
Ask HN: I need ideas to impress fifth graders with technology - dv35z
Hello! I need some tech “show and tell” ideas for 5th graders.<p>I&#x27;ve been asked to come to a 5th grade (ages 10-11) at a school with mostly underprivileged kids, from low income, immigrant families. The presenters are encouraged to do a cool &quot;show and tell&quot; about their job, get the kids excited etc. For example, I heard a lawyer set up a fictional courtroom and gave the kids a script to perform. A baker came in and had the kids decorate cupcakes. A FBI agent came in and let the kids try on a bulletproof vest &amp; an FBI windbreaker.<p>I&#x27;m a software engineer, now R&amp;D product manager at a cloud platform software company. Aside from programming, I&#x27;m into video games, photography, video editing, drones, and similar techy&#x2F;creative hobbies.<p>I&#x27;d love to hear what ideas you all might have to totally wow some kids, get them excited about science&#x2F;tech... And obviously out-wow any firemen, FBI agents, that might be presenting. Give me a fighting chance anyway!!<p>Thanks!
======
garrettr_
I was recently asked by a friend who teaches 5th graders to do something
similar for their school's "career month." I tried a few different things, and
found the most successful was showing them how to use a web browser's built-in
developer tools to inspect the source of and make live modifications to web
pages.

My reasoning behind this exercise was:

\- I checked in with their teacher ahead of time and confirmed that all of
these kids had a least some experience using a web browser. Generally it seems
like a likely "lowest common denominator" of tech experience for kids.

\- Most web browsers have powerful developer tools that can be used to inspect
and modify source and will display the results of many types of changes in
real time. It is easy to get kids to understand the relationship between
HTML/CSS code and the webpage that results from rendering it when you can make
live changes to the code and see it immediately reflected in the rendered
page.

\- Web browsers are freely available. I gave them a handout with instructions
on how to access the developer tools in web browsers that are either free
(Chrome, Firefox) or readily available to them (Safari, since their school
computer lab had a few Macs). I specifically wanted them to be inspired and
continue experimenting after I left.

I concluded by spending 10 minutes taking student's requests for the
modifications to nytimes.com. It ended up with a bizarro color scheme, comic
sans on all the things, and pictures of dinosaurs and Pixar characters at the
top of every article. Everyone had a blast, myself included!

I think the demonstration tickled the kid's innate predisposition towards
mischief. An immediate question was "can everyone in the world see this
changes? are you hacking right now?," which allowed me to naturally give a
high-level explanation of the server-client architecture of the web. A few
kids came up to me afterwards and asked me to specifically walk them through
finding and opening the developer tools so they could continue experimenting
at home, and that was the best outcome I could've hoped for!

~~~
the_watcher
This is such a good idea. Messing with a website is absolutely something I'd
have done instead of the typing practice I was supposed to be doing in my
(small town public) middle school "Computers" class.

~~~
Moru
Make sure they didn't do this in school already before you do, my 5'th grader
was trying to show this to me yesterday :-)

~~~
geomark
Yeah. My kid in Year 4 (Grade 3) has been doing this with his classmates. They
fake their on-screen scores on TT Rockstars (a times tables game) and other
shenanigans. So they might not be impressed if they have already discovered
it.

~~~
the_watcher
There's all kinds of cool stuff you can do with devtools and inspecting a page
though. If they've figured out how to change the text, start teaching them how
styling works, or show them more advanced styling than they've discovered.
Show them how to poke around in the console or see JSON payloads.

------
alok-g
I have held many such sessions for kids. Instead of showing them the latest
and the greatest:

\- I point them to the technology already around them, in their daily use,
that they see as too obvious by now. And then share stories of how all that
had come about to be. Simple things like soap, door handles, stairs, pencils,
clocks, ...

\- Ask them simple questions that they never asked. How does an eraser erase
pencil marks? How is mass conserved as a tree grows out of a seed? Why do
women typically keep long hair while men keep short? Why don't animals do
their own photosynthesis instead of depending on plants (or why don't plants
also move around like animals)?

\- Another session I am planning will share bios of many famous people,
showing them how extraordinary came out of the ordinary.

It seems surprising to me that we teach them about planets, exotic natural
phenomenon like chemical reactions, magnets, etc., without first talking about
much more relevant things like why does matter occupy space (or why don't we
just fall through the floor below us). The result is kids (and adults) who
commonly talk about voltage without having slighest idea of what it actually
is.

~~~
LeifCarrotson
> Ask them simple questions that they never asked.

This is key to teachinging about high-tech engineering: don't paint over vast
swathes of the stack with "it just works" or "it automatically knows".

Take one specific thing it does, and drill down the pyramid, from high-level
ideas about user intents way down through platforms and compilers and
operating systems to wires and semiconductors.

There's nothing particularly magical about tech (apart from the fact that it
often does what it's supposed to). The awesome part of engineering is all the
work put in at all levels to make hugely complex stuff work together.

~~~
alok-g
>> high-level ideas about user intents way down through platforms and
compilers and operating systems to wires and semiconductors.

Indeed. I did one like that for software developers, just in the reverse order
(starting from charges and voltage all the way up to how a microprocessor
executes code). I just wrote about that in this comment here:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20088868](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20088868)

~~~
Aromasin
I recommend the book "NAND to Tetris" to any software developers out there
that want to learn bottom-up computer engineering. It's a great read.
Following along and doing the exercises with it, along with watching Ben
Eaters videos on YouTube, has been of the favourite things I've done in the
past few years.

I'm lucky enough that I started my career in software as an EE. As a result,
while my CS friends and colleagues can run circles around me when it comes to
high-level website/UI/game design, anything C, ASSEMBLY, BASIC or VHDL related
they'll come ask me. Knowing what is happening at a physics, to component, to
circuit, to system level really makes software "click" compared to the top
down way of learning from my experience.

------
payne92
I've done an interactive "do you know how many types of engineers there are?"
for this age group that's worked really well. Timeframe: 5-15 minutes

"Can anyone name a type of engineer?" and for each shoutout, talk a little
about what each does. The guessing keeps everyone's attention.

Types: software/computer, electrical, mechanical, chemical, environmental,
civil, nuclear, aeronautical, etc.

Bonus: bring 2-3 props (your drones would be GREAT) that you can hold up for
the relevant flavor.

For drones, I like to ask: "how do you think the drone moves forward?" [over
power the rear two, underpower the front] Same Q for other directions.

"how do you think it rotates?"

"why don't all props spin in the same direction?"

Bring one of these to fly in the room: [https://www.amazon.com/Cheerson-
CX-10-Diameter-2-4GHz-Quadco...](https://www.amazon.com/Cheerson-
CX-10-Diameter-2-4GHz-Quadcopter/dp/B00M6HP1HM)

Talk about how there's actually a computer on board.

If you have access to a TV, bring a short ~2min drone POV video to show.

Tell bad jokes ("Civil engineers are very nice to each other", etc.) Google
online for some.

It's all about energy and making it _interactive_.

~~~
penagwin
Oh gosh I just realized I don't have the self control to teach children.
Context: I'm a software engineer.

All my explanations would be the "realistic" but kinda sarcastic answers.

Computer Engineer - Copy's pastes code until it works.

Rocket Scientists - Spend 50% of the time designing rockets, and 50% of their
time hoping the rocket doesn't explode.

