We teach children to make games
I want to talk about the non-profit project Kodabra. Here we teach children to program and create games.
Somehow came the realization that the maximum pleasure in this life brings three processes to the founders - programming, teaching others and communicating with children. Thoughts began to seethe about school for children, and active actions began in January 2014. We were inspired by such projects as codeclub.org.uk , code.org , cs-first.com . And we decided to use their experience and organize free lessons on the basis of existing schools, orphanages and other children's institutions.
')
A clear emphasis was placed on the motivation of children. We teach them to make cartoons, computer games, create in the digital universe.
Chatting with friends on Facebook revealed a clear interest of parents with children of primary school age, who were extremely positive about the idea. Therefore, we decided to try with the smallest, right from the first class.
Scratch was chosen as the programming language, a visual programming language specially designed for children. First, it is available online and does not require the installation of anything. Secondly, it is an integrated environment, you draw the code and immediately execute it, the result is immediately visible. Thirdly, he is sharpened to create cartoons and games, there already exists a library of sprites and backgrounds, as well as special "game" operators, like "turn, if you hit a wall."
The code looks like this.
We sketched the concept of the first lesson in the form of a game of catching mice and got down to business.
Through friends, I agreed with the school 1220 at the VDNH near to my home. He came to the head teacher, showed examples of lessons. I got acquainted with the local computer science teacher so that he was aware of and did not suddenly feel any kind of competition. A few more weeks of coordination with all kinds of head teachers and teachers, and we were given a whole class of graduate school, children aged 8 years.
Good idea was the idea to practice with the children of friends at home before. The first students of Kodabra were 8 year old Maxim and 6 year old Maya. And immediately everything went wrong as planned. They excitedly generated ideas from cartoons, jumped from ideas to ideas, and manipulated me in every way. In two hours, we changed a dozen backgrounds and heroes, discussed about 15 possible scenarios for the development of actions, and eventually made only one moving sprite.
From here the following rules were born:
I took into account this experience, and the first lesson in class went surprisingly smoothly. At first I suggested that the children direct me with the help of the instructions “left, right, forward, back”. Then we wrote them on the board as a program. The goal was to bring me to a certain desk. Podebazhili code, as he did not immediately led me to the right place. And proceeded directly to Scratch. Background, hero, movement. And then the variable speed. The children literally had a burst of emotions, someone introduced millions, others on the contrary slowed down. The most active immediately guessed to create the second characters, independently hung the code. I did not expect such a success.
The training lasted two quarters. During this time we tried with the guys and code.org . The concept of short lesson assignments is of course better placed in the school lesson grid. But the level of involvement in creating “their” universes in Scratch is certainly higher.
Below are interim results from lessons.
The next step was to slightly expand into several schools and form a methodology. I read the reports on RIT and DevConf, according to the results we were joined by several people with a desire to teach. Agreed with the school 492 and the children's social rehabilitation center Otradnoe . And went to the summer holidays.
For five years, our main goal is to penetrate in the form of free lessons to the maximum number of children's institutions in the Russian Federation. It can be both lessons conducted by volunteers teachers, and experimental lessons conducted by full-time teachers in the main educational process.
To achieve it, we have identified several areas:
Our site is still under construction. From public contacts, this blog and groups on facebook and vk are still available. In the same blog, we will cover all aspects of children's STEM education. From a review of tools and processes to the experience of real lessons.
If someone has a desire to help in the development of the project, we will only be happy.
Prehistory
Somehow came the realization that the maximum pleasure in this life brings three processes to the founders - programming, teaching others and communicating with children. Thoughts began to seethe about school for children, and active actions began in January 2014. We were inspired by such projects as codeclub.org.uk , code.org , cs-first.com . And we decided to use their experience and organize free lessons on the basis of existing schools, orphanages and other children's institutions.
')
A clear emphasis was placed on the motivation of children. We teach them to make cartoons, computer games, create in the digital universe.
Choice of audience and tools
Chatting with friends on Facebook revealed a clear interest of parents with children of primary school age, who were extremely positive about the idea. Therefore, we decided to try with the smallest, right from the first class.
Scratch was chosen as the programming language, a visual programming language specially designed for children. First, it is available online and does not require the installation of anything. Secondly, it is an integrated environment, you draw the code and immediately execute it, the result is immediately visible. Thirdly, he is sharpened to create cartoons and games, there already exists a library of sprites and backgrounds, as well as special "game" operators, like "turn, if you hit a wall."
The code looks like this.
We sketched the concept of the first lesson in the form of a game of catching mice and got down to business.
First experience
Through friends, I agreed with the school 1220 at the VDNH near to my home. He came to the head teacher, showed examples of lessons. I got acquainted with the local computer science teacher so that he was aware of and did not suddenly feel any kind of competition. A few more weeks of coordination with all kinds of head teachers and teachers, and we were given a whole class of graduate school, children aged 8 years.
Good idea was the idea to practice with the children of friends at home before. The first students of Kodabra were 8 year old Maxim and 6 year old Maya. And immediately everything went wrong as planned. They excitedly generated ideas from cartoons, jumped from ideas to ideas, and manipulated me in every way. In two hours, we changed a dozen backgrounds and heroes, discussed about 15 possible scenarios for the development of actions, and eventually made only one moving sprite.
From here the following rules were born:
- Move small sprints. “And let's make the hero move.” Cutting off at this moment other bubbling ideas. Agile is more relevant here than ever :)
- All the time to be on the alert and cut off manipulation. From experience. Maya: “Let's make the princess smile”. I: “Well, it's a long time, you have to redraw”. Maya: “And what can't you do? I thought you could do anything ... ”. And I'm thinking about how to quickly redraw the sprite, rather than moving on through the lesson :)
- Feed by piece, the sweetest at the end. Make it so that the hero moves the control buttons is not always the best idea. As soon as it turns out, the children begin to fly as heroes and play their fictional games, ignoring reality.
I took into account this experience, and the first lesson in class went surprisingly smoothly. At first I suggested that the children direct me with the help of the instructions “left, right, forward, back”. Then we wrote them on the board as a program. The goal was to bring me to a certain desk. Podebazhili code, as he did not immediately led me to the right place. And proceeded directly to Scratch. Background, hero, movement. And then the variable speed. The children literally had a burst of emotions, someone introduced millions, others on the contrary slowed down. The most active immediately guessed to create the second characters, independently hung the code. I did not expect such a success.
The training lasted two quarters. During this time we tried with the guys and code.org . The concept of short lesson assignments is of course better placed in the school lesson grid. But the level of involvement in creating “their” universes in Scratch is certainly higher.
Below are interim results from lessons.
The next step was to slightly expand into several schools and form a methodology. I read the reports on RIT and DevConf, according to the results we were joined by several people with a desire to teach. Agreed with the school 492 and the children's social rehabilitation center Otradnoe . And went to the summer holidays.
Plans
For five years, our main goal is to penetrate in the form of free lessons to the maximum number of children's institutions in the Russian Federation. It can be both lessons conducted by volunteers teachers, and experimental lessons conducted by full-time teachers in the main educational process.
To achieve it, we have identified several areas:
- Formation of the volunteer system and the development of free lessons in children's institutions.
- Developing an online platform that will contain ready-made interactive lessons with automatic tracking of the level of progress of a particular student and will help us communicate our method more easily and quickly.
- Try paid in-depth courses for high school students.
Our site is still under construction. From public contacts, this blog and groups on facebook and vk are still available. In the same blog, we will cover all aspects of children's STEM education. From a review of tools and processes to the experience of real lessons.
If someone has a desire to help in the development of the project, we will only be happy.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/233867/
All Articles