Author Topic: Learning Simple Programming for a Ten Year Old?  (Read 6200 times)

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Offline Smokey

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Re: Learning Simple Programming for a Ten Year Old?
« Reply #50 on: November 26, 2022, 04:19:41 am »
For Python, I warmly recommend starting early with PySDL2 and/or Qt5 (PyQt5 or PySide2), ...

GUI developers are the least happy of all software people.  If you aren't going to stick to embedded systems, at least teach the kids how to be a back end developer.  No GUI required :)

(I'm kidding... sort of...)
 

Online Nominal Animal

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Re: Learning Simple Programming for a Ten Year Old?
« Reply #51 on: November 26, 2022, 05:44:40 am »
Sure, but you're not going to spark a today's kid's imagination with "Hello world". You need something more visual, or that has somehow some other impact.

Having the computer print "Hello, Smokey" on the screen is as interesting to them as us typing the same on a typewriter would have been.
Fun for maybe thirty seconds, but that's it.  After that, it'd be only interesting if one is interested in the typography; and today's kids quite fast find the knobs to switch the font on the terminal...

I think of it as the "This is the real deal, kiddo" -approach.  Show that imagination is the only limit.  And then let the kid lead where their imagination and motivation takes them, just being the mentor and helper along the way.  Just my opinion, though.
 

Offline tooki

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Re: Learning Simple Programming for a Ten Year Old?
« Reply #52 on: November 26, 2022, 11:00:17 pm »
That’s why I suggested Arduino, since you can make lights blink and motors spin and stuff like that.
 

Online SiliconWizard

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Re: Learning Simple Programming for a Ten Year Old?
« Reply #53 on: November 26, 2022, 11:04:41 pm »
I would suggest you exposed the kid to Rust. :-DD
 

Online Nominal Animal

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Re: Learning Simple Programming for a Ten Year Old?
« Reply #54 on: November 26, 2022, 11:26:01 pm »
That’s why I suggested Arduino, since you can make lights blink and motors spin and stuff like that.
And why I suggested CrowBot Bolt by elecrow in #41, and actually ordered one for myself.

I did a group buy with a friend: he got one for his twin boys (ten, IIRC), and me one for myself. :P I refuse to grow too old to play, even if society tries to make me be ashamed for it!

I have been thinking about such remote-controllable vehicles, but with (adding!) a circular optical sensor (either rotating, or an array) on the bottom.  The idea is that before the kids can program, they can use a whiteboard on the ground, draw a maze (using dark lines as allowed paths), and compete in who solves each one first.  If you use a dedicated whiteboard, you can even add belts and small linear rails on one axis, and a second axis and a servo for a whiteboard pen, for drawing them under computer control.

If it comes to anything, the next step would be a much smaller vehicle with just a ground-facing camera module at very low resolution.  There are optical mouse sensors with perfect resolution for my needs, and I only need to scan the perimeter pixels (and let the mouse sensor do optical flow otherwise), but the ones I could find (other than in specific used optical mice models) are quite expensive.  For example, for wheels, I'd use these tiny (8mm×6mm) stepper motors instead of DC gear motors.  Say, matchbox-sized, or only slightly larger.

It wouldn't then be a big step to replace the remote controller joystick –– which in the Bolt case is open-source programmable and uses ESP32 –– with ones own maze-solving code.

Fun times ahead, even if it yields no useful results.
« Last Edit: November 26, 2022, 11:29:37 pm by Nominal Animal »
 

Online RJSV

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Re: Learning Simple Programming for a Ten Year Old?
« Reply #55 on: December 03, 2022, 12:36:02 am »
   A tiny bit of hardware device knowledge won't hurt.
Included here, photo shows a FLIP-FLOP bistable circle of ten inverting light sensing switches. (You have seen, elsewhere, on the FORUM.

   Two gates in a circle can form a latching element, on or off, but alas...the light beam won't bend, no matter how hard I pushed, (lol).  Tried moving really, really FAST, but the beam was 'gone' before I could swivel the little garden light.

   No effort learning, and nothing to short out.  That's how 'The Coding' should be.
   Ten or twelve, is good, as even number around.  It's easier to switch the FLIP-FLOP logic using a dark thick business card, blocking whichever 'state' is ON.
A tight beam flash torch or laser pointer works too, in opposite logic polarity.

   Hardware stores generally charge way too much, $7 and up,  each.  I used local thrift 'dollar' store, got 60 of them, at buck 25 each, on a flat (boxed mass set).
 

Online RJSV

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Re: Learning Simple Programming for a Ten Year Old?
« Reply #56 on: December 03, 2022, 12:48:43 am »
LOL,. others in house are on ZOOM...No bandwidth left to send my photo...it just hangs, lingering on the post, but text makes it in.
 

Online RJSV

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Re: Learning Simple Programming for a Ten Year Old?
« Reply #57 on: December 03, 2022, 01:00:26 am »
Photo.
 

Online Nominal Animal

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Re: Learning Simple Programming for a Ten Year Old?
« Reply #58 on: December 03, 2022, 01:05:33 am »
A local company here sells cheap IR photoreflectors (since I will be reading "down", close to the surface, whether surface is white/reflective or dark/absorptive) in SMD; I could get 100 of them for 10€.  I basically want enough of them to detect which directions the bot is allowed to go.

Mouser has Sharp GP2S60 series photoreflectors in stock, for less than 6€ for 10.

For a custom bot, a surface-facing camera, say a cheap OV2640 with a wide angle lens, could be used to "read" markings/instructions drawn on the surface.  I'm surprised nobody has made such a toy yet, especially since interfacing an OV2640 to an ESP32 is a commonly done thing, and you can get the modules for literally under five euros/dollars.  It would of course need to be central to the bot, to be really useful, so the bot chassis would need to have a rather large hole in the middle for the camera.
« Last Edit: December 03, 2022, 01:07:09 am by Nominal Animal »
 


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