Locomotive Engineer - Whoops this isn't a real engineer! /s /s

~~~
pbhjpbhj
So what do you call an engineer that designs/optimises/etc. locomotives?

~~~
penagwin
I'd go with SapporoChris's answer with Mechanical Engineer.

Locomotive Engineer's basically are the one in charge of operating the
locomotive. What most people think of as a "Conductor" is actually a lower
level job and is mostly paper work from what I hear.

Source: Close friend is a Locomotive Engineer in Canada.

~~~
cosmodisk
We call them train drivers in the UK. I think it's a bit too muchbto call them
engineers...

------
a1exyz
My Dad did the coolest one for my fifth grade class that everyone still
remembers. He showed us how binary addition in a calculator/computer works by
giving us all 0 or 1 notecards. Then since the class is already arranged in a
grid, each row is a single digit (8 bits). Then He gave input numbers and we
raised our cards according to which bit we were an the person to the left of
us.

Honnestly I don't remember the specifics but it was so awesome to see
something as abstract as a computer/processor shown to us in a way we could
understand and participate in. And the layout of the classroom just happens to
be perfect for it.

~~~
behringer
That's an interesting idea. You could take three groups of kids, group 1 is
register A, group 2 is register B, group 3 is the output, and you have one for
carry/overflow. You can add or remove bits and make other flags to get
everyone included. Then you just tell them the rules for any operation you
want to run!

For example, adding A and B together you do from right to left, and carry gets
to raise his hand when you overflow.

You could do other simple operations like subtract, shifts, ANDs and ORs, etc.

That could be a blast.

------
ballenf
Given their financial constraints, demonstrating to them how they could use a
Raspberry Pi-level device to create a website or business accessible to people
around the world might inspire.

There's an unspoken dogma that without a $1000 phone and pricey Mac, you can't
be a creator.

Alternatively, demonstrate a very cheap Youtube or podcast production setup
and show them how they could do a channel inexpensively.

Common theme is that the barriers to entry in many digital fields are lower
than expected.

I've also had kids amazed with tools like React Native Expo where they can
make a "real" app that lives permanently on their phone after the exercise in
just a few hours (starting with some boilerplate code that they learn to
customize). Walked a group of 10-year-olds through the process and they each
came away with a very basic app on their phones that looked unique.

~~~
tetha
>There's an unspoken dogma that without a $1000 phone and pricey Mac, you
can't be a creator.

You just made me realize an interesting cultural shift. I distinctly recall
how an old 386 or 486 wasn't good enough to run the cool games anymore. But it
was good enough for QBASIC and turbo pascal. So I spent time tinkering on that
system.

~~~
twothamendment
I could create on my 486, but since it didn't have a math co-processor I could
only create a Doom level, I couldn't build them. I spent hours blindly
building and checking it over and hoping that when I put it on a floppy and
took it to my friend's house that all the doors would work, the elevations
were correct, etc. Good times.

~~~
eggsome
Doom did not require a maths co-processor. It ran just fine on my 486SX-33.
Perhaps you're thinking of Quake?

~~~
twothamendment
No, I never made Quake levels. Mine was an SX-20 and it played ok, but
building a level complained about a math co-processor. I tried an emulator
once, let it build all night and it still wasn't done.

Salvation came through Wal-Mart of all places and I convinced my mom that this
$20(or $40, maybe I was paying half?) chip would just drop in that empty
socket and double the speed of our computer. 486DX-40, that was nice...

------
pryelluw
Ive done something similar before. Went with a videogame and showed them how
it editing the code changed the game. They started requesting silly changes
and went from there. Super fun.

~~~
hqwustl
may I ask which videogame did you use?

~~~
nzealand
Not OP, but I did the same thing.

Javascript Pacman.

I have a first grader who now knows how to edit the javascript file in Atom,
increase the number of lives parameter, make edits to the map etc...

We also swapped out the pac man with my face, which is a source of continued
amusement, especially the death animation.

------
csours
How much time do you have?

I did a peanut butter jelly robot - where I had the kids call out how to make
a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. They had 10 minutes to write out the
instructions. I took each instruction as literally as possible. Then I talked
about algorithm design. It took about 30 minutes.

~~~
jonahbenton
This. The PB&J exercise is really good.

I'd suggest not trying to impress them. It's not a date. They're kids. Try to
connect with them. Talk about your job, sure, but more important to share
things you're enthusiastic about.

Also, from what you describe of their background, they may think that what you
do is inaccessible to them. Try to reach them, especially the girls. And let
them ask you questions.

------
dgabriel
I volunteer for Black Girls Code, specifically the 9-11 year old age group,
and the last thing I did that really blew their minds was build an Obby in
Roblox. Almost all of them have watched youtubers go through them. Get one
working, modify it, have a kid or two modify it on their own.

[https://www.roblox.com/create](https://www.roblox.com/create)

~~~
valbaca
To save someone else a search:

obby means "obstacle course"

------
omnivore
Honestly, I've found when I give kid presentations just telling them you do
computer stuff is pretty impressive by itself. I think demystifying the world
around them, letting them know that it's not magic that powers their phones,
but actual people who had to build all of the stuff that works for them, has
been a huge way to get them to be more curious.

I think rather than wowing them, I'd hope they'd walk away and be able to feel
like "this is something I can do.." because unlike being an FBI agent, it's
something they could start doing now. They could start using Glitch and be
making stuff tonight. That's huge.

------
munificent
Not super relevant to your problem, but a fun anecdote:

I used to be a game developer at EA Tiburon, the studio that does Madden among
other games. Somehow I got roped into giving a short talk to a bunch of
visiting high school students.

Beforehand I emailed a bunch of game teams and asked them to send me
screenshots of their weirdest bugs. I got all sorts of fun stuff. When a game
with rendered animated humans goes wrong, it can look anywhere from funhouse
hilarious to horror film insane. Giant players dwarfing the field. Players
with their eyes sticking out a foot in front of their head. Arms on backwards.

