
Programming for Grade 8 - henrik_w
https://henrikwarne.com/2017/12/17/programming-for-grade-8/
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perryprog
8th grader here! I've been programming for a relatively years (maybe around
7-8, very basic stuff of course, like turtle games and scratch. Huge thanks to
my Dad :) ), and this seems like a really really great thing to do.

Most people in my grade I think would be able to make it through making a
calculator, but maybe with some trouble. I'm also not sure if many of them
have the attention span either.

I think my favorite thing about this is how it's all text based. My school
currently does an event every year called "hour of code" where you do some
visual programming for about 40 minutes (class period cuts it off). It's
usually the same thing every year, and it seems like people don't learn
anything new at them.

I hope your students keep on learning, and you keep on teaching!

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j_s
Hour of Code includes options that use JavaScript and Python (and a handful of
less mainstream options). If you are allowed to choose, you can use the filter
on the side to select 'Language: Typing'.

Hour of Code Activities | [https://code.org/learn](https://code.org/learn)

~~~
perryprog
I’ve seen those! They’re definitely better, but we’re not really _supposed_ to
choose.

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bkovacev
As someone who had programming in the 8th grade (Basic/turbo), the knowledge I
received was a short-term one. Anything complex like calculators, games did
not work for me/my peers. 8th grade math/logical thinking is not at the level
you'd need as the concepts are way too abstract.

However, my second semester as a freshman high school (technical school) we
did programming theory followed by quick labs (coding exercises in C, same
"no-magic" principle) and then it all made sense. However, we first had like a
month without any code where we were taught different data structures,
functions, differences between declaring/defining, etc. That knowledge is
still in use today.

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twobyfour
I'm not sure I agree with that.

We were introduced to Logo briefly in second grade (admittedly, I don't think
the programming concepts really stuck at that point).

Then we were introduced to BASIC briefly in fifth grade. For some of us at
least, concepts like conditionals and loops did stick. I remember going home
and insisting my dad install a BASIC interpreter on his computer so I could
write more programs.

BASIC doesn't really have the concept of a function, but we were already being
taught about abstractions like "f(x) = x + 1" in seventh grade algebra, so I
don't see why programming would be too abstract for an eighth grader.

You might not want to try to teach them Java or Erlang, but procedural or
imperative Python like the article describes should be well within the
abilities of a significant subset of kids that age.

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skate22
Wrote my first program in 6th grade using the java Robot class to move the
mouse and clear out my inventory on the online game Runescape. I had no
intention of learning programming back then, i just hated all the tedious
clicking lol. This got me super excited about programming, and im a dev now.

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shakna
The approach the school I worked with was similar, with a 4th step:

* Hello, World!

* Calculator

* Guess the number

* Control the robot.

They got a handful of nodemcu devboards, wired in a screen, some motors and IR
lights/detectors, and the student got to go wild.

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henrik_w
The class I wrote about also used Lego robots, but I was not involved in that,
so I have no first-hand knowledge of it (although I heard many students liked
them as well).

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felixguendling
This is great! What was the time frame? Did you do several lessens, one hour
each? How many? Or one/many complete morning(s) / afternoon(s)?

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henrik_w
Thanks! It lasted from end of October till last week. I did three lessons of
about one hour each. Olle did one lesson too where I wasn't there. The rest
was their regular teacher, Caroline. I answered some mails with questions, and
sent here some more example programs in between.

