
Super Awesome Sylvia shows super simple Arduino - kmfrk
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/08/super-awesome-sylvia-shows-super-si.html
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techninja42
Sylvia's dad here,

Great to see the hacker news crowd has found the show entertaining and useful!
We glossed over a lot of the programming aspect because the physical aspect of
making something is far more immediately comprehensible for kids (which is why
we emphasize getting out and making -something- above all else).

We made sure to get the source code as commented and as easy to handle as
possible, but introducing it in the video not only requires a substantial
programming background overhead, but may scare a number of newbies off a lot
quicker than if they just copied and pasted something into an simple IDE.

Getting something working, that kids can feel some kind of accomplishment
with, no matter how simple, can psychologically push them over the initial
barrier of fear that an come with new, seemingly difficult things.

The Arduino itself as a dev board platform does a great job of erasing a lot
of that fear with a friendly usb connection, holes you can plug things
directly into and an open IDE with only a few simple buttons and
configurations. The remaining hurdles exist beyond, in attainable projects
that lets you poke and prod at the internals and get a good feel for how and
why something works, or how to break it. Hopefully our little starter project
are simple enough to get kids (or anyone for that matter) out there and
-trying something-, no matter how silly or simple. If all you do is do
something once and never again, you are still the better for doing it.

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MediaBehavior
Great stuff, Sylvia's Dad.

Sounds like you've really helped her learn how to push forward into
productivity - and in domains where she gets a thrill from the process and
from being able to share it out in the world. Sounds like a great way to let
her experience the entrepreneurial as well as engineering worlds!

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techninja42
Yep. Making a show is in itself an amazing discovery of what you could do. We
keep everything simple, the script is only a basic guideline and she takes an
active role in every part of the production.

I'm simply hopeful that as she blossoms into adulthood, some of the adventures
her and I share in her youth help her out in the rest of her life.

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kmfrk
I wanted to share this (from reddit), because it inspires and encourages me
the same way Khan Academy does. If I had kids, I'd definitely show them the
channel. It feels like a mix of Mythbusters and Jørgen Clevin[1].

Maybe one day, we'll have enough YouTube content to create a TV package for
children that will actually merit the time spent in front of the TV.

[1]: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnlVPv5TwGQ>

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jimmyjim
Can you link to the Reddit discussion as well please? I can't seem to be able
to find it

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kmfrk
Here it is, relegated to a niche subreddit:
[http://www.reddit.com/r/electronics/comments/fc4dw/quite_pos...](http://www.reddit.com/r/electronics/comments/fc4dw/quite_possibly_the_coolest_little_girl_of_all_time/).

I tried finding a link to something that summarized it better than a YouTube
video and decided on using the MAKE link.

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msarnoff
What's interesting is she just glosses over the programming aspect. This got
me thinking. The C language presents a pretty big barrier to entry for young
tinkerers, who have never heard the word "integer" before.

I learned to program when I was 6 or 7 years old, using Logo. Unfortunately,
Logo is all but dead, but I still think it's the greatest educational
programming tool ever. We even had a version of Logo that could interact with
Lego motors and sensors called "Lego Logo."

So why can't you program the Arduino in Logo? I posted a quick proposal for
such a system at <http://github.com/74hc595/Arduino-For-Kids> and hopefully
I'll get around to implementing it soon. Feedback is welcome.

aside: Yes, there is a version of Scratch for the Arduino, but I personally
think the merits of visual programming languages are questionable...

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machrider
It's nothing to do with hardware hacking, but Python ships with a kickass
turtle module: <http://docs.python.org/library/turtle.html>

For some reason it seems like a well-kept secret.

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anthonycerra
Best. Parents. Ever.

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bradfordw
My kids love this show and has gotten them sincerely interested in electronics
(and putting cut-outs on sticks for puppet play) - keep up the good work!

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patrickod
This is absolutely superb. Hopefully videos like this will inspire the younger
generation to actually look into how things work and not just how to use them.
Projects like Arduino really lower the barrier to entry to allow adults and
children alike to explore these areas. Great work!

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TwoBit
I wanted to use Arduino for a project, but gave up on it because it has such a
tiny amount of memory. <http://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/Memory>

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dougabug
16K FLASH/1K SRAM/512 bytes EEPROM is pretty reasonable for a traditional
embedded microcontroller. Think small (ie efficient), if you want to get into
the spirit of such devices.

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uytrhyujkujhy
My first embedded chip had 256bytes of memory and 16 instructions

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sharmajai
BTW, for those of who don't know, that natetrue guy she mentions is the same
dude from cre.ations.net who built tap tap revolution for the iphone first
unofficially and then officially.

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TimothyBurgess
This is amazing. The line in the article, "gives me hope for humanity," is
spot on.

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Nessuss
The line should be more "most people don't understand what kids can do".

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mkramlich
very cool. in the age of the web and YouTube, this girl can serve as a role
model for millions of others throughout the world. keep it up.