The kids _loved_ it. Heck, I loved it. It was a ton of fun.

~~~
dehrmann
I'm not a game developer, but I was playing around, writing a simple iOS game
that uses OpenGL ES. Some of the bugs were pretty trippy. This one was
actually animated with the cells continuously changing.

[https://i.imgur.com/jX0KNxt.png](https://i.imgur.com/jX0KNxt.png)

------
AlphaWeaver
Dean Kamen created FIRST Robotics [0] as a partial solution to this problem.
Physical demonstrations are often more relatable to young kids.

A FIRST Robotics Competition team in my area does an activity where they bring
in various supplies like cardboard, tape, and motors into a classroom, and
over the period of an hour or so, students get to design and build small
robots that play "sumo" and try to push other robots out of a small tape
square on the floor. [1] It's a great demo and has the bonus of providing
working cardboard robots you can take to other demonstrations in the future
(especially if you're short on time.) Maybe you can take some inspiration!

[0]: [https://www.firstinspires.org](https://www.firstinspires.org) [1]:
[http://roboxsumo.com/](http://roboxsumo.com/)

------
chungleong
I did this back in my college days. I wrote to AMD and they were kind enough
to send me two cases of defective wafers plus a used bunny suit. That the
students could hold the discs in their hands definitely made an impression.

Another big attraction was the liquid nitrogen we brought for our
superconducting maglev demo. That no one cared too much about. Kids just
wanted to see what they could destroy through low temperature.

------
pjmorris
Once, with a group of 7th graders (but I think it'd work with 5th graders as
well), I explained programming as a form of puzzle-solving, illustrated by a
little game based on an old puzzle/problem:

"You have a 3-gallon jug, a 5-gallon jug, and an unlimited supply of water.
How do you get exactly 4 gallons of water without estimating?"

We made it a game by having them write down the steps they would take, e.g.
"Fill five gallon jug, pour from five gallon jug into three gallon jug,
etc...", with a prize of a candy bar for a correct solution.

I gave the talk to 5-6 groups of ~20-30 7th graders, and there was at least
one correct solution in every group. My favorite was afterward, waiting in the
library for the end of my wife's workday, one of the kids spotted me and came
over to ask questions about alternative approaches.

------
djtriptych
When trying to demystify software engineering to kids, I love taking the
approach of convincing kids that they’re smarter than a computer. Computers
are dumb. Fast, but dumb. You’ve got to explain to them very carefully how to
do anything. Like you’re teaching a 6 year old to bake a cake.

Not exactly relevant but hope this sparks something. I wish I could do this
sort of stuff more often.

------
jackhack
headless RaspPi Nano running OpenCV face detection script: Light an LED when
the camera detects a face.

Now plug it into a monitor and show the bounding box around each face. They'll
love this!

Show them the code. GIve them a really high level overview : "Here we tell it
to get a picture from the camera. Next we look for faces. If we find one we
tell it send power to the LED to light it up."

Now, another interactive moment:

Plug in a USB keyboard and Ask a student to change the color of the bounding
box. Of course they won't know anything about the code. Tell them to find the
word "green" (or whatever) and change it to another color name. Run it again.

Little low-risk changes like that is how most of us learned to code. Maybe it
will spark interest.

------
wallflower
Don’t try to impress them. Involve them. Make a banana piano.

[https://tinkerlab.com/makey-makey-review/](https://tinkerlab.com/makey-makey-
review/)

~~~
pi-rat
You don't even need a makey-makey, any $2 arduino will do.

[https://blog.eikeland.se/2015/04/24/banana-
piano/](https://blog.eikeland.se/2015/04/24/banana-piano/)

------
MarcScott
I have a CodeClub teaching 10 and 11 year olds, once a week.

Two weeks ago we built a robot buggy that can be remote controlled from an
Android phone. They loved it, and were really involved in the build and
programming. In Python, it's a dozen lines of code.

Here's the link to the build
-[https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en/projects/build-a-
buggy](https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en/projects/build-a-buggy)

And this for the remote control -
[https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en/projects/remote-
control-...](https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en/projects/remote-control-
buggy)

With the cost of the RPi included you're looking at a £50 robot, max.

Checkout other projects on projects.raspberrypi.org for more inspiration. It's
what we do for a living.

Disclaimer, in case it was not obvious, I work for the Raspberry Pi Fou
dation.

------
Jpoliachik
Put on a "hacking" demo by using chrome debugger / inspect element to modify
html. Ask kids who their favorite celebrity / athlete is, pull up their
twitter and edit the tweets to say "Joe is so cool!", etc. Load the school's
webpage and change the names of teachers. Make it goofy.

~~~
justsomeguyhi
I've used in-browser HTML editing in elementary school classrooms to great
effect. A great trick is to "hack passwords" by typing in a password (will be
represented by dots), then change its "type" attribute from "password" to
"text"

------
nandreev
1\. Get a Ryze Tello drone from the DJI store (mine took 2 days to arrive by
DHL), $149 with 3 batteries total

2\. Show them how easy it is to program flight plans with DroneBlocks:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NGPrMP1r2Y](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NGPrMP1r2Y)

3\. Everyone can try flying it from one smartphone

4\. You have out-wowed most of the competition!

BONUS. You now have a Tello to play at home with.

------
yjhoney
Build a LED that lights up on the spot and does not use any batteries.

During the demo, just take a wire, wind it around your hand a few dozen times,
connect the ends to the LED, and put it close to a wireless Qi charger. It
should light up. Its pretty cool to produce light just with wires.

Now if you reverse the concept and create a board full of Led rights and wound
up wires, could you wave your hand (with the Qi charger) and get the lights
light up based on your hand movement?

Kids love superpowers. If you use technology to simulate superpowers and make
it seem easy, you will inspire them to become more curious.

------
throwaway413
If they are patient enough to try something one by one, I think a VR headset
would be a great idea. If you don't already have one, you could pick up a low-
end Oculus for a couple hundred bucks (and sanitize/return it afterwards,
hah). Then you could take them "around the world" \- there are some really
cool travel/exploration apps with 360 shots of different places, and from my
experience can quickly and easily provide that "wow" factor to non-techies.
Probably because it's so visual.

Besides that, maybe doing a real-time demo of how fast it is to get a simple
P2P chat webapp going with some off-the-shelf libs. Or an SMS webapp with
Twilio, and then picking another parent maybe in the "crowd" to text live
during the demo. Would be a great way to inspire them to try their hand at
development, and might push a few over the edge who were already on the fence
about giving it a try if they see how accessible the tools are to get started.

------
justmytwospence
Try the thing where you turn your calculator upside down and it says "HELL".

~~~
kangnkodos
They are in fifth grade now... "What's a calculator? Oh... you mean a
calculator app."

~~~
xtracerx
just make sure you lock the screen rotation before your demo then.

------
lordnacho
scratch.mit.edu

My kid is using it literally this minute. You can very easily make a program
where the sprite follows the cursor until it catches it. Or two sprites that
bounce off each other. Or anything more complex, with sounds, background
images, and so on.

~~~
Glench
+1 to Scratch. It's the most learnable programming environment for kids, kids
can easily make things that are personally meaningful to them, and the
community is great.

I'll also plug my own Python Play, which is a Scratch-like Python library
meant to be used by kids as an intro to programming:
[https://github.com/replit/play](https://github.com/replit/play)

------
bitwize
One word, my man: ROBOTS.

Cloud platforms, microservices, and B2B messaging applications are boring to
kids, but kids love robots. So showcase something that can move, interact, and
be programmed. It can be built out of Lego, or something premade like a drone
or Robosapien that's been hacked to be controlled by a Raspberry Pi using
Python or whatever. Set it up so that you can "live-code" and take input from
kids as to what to make the robot do.

But if you can, do something with a robot. Robots are more inherently,
immediately exciting than just about any other computer application, even
video games -- even to adults. I spent four years working at well below market
rates at a robotics company just to have the opportunity to mess with and
program cool hardware.

------
johngalt
Don't underestimate the programming aptitude they have already.

I coached a lego robot team for kids of similar ages. We spent one tenth the
time that I expected teaching programming, and double the time I expected
teaching mechanics.

Almost zero instruction was needed on ifs, loops, and stitching together
commands and functions. Conversely, teaching what happens when a little gear
drives a big gear was brand new to them.

------
lamchob
Something we used for "tech-days" at our university, when 8th to 10th graders
came to visit, was a robot following a black line on the floor, built with
Lego Minsotrm. A set includes the base unit w/ two engines and some sensors,
which should be enough to build a simple robot.

After we explained the algorithm how the robot can follow the line by keeping
the line between it's to photo sensors, we let them implement and experiment
on their own. The programming GUI is intuitive and works with function blocks
that can be customized and linked together.

