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Bubbles
3y

So I help teach a class of high schoolers to program and I want to pose a question, what can I do to give & better more interesting presentations, and what should I avoid?

Today I gave a presentation and the first half of showing them some practical things you can do with Python didn’t go as well which I figured would be a little boring,

but the second half I showed them a script I wrote to install fonts in Linux and I essentially set it up so that I could rewrite it in front of the class and I walked them through the process of rewriting it to show how useful loops are and they really enjoyed watching the process, so I thought about doing more stuff like that where I just walk them through problems but Idk

Let me know what you think I could do better

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high school project
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  • 7
    3y
    1. Be passionate. It's a viral thing
    2. Start from a concrete use case. These days kids like the dream of being a streamer/influencer, try to make this string vibrate
    3. Don't forget that for most of the youngs, internet is just youtube, Instagram and tiktok. They have no idea what it took make these things possible.

    What I would do : show them that you can do ANYTHING with a computer, and how this thing is powerful. That is what made me love the field.

    Hope this helps.
  • 3
    3y
    Also : don't be too technical. The purpose of an introduction is to show off the power of programming. Those who are interested *will* do the homework
  • 3
    3y
    @react-guy I try really hard to be but I can only really get a few motivated but that’s how it typically is ig, I think some of them just come to the school so they can get out of normal school work but I don’t know what to say to pull the ones in the middle to the side where they’re actually interested in it instead of seeing it as a school assignment
  • 5
    3y
    A few is better than none.
    If you have one student willing to know more after a class, you should see that as a success IMO.

    For the others, the most important is that they know it exists and what is possible with it.

    I personally had no interest in History during my time as a high schooler, but today I have much more interest about it. The purpose of high school is to make them aware of its existence, and know where to look if they become interested in the future, even if it's years later.
  • 1
    3y
    I was gonna tell you to avoid Python but oh well.
  • 1
    3y
    @react-guy yeah I suppose, I usually work with the ones that are most interested a lot more cause they seek me out and actually ask me questions and work on their own projects which is great and I just give them advice depending on what direction they want to head in, and that usually goes well.
  • 1
    3y
    @c3r38r170 Python and C# are the languages that the class revolves around (with a bit of JS too) but I’m not allowed to decide languages for them, but those are also the languages I know best so I’m not complaining too much lol

    And concerning python it’s used just because it’s easy to get them started with it and easy to learn the concepts of programming and make quick and practical stuff (not that you can’t with other languages I know that, it just has worked the best in the classes history)
  • 5
    3y
    Show them the power of the debugger.
    I did a demo where I puased A simple JS browser game, added 1 trillon billion game cash and unpaused.
  • 1
    3y
    @magicMirror yeah I haven’t thought to try anything like that yet that would be cool
  • 0
    3y
    @Bubbles I bet it worked the most because it was used the most, under the promise that it would work.
    I was just kidding tho', I imagined you didn't choose the language.
    It hurts me so much when I learn about people new to programming learning Python...
  • 3
    3y
    Are they starting or they already know some programming?
    When I first learned, over 20 years ago, first 3 months we only learned pseudo code...
    And I can say that was the most important part, since it gave me basics to understand any language.
  • 0
    3y
    @TheCommoner282 from my experience kids only really have gotten a spike of interest when they see something useful or cool they could do like some form of automation (which is what I mean by practical)
  • 0
    3y
    @GyroGearloose some do already know a bit some don’t it just depends on the student
  • 1
    3y
    @Bubbles so... Best force some pseudo language on them... Teach them the basics...
    It's like a programming formation I had for machines (cnc)
    I asked the teacher... So aren't we learning some pseudo language first?
    Got teased for that.
    Then he asked (after teasing me) what's pseudo language.
    Result: I was the only one who could program with variables and cicles at the end of that formation, cause I already had bases.
  • 1
    3y
    1. Mention memes in your code, throw candy at people if they point it out.

    2. Make at least one porn or stalking joke - hormones make it very hard to ignore sex and social life.

    3. It's important to work in a domain they're familiar with, not some imaginary Bob and Alice, so ask them about a problem they want to solve and solve it with code - they'll learn how to analyse issues as well.

    4. Finally, if they're into it, you can win some coding game with them, one where you code a tank that competes in a arena, etc., Screeps are good, Gladiabots are so-so but still good, there's more.
  • 1
    3y
    @cprn I’ll definitely try 1 and 3 more but I’ll get cancelled if I do that second one LMAO
  • 1
    3y
    @Bubbles I was teaching CGI for 2 semesters and photo filter that'd make guys look older / bulkier or gave girls makeup / removed skin issues was a hit. I'm not sure you can do something that advanced with basic coding class but the idea is they were already invested in that area, one could say obsessed (Snapchat was just released).
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