout and version control in advance would go a long way toward making the first few months a lot smoother.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
..to learn it on your own, more school isn't gonna help. Just go to college and have fun in the summer. Don't beat yourself over the head.
It wouldn't surprise me if local museums or libraries in your area offer some introductory programming courses. I know in my area I see them from time to time and the cost is usually in the $100-$200 range. Also have you checked to see if there were any community education courses offered through the school district over the summer as again in my area they seem to have tons of these and send out a booklet with the listings a few times a year.
Time to offend someone
Hey,
I have just read a couple of the comments and I didn't see this posted, which I was surprised. If you want free classes, you can look at https://www.coursera.org/category/cs-programming. Some of these may be to complex but classes are constantly added, so there might be one or two that will fit what you are looking for. They are typically taught by college professors.
IMO, I wouldn't start with python. I would teach him a type casted language first, pick C or Java.
Good luck to your son.
He can look at online courses. One site to check out is the Art of Problem Solving (http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/School/classlist.php). The course is taught live with an instructor and meets online once a week. The next three month session starts on March 12. The price is reasonable -- $275.
Introduction to Programming (http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/School/courseinfo.php?course_id=cs:intro)
This course is an introduction to computer programming using the Python programming language. This course covers basic procedural techniques such as variables, data types, selection, iteration, and functions. It will also introduce students to object-oriented programming. We'll also look at various general programming concepts, such as algorithm design and debugging. By the end of the course, students should be able to construct a moderately-sized Python program.
Let's come up with some relevant suggestions, shall we?
No classes, go someplace fun. Bring a laptop if he must and peck around at the myriad of online 'learn to program X' or something like the MIT open courseware compsci class (which uses python).
The point is - the time between highschool and college is too precious to waste on some class, he should be out traveling as much as feasible imo. After college if he sticks with tech, he'll probably have the intro level jobs that take advantage of college kids by burning tons of hours and will look fondly on his time spent on pure vacation/downtime.
A book or course on critical thinking? Learning how to think, how to deal with data -- what is useful, what is bull -- is supremely useful.
I've sent my son to ID Tech Camps- he's learned a bit of C++ and to build ipod and iphone apps. They have classes at different levels, and the instructors are actual geeks who do this stuff for a living during the rest of the year, so I felt it was worth it, and he wants to go back again this summer, so.... he'll have a pastier complexion than his friends at other summer camps, but he's also happier.
If your son hasn't gone public with his startup by now then he is a total loser and should drop out of life altogether. Srsly.
http://thecodeplayer.com/
http://www.codecademy.com/#!/exercise/0
http://www.khanacademy.org/cs/tutorials/all-tutorials
http://teamtreehouse.com/
http://education-portal.com/articles/Colleges_and_Universities_that_Offer_Free_Courses_Online.html
https://www.coursera.org/
http://www.udacity.com/
https://www.edx.org/courses
http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses
http://lifehacker.com/5974605/learn-beginner-and-advanced-htmlcss-skills-for-free
http://www.openculture.com/free_certificate_courses
Code camps are best.. you don't mention which area of the country you're living in, but they should be easy to Google.
Code academy has some pretty amazing easy to follow, confidence building tutorials and lessons. Short of being able to find a code camp, doing his own stuff randomly and experimenting with various languages is likely going to yield the most useful experience for him.