------
pshapiro99
Trivia Vending Machine is a very lovely example of a Raspberry Pi project. See
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6gs8NtXPIk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6gs8NtXPIk)
The "Untrue Zoo" can be created with LiveCode Open Source (free). See
[https://www.his.com/~pshapiro/UntrueZooHSHTML5/](https://www.his.com/~pshapiro/UntrueZooHSHTML5/)
and
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37nfon24_aY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37nfon24_aY)
Bicycle treehouse elevator can spawn a lot of conversation and thinking --
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5FSWkjFPxs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5FSWkjFPxs)
Getting kids to make their own screencasts (using free screencasting tools) is
always interesting and useful. See
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M11WT3H_DqU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M11WT3H_DqU)
and
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvSxhyJhfM8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvSxhyJhfM8)
Get kids into interactive fiction using Twine (free, open source).
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gNKhqDr6pg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gNKhqDr6pg)

------
ChicagoBoy11
I'll second the idea of letting them explore browser developer tools (assuming
they have access to a computer). I teach elementary school as part of my job,
and it's such an empowering experience for them. When I do a lesson on
privacy, I set up this special website that uses some known security issues to
expose to them the difference between what a company/site may be "telling you"
with what's actually going on under the hood and is possible. They absolutely
love it.

------
mung
This is not so an idea of it's own. But, the thing that still wows me when I
really consider it, is scales. I don't think people outside of this field ever
really consider just how small and just how fast these switching machines are.
It used to amaze that a programmer of an 8-bit game machine in the early 80s
would know how much time they had before a certain scan line was reached, what
the computer would do while waiting for the TV to reach that point that is
instantaneous to us. I've seen transistor projects built up to make an 8 bit
adder. The transistors taken to a higher level of logic gates. You flip
switches and different lights go on or off. Then extrapolate that to a chip
with a few thousand such circuits switching on and off many times a second,
then extrapolate that to modern machines doing that with millions of
transistors at nano scale at ghz, so that the simple act of switching circuits
on and off results in say, voice recognition or AI, or drawing pixels to the
screen or working out geometry for 3D graphics. The many levels of abstraction
to get there. You don't need fancy things, because just the most basic
machines are actually pretty amazing, and then to think that they are just
'basic'. Then there is the networking of many of these machines just to send
even a text message around the world and have someone get it seconds later
(let alone millions of people doing the same thing at the same time). It's
pretty ridiculous to think about, but we usually take it for granted or are
completely unaware of just how complex this is. And so simple at the same
time. It's surely humanity's greatest achievement.

------
oconnor663
If you want to get into some simple code examples, you can do something where
the kids don't need to understand exactly what the code means, but they can
still understand what it's doing. For 5th graders, that could be something
like "multiply all the numbers between 1 and N together." They could do it
themselves for N = 3 or 4, and you could spend a couple minutes making it a
race to N = 5 or something. Then you could have the computer do it for N =
1000 and have it fill up the screen with digits, which is kind of an "ooo ahh"
moment. You can have the kids try to guess the name of that number. ("What's
the largest number you know the name of?" is a fun game. You can take a minute
to tell them how Google got its name.) Then you can set N to some value where
it actually takes the computer a few seconds to finish working, and the kids
can get a sense of how computers are very fast but not infinitely fast.

------
hudgeon
I've done a fun exercise with grade 5 and 6 students where you build a
computer that can taste food.

It takes about 30 minutes and the students simulate the algorithm by walking
around the class, so it's engaging.

Training the algorithm:

The students line up along one of the classroom walls. I name a food like
broccoli or chocolate and the students walk across the classroom a distance
(out of 10) that represents how much they like the food. Most students would
walk further across the classroom for chocolate than broccoli for example.

The class then comes up with an median score that represents how much they
like the food based on the position of middle positioned student in the class.
For example, for chocolate, the middle positioned student may be 80% of the
way across the classroom. For broccoli, the middle student may be 30% of the
way across the classroom.

We then talk about the visible features of the food. Chocolate, for example,
is in a wrapper, is brown, is rectangular etc. Broccoli is green, round, small
etc.

Testing the algorithm:

After repeating this for 10-12 foods, we then take a food we haven't looked at
yet. An apple, for example. The students individually write down their rating
of how much they like it out of 10 (but don't tell anyone their rating). We
agree the features of the apple and then calculate the score based on the
score of the features from the 10-12 foods that we scored in the training.

The students then go to the position in the classroom that represents their
rating and we calculate how much the computer likes the food.

Tips:

You need to carefully select your foods so you get multiple results for as
many features as possible.

Class discussion:

There's lots to discuss:

Median, machine learning, bias etc

------
jstewartmobile
Just be honest about what you do. Some will be interested, some won't. No
biggie. Much better than getting a bunch of grade-schoolers stoked on cherry-
picked lies-of-omission about what we actually do.

More honest suggestions:

\- Steve Broke the Frigging Build Again

\- Apple Is My Pimp

\- Dopamine Cycles for Fun and Profit

\- Intro to Jira and Slack

\- Xe or Xir?: Your Guide to Hooking-Up at the Python Convention

\- The Eight-Hour Interview and You

\- Office Politics, 101

------
sytelus
In my experience its hard to impress kids these days with little experiments
and devices. They are already growing up with magical things as an integral
part of their lives. The _real problem_ is to convert them from consumers to
being producers.

To do this I would recommend having them _build_ something as opposed to doing
show and tell or wowing them. For example, take little robots like Cosmo and
have them program it. Or have them build drone from the kit. Or use visual
programming environment to create fractals. Snap circuits have many under $50
kits with fans and lights.

Also a lots of good toys in this list:
[https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/OXK2YDXOQCG2](https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/OXK2YDXOQCG2)

------
punnerud
[All low price ideas]

+1 for the Browsers Dev.tool

Live "code" in the browser using MachineLearning with the whole class
interacting:
[https://teachablemachine.withgoogle.com](https://teachablemachine.withgoogle.com)

Code.org - Even my 2 1/2year old son love it! And he both laugh and have
sympathy for the Ice Age character when he jumps into the water

Change/Show the traffic between Apps/phone and the server using using
MITMproxy. Playing games on the phone will never be the same, when you see how
easy it is to "hack" both the App and the leaderbords.

Change the cookies in code.org to make the browser display that you have
finished games. These are "persistent" changes and reasonably easy to
understand.

Teach them that they can count to 1023 on their fingers

------
dkoston
I find that browser automation impresses both adults and children. It would
help to find something content relevant to them like for example, some multi
page website where they would have to fill forms or click on things. Skip
headless and launch it visible and show them how the computer can automate
away repetitive tasks. Ideally, pick something concise and give them a peek at
how you can do this in say 100 lines of code and they should see the power
behind tools like this.

One of my interns did something like this for himself as the school’s
dashboard for grades worked inconsistently (high school) so he built a tool
that logged in once per hour and checked his grades for any changes and
notified him when there were.

------
ChrisBland
If you have access to a Parrot AR Drone or other programmable drone, you can
have them script out how to make the drone fly. I'm dating myself here, but
you can use the Logo
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo_(programming_language)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo_\(programming_language\))
examples but in real life instead of a turtle drawing on the screen. Ask them
what they want it to do, "do a flip" will be the most likely answer. Well,
what do you need to do for that, we need to take off, then what do we need to
do... and so on and so on.

