Teaching Kids Programming for Developers

Editor's Notes

• #2 Introduction:
• #3 At schools in the U.S. Computer Science Education is the New Normal In Google’s 2014 report about access to Computer Science Education there is a glaring statistic that states 64% of Parents think Programming is as important to their child's future success as English, Math, Science and History. Everyone seems to agree that Teaching Kids to Code is necessary, and it’s necessary right now. So what’s the problem?
• #4 The problem is that there is no standard Computer Programming Curriculum outside of one AP Computer Science Class available to High School Juniors and Seniors. And that class is only available in 1 in 10 schools in America! Stated another way, less than 1% of children in US k-12 schools receive ANY computational analysis skill instruction.
• #5 People are aware that this is a problem. The government is trying to fix it with a top down approach. Seventeen states and the District of Columbia now have policies in place that allow high schools to count computer science as a mathematics or science credit—not just an elective. Because the government doesn’t always move as fast as we would like, there are grassroots movements popping up with programs like The Hour of Code. Our movement at TKP has taught Java Programming to over 4000 7th and 8th in X years.
• #8 TKP Resources 
 For kids ages 6-12 
 MSFT Kodu - requires EITHER Windows or Xbox 
 Editor —download Windows version — https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=10056 
 Suggested Kodu class http://www.slideshare.net/lynnlangit/kodu-class 
 
 For kids ages 10-16 
 TKP Java  
 Lesson Plans - first lesson at TKP (first lesson) http://teachingkidsprogramming.org/courses/intro-to-classes-methods-and-for-loops/ 
 Source Code & Editor Eclipse - follow instructions to on (code) lesson download https://github.com/TeachingKidsProgramming/TeachingKidsProgramming.Java/blob/master/README.md 
 TKP C#  
 Lesson Plan Information -- FREE from Pluralsight https://www.pluralsight.com/kids-courses https://www.pluralsight.com/courses/teaching-kids-programming 
 Source Code on Codeplex https://extendsmallbasic.codeplex.com/ 
 IMPORTANT: This was written (in C#) for Microsoft SmallBasic, you may have to re-build it (and update some references) for this to build on the current version of C#, we recorded this in 2013. 
 Editor Use Visual Studio - but test it!  We used VS2102 when we last taught the C# version. Exorcism.io -- http://exercism.io/
• #9 Okay, so what makes our Programming curriculum so special? First of all, it can be completed in 40 hours of classroom time. That works out to one hour a week for a full school year. School administrators are hesitant to add anything to their curriculums, but at one hour a week, TKP’s curriculum truly provides the greatest bang for the buck. Second, any Teacher can teach it! We have teachers who have never written a line of code in their lives be successful teaching a course after a couple hours of teacher training. In fact, we’ve found that this curriculum is better taught by teachers who have no coding background than it is by coders who have no teaching background. What else? Students write their first line of code in the first 90 seconds. Within the first 45 minutes the kids are working on variations of the first lesson, and they’re creating unique lines of code. Kids love it. That means they stick with it. Yes, girls love it, too. The curriculum is inclusive of everyone because it’s collaborative, social, and it’s fun! Finally, it’s a bridge to that AP Comp Sci Class I referred to earlier. Unlike all other Advanced Placement courses, AP computer Science has no coding prerequisite. Oftentimes, students have no idea if they’ll be successful at programming because they have no prior exposure to it. Our curriculum sparks interest and builds confidence.
• #11  So where are we now? Up until this point we have operated as a non-profit with a budget of less than 25k a year. With almost exclusively volunteer hours, we have still managed to train over 4 thousand kids and over 70 teachers.
• #12 https://www.microsoft.com/about/philanthropies/youthspark/stars/genevieve/