------
WhompingWindows
I taught disadvantaged kids science and tech, they were REALLY into robots and
drones. They were in astonishment at simple YT videos of Boston Dynamics bots,
they flipped out at the robo-dogs and flea-jumper bot, and thought it was
hilarious when the BD guys would try to push over their human-shaped bots.

They also LOVED LOVED our drones. Engineering, tech, software, and science
converging onto a ridiculously fun toy? Check. Get them to be quiet or they
are deprived of very fun toy? Check. One of them turned out to be ridiculously
skilled because he plays helicopter games, and I made his year with a useful
gadget? Check.

------
cheesymuffin
Do a presentation on all of the problems technology has caused for humans.
Bring in a small aquarium full of fish and dump crude oil in it and dissect
the fish. Talk about research on the effects excessive technology use and
automation have on the human brain. You can use cardboard cutouts to represent
different neurotransmitters. Show them videos of the war in Syria.

Then talk about how you're helping them by getting them addicted to technology
early so that in adulthood they won't remember being sober.

~~~
tunap
My idea was to run a "smart" phone through wifi router & be amazed while
i.d.'ing all the easter egg packets and servers connecting to fuel the
surveillance economy. But alas, kids don't care and "have nothing to hide".
Your idea sounds more better... let's skip hurting the inbred fry mill types,
just grab one from a local water body & test for pharmacology, perhaps.

------
CodiePetersen
Software engineering has to do a lot with your mind space and knowledge of how
each tool available can be used to make something in your head do a thing in a
black box (to the general public it's a black box executing the code) and
sometimes present a result to a user.

I say avoid trying to teach them code at all cost and don't try to explain the
black box. Also try to bring what you do into physical reality. Maybe a flashy
arduino project where you change the code in front of them and the arduino
does something markedly different. Like a 3d LED matrix or something maybe
with spread sheet as input.

My niece is 7 and we make easy robots together all the time. The key is
attention span, a sentence of explanation maybe two then do something. If you
choose the right project maybe they can suggest changing variables too.
Remember what tools they have, basic math and that's about it. So anything
past if statements might be a bit to hard to grasp in the time you have to
explain so I would suggest making the visible code they can suggest stuff
about not use for or while loops or classes etc. Just so any kids thinking
about it have an easier time day dreaming about what they can do. Also make
sure your variable and function names are self explanatory maybe with comments
that you never explicitly point out for the kids actually reading and trying
to understand it.

I think though the code should definitely be visible even if you aren't going
in depth about it. Just so they get the understanding that just ideas alone
can make things happen in real life.

Also thinking about it right now, you might hate it but maybe mod minecraft
with them. Like something goofy and easy like shooting chickens as arrows or
something.

Good luck let us know what you ended up doing and how it went.

~~~
nlowell
Arduino LED's was the first thing that came into my mind as well. Even as a 21
yr old I got absurd pleasure from lighting up LED's and changing their colors
and patterns. If OP did want to show code, he could explain how computers
understand RGB values, and then have the children convert their favorite
colors to RGB and display it on the LED.

------
savingGrace
[http://www.discovere.org/our-activities](http://www.discovere.org/our-
activities) We perform the 'earthquake', 'wind turbine', and 'roller coaster'
activities with children/teenagers at schools in our area. We have 100+
volunteers that take the kits to the schools and help children get interested
in STEM.

------
oulipo
You can take a look at what we are building at
[https://snips.ai](https://snips.ai) to do a 100% on-device and private-by-
design Voice AI, it works in english, french, german, japanese, spanish,
italian, and more coming

It is 100% free for makers, and it is very easy to build your own voice
assistants which work with it. I'm sure that the kids will love it ;)

~~~
throwaway413
This would be a cool demo to show, very "wow" factor

------
nessunodoro
Programmable robot swarms.

[https://wyss.harvard.edu/technology/programmable-robot-
swarm...](https://wyss.harvard.edu/technology/programmable-robot-swarms/)

I don't know how affordable the hardware would be for a hobbyist, but this
would be so awesome for a kid. Ten little autonomous metal insects, roving
around on the floor. The programming side has a lot of visually-intuitive
aspects, such as pathfinding; show a child a graphical display of a robot's
pathfinding algorithm and they will just "get it." And how cool would it sound
to have all those little motors alive in the classroom? You could parlay it
into a discussion about drones (one of your passions), and show them clips
from e.g. the Superbowl, where coordinated drones with LEDs created an
animated backdrop for the performance.

For bonus points, you could use genetic programming to evolve some kind of
group behavior, then execute the variously-successful generations, and show
them how the most evolved algorithms seem the most alive.

------
tsumnia
Depending on your interests and timeframe, here are some ideas:

\- Teach them about color theory with three flashlights and a red, green, and
blue gel taped over each one. Then, kill the lights and show them how additive
color turns things white. For added fun, bring a water bottle and red, green,
and blue food dye. Dye the water black with the dyes to show subtractive
color... then chug the water and "die on stage".

\- You mentioned drones... literally just bring a drone.

\- Buy a some piece of wood from AC Moore and hot gun some components and a
battery pack to simulate how electricity flows (battery to switch to led to
battery). Add some permanent marker to point out the components

\- I once bought an LED foam sword from Wal-Mart and took it apart in class to
show the same thing as the LED board suggestion

\- In a similar vein, any kids Arduino/Raspberry Pi project

\- You also mentioned photography, so if you're willing to have kids touch
your camera equipment, you could show them different ISO/aperture/exposure
settings

\- There are also Scratch/Snap!/CodeCombat exercises out there

------
true_tuna
Maybe build something cool on Raspberry Pi? Facial or object recognition, or
google makes a cardboard AI kit so you can build a voice controlled digital
assistant. Or a pi robot kit, or pi handheld gaming systems. I love these
because it shows kids the technology of the future is not locked up in an
ivory tower, it is available to anyone who wants to give it a shot.

------
ragebol
Turing Tumble [0], where you trick pieces of plastic into doing arithmetic.

Kinda weird how a computer chip is 'just' a rock (molten sand) scared into
calculating stuff for us by flashing it with bright lights and nasty
chemicals. (OK, glossing over some minor details)

[0] [https://www.turingtumble.com/](https://www.turingtumble.com/)

------
thegabez
What ever you do, you should incorporate the say command. Have the computer
talk to the students. It will be a great attention grabber.

------
83457
Pico-8, discuss programming/gamedesign, agree on a simple design, allow them
to each create a couple art or music music assets. Game can be simple.
Complete game in school or shortly after. Make it available publicly so they
can easily access it and show their parents and friends. I did this for a game
design activity for cub scouts den and it was a hit.

------
radiorental
I have shown the '7 minutes of terror' video every time I go in to my kids
school for the Hour of Code events.

[https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/details.php?id=1090](https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/details.php?id=1090)

I gives me the chills every time I watch it and is a great starting point to
talk about how software / engineering can solve cool problems. I also like
that it has both men and women from various ethnic backgrounds.

Another video I've started showing is the Human-Machine brain implant helping
this quadriplegic control his arm again:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6oNoLWcDqw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6oNoLWcDqw)

With that all said, I show these specific video as they are enabled with the
tooling my company produces and I think that's an important part of the
message as it helps connect the dots between the presenter (me) and the uses
cases shown.

Good luck!

------
edoo
I had to make a little power interceptor board with a current limiting IC to
meet hazardous environment requirements for a product. During testing
(shorting power through the chip) I decided to stick my finger on there and
discovered a pretty cool phenomena. The thermal spike was so fast that it
caused you to jerk your finger off every single time, but by the time your
finger started to move, the heat was already dissipated to the point where it
was completely safe to touch. Everyone in the office had to try it multiple
times. No one was able to keep from jerking their finger away even though it
was obvious that by the time your finger began moving involuntarily the heat
was already gone. It perfectly demonstrated the perception/signal delay
alongside reflexive behavior in the human body. Similarly you could use a
simple transformer with a battery and use the collapsing EM field to shock
them.

------
jbeckham
Walk through some IoT stuff using Stringify or ITTT. Let them help you create
what is going to happen. Use the development tools on an Android device to
change location to show geo-fencing triggers. Every kid there could use the
"silence my phone when I get to school" routine, but you can always get more
advanced than that.

------
wiseleo
Adafruit Circuit Playground.

[https://learn.adafruit.com/introducing-circuit-
playground/ov...](https://learn.adafruit.com/introducing-circuit-
playground/overview)

This thing is quite amazing, very pretty visually, self-contained, and can
interact with Bluetooth modules.

If you have the skill to program it, it will be impressive and bright LEDs
will show well.

Make a LED level, for example, using the accelerometer. A sound meter using
the microphone, thermometer using the temp sensor, light meter with the photo
sensor etc.

As for the finishing touch, I would show that I have been using my free phone
as a full desktop computer to both conduct this presentation and control the
device. That should blow everyone's mind when they realize they have
unrestricted computers disguised as phones in their pockets. :)

------
rooam-dev
Some kind of software controlled drone/robot should do it, since there are 2
parts, software and hardware.

~~~
hhvvvvv
Perhaps using a Raspberry Pi and leveraging CV / NLP off the shelf tools.

~~~
georgeecollins
Even easier-- go to adafruit and get a circuit playground. Lots of shiny
lights LED patterns, easy to program.

Also, perhaps check if their are any makers, robot groups, model rocket
groups, drones (look for a meetup) in your area. There may be someone around
you. You might find someone with an interesting project to bring to the event.

------
namaemuta
Make some groups, teach them an easy method to encrypt messages (like Vigenère
cipher) and let them play writing encrypted messages between groups or think
about a game in which they need to decipher a secret code. It worked quite
well for some adults I taught few years ago.

------
mhb
Get a long copper tube (3 feet is good) and a strong magnet that's an easy
fit. Ask them to guess how long different objects will take to fall through
the tube. Have them time them. Try a glass marble, steel marble. Then blow
their minds with the magnet.

------
mikek
Google Teachable Machine is fun for kids of that age. You can for example have
the kids train Google to learn what pictures of dabbing are.

[https://teachablemachine.withgoogle.com/](https://teachablemachine.withgoogle.com/)

~~~
propogandist
Make sure you tell the kids how google (facebook and similar firms) make money
by harvesting data (their data).

Teach them about persistent web tracking, clearing cookies, adblocking and the
like and to use Firefox rather than chrome.

------
sametmax
I love the roomba that screams in pain when it hit objects:

[https://www.google.com/url?q=https://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv...](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3Dmvz3LRK263E&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwjHprit6c3iAhVOyoUKHf-
oBIYQtwIwAHoECAkQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0QSObdspp3gsk3AJV_jYqh)

Everybody find it funny, kids can record their own voice, you see programming
(with python) and sensors (with raspi).

With a raspi, you can also make a big red button to make the sound of nuke on
another computer, or a nerf dart gun attracted by sound.

With a computer, you can make a youtube video downloader, a password
generator, or just a joke windows stating you have a virus.

------
pm24601
Some thoughts:

1) pair up kids

2) Coordinate with teacher so every thing is ready before hand - you don't
want to spend time in setup. (arrive early, scope out the space)

3) there is always 1 kid who is "smarter" than the others who is going to
cause a problem - don't get distracted by them (or have a plan)

4) Have everything that you want to say in a powerpoint or something that can
be displayed using equipment at hand - avoid wasting time writing.

5) Keep presentations short ( ~4min max) before activity.

6) More kids: more chaos; longer to get going. Cut in a third the time
available - that is the actual time you will have for your project.

* They don't pay teachers enough. I can't stand getting my own kids to get work done. Let alone 30 other brats.

------
a0-prw
I did the same thing as lots of the comments here describe: Modify web pages
in the browser using the developer tools for the first part. It was for a
mixed class workshop from 4th to 6th grade. Called it "hacking", which was an
instant win, but explained why it wasn't really illegal and what hacking used
to mean. Most kids were really quick to get it, and some were pretty damn good
... funnily enough, the nerdy ones mostly ;) They progressed to writing their
own website, some with a bit of Javascript in it and after the course I put
their sites up on a server for a week so they could show their parents.

------
OliverJones
I hack, and I volunteer at a kids drop-in center in public housing. (Similar
target audience to yours.)

Drones! Especially if they can control them.

Animations! If they have access to chromebooks, get a free stop-motion
animation app and show them how to make their own cartoons.

Video chat, maybe. Again, use the chromebooks if they have.

Remote controlled robot gadgets, if you can get them. Kids love stuff where
they can control something physical from a screen.
[https://www.sphero.com/](https://www.sphero.com/) might have some good stuff.

Beware games. All kids know all about games. You'll be bringing peat to
Newcastle, and you'll lose them into the game anyway.

------
marak830
I'm currently running a robotics course for ages 8-18. Drop me an email and
I'll send you my lesson plans.

For everyone else(and you), what I just finished writing up is a course
designed around taking technology back to basics.

Literally the first lesson is LED's , wires and batteries using cardboard as a
breadboard.

My difficulties are slightly different than yours, as I need to keep English
as a major goal of this, and I only have 12 weeks for each rotation of the
course.

But if you want, I'll drop you my course notes, and respond here to any
questions if this interests you (Note it's quite late here in Japan, so there
will be a bit of a delay in responses).

------
Birch-san
Ever heard of Makey Makey[0]? It's crocodile-clip electronics. You can build a
piano out of bananas. [0] [https://makeymakey.com/](https://makeymakey.com/)

------
tomohawk
A lot of children do not even know what engineers are or how to become one.

I was blessed to have an EE stop by my 6th grade math class and give a
presentation about engineers and what they do and about how it was a good
career path for people who were interested in making things or technology.

I decided right then to be an engineer, making course selections when I had a
chance to make it possible. Without that encounter, it would have been much
harder as I would likely (a) not known about engineering, and (b) not known
how important it was to take the right courses.

------
ww520
Try playing with door sensors. They are simply two magnets that are open or
close. The detection effect is very visual. The sensor opens or closes and you
get a signal.

Door sensors have come a long way and are wifi-enabled these days [1]. Link
them to your phone (or iPad if doing a projection on TV). Tape the sensors to
door, window, drawer, your jacket, etc. Open them and see the signal sent to
your phone.

[1]
[https://www.amazon.com/s?k=door+sensor+wifi](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=door+sensor+wifi)

------
gameswithgo
I have a little C# 'game' I am working on where you can evolve images. The
images are expression trees and I made al ittle "lisp" language you can edit
in the game to edit your evolved images. I showed this to some 4th grade
classes I was asked to talk to about programming as a career, and I let them
pick what functions they wanted to try, "add, sign, multiply" etc and I would
type those into the lisp and we would see what kind of images (and videos, I
have a video mode too) resulted.

they had fun with it.

------
roberte3
I'd grab a couple of Sphero robots (little bluetooth rolling balls) and show
them changing colors/moving around the room via code. The apps for them have
programming environments.

------
geomark
We do a club at my kid's school called What's Inside. It is modeled after the
popular YouTube channel by the same name. But we don't simply smash stuff open
like they do on that channel. We give the kids some tools and let them take
apart various gadgets, then talk about the stuff inside. It has been a hit. We
usually ask for broken gadgets to be donated for the club. They are usually
electronics, but anything that is safe to take apart is fun and educational.

------
joeld42
I did a demo to a younger classroom that was a big hit. I took a simple
platforming example video game, had them draw characters and enemies and stuff
on a whiteboard, then took a picture with my phone and dropped them into the
game. The most-time consuming part was "magic wanding" the background away.
They weren't animated or even cut out very cleanly but the kids just loved
being able to control something that they drew themselves a few minutes
earlier.

------
Havoc
Something they can physically interact with.

Perhaps a FLIR camera rented + screen? Has "omg super power vision" vibe

Else something like a VR headset. Though maybe difficult if many people

------
the_watcher
Caveat that he designed it for 7th graders, and it was aimed as explicitly an
educational program rather than a short show and tell, but my cousin put
together a lesson around the "Routing and Deadlock" problem that seemed
reasonably successful [0].

[0] [https://www.paulcweidner.com/posts/stem-like-
me/](https://www.paulcweidner.com/posts/stem-like-me/)

------
futileboy
There's an app called Novel Effect that's free that adds sound effects and
music when you read a physical book out loud. It's limited to a list a of
books and poems, so it won't just work with any book, but it's still a fun
tech to demo. It's popular with teachers already, and has a pretty low bar
when it comes to ease of use. And it's something they can do on their own too.

------
dogline
I bought a several dozen toy motors off somewhere cheap (~$20), soldered a
couple of wires to the terminals, then handled that to the kids with a AA
battery. They were able to make the circuit and see something move, and you
can talk a little about how a circuits or a motor work, then pivot to how
Engineering is about "making things", and this is part of it.

That worked for several classes of 3-6 grade.

------
vfinn
\- Demonstration of an evolutionary algorithm, e.g.
[http://boxcar2d.com/](http://boxcar2d.com/)

\- Things you can automate, e.g. scraping cartoons from the web with a simple
shell script

\- Capturing insecure web traffic with Wireshark, e.g. making someone post
secret data with their mobile phone that you can eventually see

\- Show how you can remotely access another computer

------
msadowski
If you have a budget you can go for robotics. I'd recommend getting a Lego
Mindstorms kit, they usually come with ideas for builds (both hardware and
software).

When I was presenting this to 10 year olds couple of years back they loved it!
With mindstorms you can make it very interactive, you could easily do a show
and tell of programming it with block diagrams.

You will most likely have a lot of fun yourself!

------
mimixco
How about a demo with Scratch or a LOGO turtle? You could start with a
skeleton or simple sprite and let the kids suggest how to animate it or add
behaviors. You'll need a laptop and projector but it would be interactive and
provide immediate feedback.

When I was a kid, learning LOGO gave me the epiphany that software was
"castles in the sky" and you could make anything you want.

------
antoniuschan99
Show them the life-sized animals in AR through Google Search since a lot of
phones have ARkit now

[https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/2/18649312/google-ar-
search-...](https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/2/18649312/google-ar-search-
results-animals-3d-model-augmented-reality-lions-tigers-bears-oh-my)

------
Dnguyen
My son is 9 and in 4th grade. I got him this
[https://kano.me/store/us/products/coding-
wand](https://kano.me/store/us/products/coding-wand) and he loves playing and
coding it. If you think your audience is into Harry Potter, give this a try.
It's like magic!

------
40acres
I have run similar workshops and find that kids this age respond to technology
that they can "program" in the broader sense. Setting up a microboard with LED
lights that they can change via manipulation of switches or simple
programming, and things of that nature. Programming is so abstract, I find
kids respond to making it concrete.

------
Simulacra
Use a typewriter. Show them how technology began with innovations and
machines, and how it transformed into the digital era.

------
tlog333
Seeing AI from Microsoft on iOS to show them how people who are blind can get
descriptions of the world around them through AI.
[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/seeing-
ai/id999062298?mt=8](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/seeing-
ai/id999062298?mt=8)

------
ragebol
Make water bottle rockets. You shouldn't need more than a coke bottle, wine
bottle cork, bicycle inner tube calve and matching pump. Optimal water level
in bottle is ca. 1/3 IIRC, but figuring that out could be an interesting
exercise.

Or show them some SpaceX stuff with landings or how MSL/Curiosity landed on
Mars, that kind of stuff.

------
ericathegreat
Grab a makey-makey, some aluminium foil, some cardboard boxes and a laptop
running Stepmania. It takes about 15 minutes for kids to hands-on make their
own DDR machine. (Dance dance revolution). I've done this multiple times with
upper primary and lower secondary, and it's always gone down really well.

------
leandot
I like the socratic method of teaching binary numbers to kids, especially the
aliens with two fingers part ->
[http://www.mathmaniacs.org/lessons/01-binary/socratic.html](http://www.mathmaniacs.org/lessons/01-binary/socratic.html)

------
vmurthy
How about a project on Raspberry Pi? Something that teaches them how easy it
is to control other things with a computer ? Some ideas here
[https://electronicsforu.com/raspberry-pi-
projects](https://electronicsforu.com/raspberry-pi-projects)

------
bduerst
[https://teachablemachine.withgoogle.com](https://teachablemachine.withgoogle.com)
is pretty straightforward and accessible for most kids.

Start by training it on different facial expressions or objects in the room,
and transition into how ML is changing our lives at scale.

------
leksak
I'd find Bret Victor's stuff interesting at that age and maybe the coding made
by jtnimoy for Tron Legacy too. Anything from Siggraph. Cool dataviz. Or I
don't know. Wireshark. But the comments in here that are question/answer
driven are great depending on the group of kids.

------
andrewdubinsky
There's some great rpi projects you can do that are impressive.

You can build your own alexa with your own commands & make some kind of simple
game that you control with your voice.

Image recognition with some kind of speech on it.

Build a game using simple scripting tools (there's some easy game builders
with pre-made animations).

------
etrautmann
With simple hardware from backyard brains you can make one person's movements
match someone else by recording EMG on one person and stimulating the other's
muscles. It sounds a little ridiculous but can be done with $100 worth of
hardware and is a wonderful and surprising demo

------
philshem
I once attended a banquet dinner and shared a table with a female FBI agent
and her husband. The entire table was enthralled by her fascinating stories of
the field. Someone finally asked the husband what he did. He said “IT”. The
conversation quickly shifted back to his kick-ass wife.

~~~
alphydan
clearly he was a secret agent. Well played.

------
jjguy
[http://www.mathmaniacs.org/lessons/01-binary/socratic.html](http://www.mathmaniacs.org/lessons/01-binary/socratic.html)

That exercise is excellent to teach kids how to count in binary and why
computers are based on it.

------
connorcodes
When I tried to make a little class for programming, my go to option was
scratch.mit.edu , a little hub for coding with blocks. But since this is 5th
graders, I recommend code.org , which is "coding" AKA using blocks to get
steve from minecraft from point A to B.

------
poisonarena
Pico 8 would have really impressed me at 5th grade.. I think you can get an
education license as well

------
enriquto
I've had great fun with a webcam showing the difference between consecutive
frames.

Once they understand the idea, you show them the three-line code that does the
computation (using opencv for python), and you let them change the math
formula in whatever crazy way they want.

------
akerro
[https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY/comments/bvyc3p/i_made_a_video_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY/comments/bvyc3p/i_made_a_video_streaming_rover_to_follow_my_dog/)

------
crooked-v
A mechanical calculator might be interesting, if you can get your hands on one
for reasonably cheap, as a way to show how the ideas behind computers have
been around for a long time (relatively speaking), even though modern
computers are a new invention.

------
bhhaskin
Interactive AR sandbox. It would take some time to built and have some cost
with it, but I bet it will blow their tiny minds.
[https://arsandbox.ucdavis.edu/](https://arsandbox.ucdavis.edu/)

------
solotronics
Maybe I'm old school but I think it would be neat to bring an old rotary phone
and pull out your cellphone and explain how modern phones would be magic to
someone 50 years ago!

edit: this is probably boring and would not be age appropriate

~~~
dehrmann
The way area codes of major cities (e.g. 212) are compressed is really clever,
but sadly, I don't see it impressing fifth graders.

------
dpcan
How about something like that "make it juicy" keynote for game developers?

It went from simple pong to a fully loaded game with shakes and sounds and
particles.

But you set it up so you can show how adding bits of code makes the games they
play awesome.

------
nocajar
Try out lostcircles.com to let them visualize their facebook network. You can
teach them data visualization and awareness for the data which they are
sharing every day. It‘s used by many university classes.

Hint: I am one of the authors.

~~~
kevinmchugh
kids aged 10 or 11 won't have facebook accounts.

------
bozoUser
Hey man I dont have any ideas to offer but you are my superhero for the day
for atleast trying to inspire the next generation of kids!

Kudos to you and good luck. Please update your post with the final idea and
let us know how it went :)

------
JSeymourATL
Always Fun - kids react to Old Technology >
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF7EpEnglgk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF7EpEnglgk)

------
nicolethenerd
[https://edu.google.com/products/vr-
ar/expeditions/](https://edu.google.com/products/vr-ar/expeditions/)

------
linux_devil
Animation, their favorite cartoon is not possible without technology.

------
m23khan
showcase a simple HTML page and explain some tags (real simple tags). Show how
you can save / update and view results in the web browser.

This is really old school but effective way of showcasing both coding and
providing a bit of 'wow' factor to the kids.

Avoid using HTML frameworks or advanced concepts such as nested divs, complex
CSS etc. But a real simple 'hello world' javascript popup would be awesome!

Goal should be to explain to kids of whom 75% are probably not technically
inclined to begin with.

------
timzaman
Polaroids from space - [http://www.timzaman.nl/polaroids-from-
space](http://www.timzaman.nl/polaroids-from-space)

------
Dowwie
Head over to adafruit.com and you will find some cool ideas

------
dylan604
I hear making a clock out of an Arduino goes over really well in the classroom
environment. Just be sure to notify all authorities before attempting it.

------
IloveHN84
If you have a scrapped Kinect and a laptop with CUDA capabilities (even 4/5
years old), you can run the KinectFusion and perform live 3D reconstruction

------
csciutto
I'll throw in a vote for using p5.js to make some cool generative art. Setup
is less than 5 lines of code, and you can make some really nice art.

------
nurettin
If you pick up a virtual orange or type on a virtual keyboard, they will be
impressed.

If you move a robot arm, they will be inspired. Future is certainly augmented.

------
I_am_tiberius
Simple: Show them how they could automate a repetitive task they have to do
(e.g. 30 times the same type of math calculation as homework).

------
cport1
I would recommend things like
[https://littlebits.com/](https://littlebits.com/)

------
rq1
You should show them LaTeX and its powerful features, and how VIM is such a
great and way better editor than emacs.

------
pcdoodle
Hmmm, maybe some and arduino based led system for your drone. Kids could learn
about for loops, if statements, etc.

------
duxup
I was at a museum recently and I got to play with my kids and Ozobots.

My 3 year old and 9 year old were enthralled with them.

------
packetpirate
You could bring in a Raspberry Pi and show them how they can modify Minecraft
on the fly with Python.

------
kevarh
This might not be what you're looking for, but interactive sorting can be fun.
An old professor ran this with 5th graders where each help a number and they
would physically move according to the sorting algorithm. Show's the number of
compares and moves in a visceral way and demonstrates the difference between
bubble / quick sort in an approachable way.

------
gshdg
Can you create something interactive and put it on a tablet for them to pass
around and play with?

------
jacobush
Pinhole cameras and DIY chemistry for development (coffee + soda) is pretty
darn impressive IMHO.

------
negamax
Drag and drop game development. Do a space shooter and you will mint some
great future engineers

------
hndamien
With a wireless phone charger and led and a coil of wire you can make a
wireless led light up.

------
nrjames
Take in a few Pocket Operators from Teenage Engineering and let the kids make
some music!

------
Causality1
A $20 USB microscope can turn almost every object in a classroom into an
amazing image.

------
sitkack
The wheel, fire, plumbing.

Speaking to a comment down thread, show them how to wire a three way switch.

------
test6554
Just explain all the anti-counterfeit measures found in a modern $20 bill.

------
Wheaties466
maybe this is a bit complex but setup facial recognition demo?

[https://github.com/ageitgey/face_recognition](https://github.com/ageitgey/face_recognition)

------
test6554
Just explain all the anti-counterfeit measures found in a modern $20 bill

------
samirillian
playdough circuits

[https://teachbesideme.com/easy-play-dough-
circuits/](https://teachbesideme.com/easy-play-dough-circuits/)

------
robert_foss
Show off a programmable persistence of vision display?

------
generalunited
\- Voxatron & Pico-8 video game platforms \- kinect

------
Canada
Bring some VR headsets and Beat Sabre. You win.

------
bra-ket
Real time object recognition/tracking

------
CamperBob2
Tesla coils are always a big hit.

------
mutt2016
Easy. Augmented reality sandbox.

------
mapster
bring in a C64, Mac LC, ipad. So many ways to illustrate the advances in 20-30
yrs.

------
altmind
how about lego mindstorm?

~~~
chriswwweb
I second that, I mean, how do you impress kids ... well with a robot that
reacts to their actions and that they can program themselves, I thought about
that robot the Anki Cozmo (company just went bankrupt) and is super fun to
play with, but hard to code your own stuff, my second thought was to do
something fun with an arduino or raspberry pi and maybe those big colorful
buzzer buttons (I did a music quiz like that:
[https://github.com/chrisweb/arduino-nodejs-music-quiz-
game](https://github.com/chrisweb/arduino-nodejs-music-quiz-game) ;) ) but I
don't think this is suited for kids, it's more something for teenagers, so
yeah for ages 10-11 probably mindstorms is the best

But not just mindstorms, maybe LEGO boost is actually better suited:
[https://www.lego.com/en-us/themes/boost](https://www.lego.com/en-
us/themes/boost)

Everything related to coding and LEGOs can be found here:
[https://education.lego.com/en-us/coding](https://education.lego.com/en-
us/coding)

------
kaisix
try VR headsets !

------
ykevinator
Google lens

------
smt88
3D printer

