Opening the Magic Box: Creating transitional Python libraries and IDE tools for young learners

02:15 PM - 03:10 PM on July 16, 2016, Room CR7

Meg Ray

Audience level:

novice

Description

The next generation of developers will have written their first program in Kindergarten. How they will learn programming is in the process of being defined, but it will look much different than the way that the current generation of developers learned. Meg and Juan are taking on the challenge of creating a transitional learning environment for middle school students. In our experience, most students at this age are ready for the challenge of writing a program that combines different basic CS concepts (loops, conditionals, UI, etc), but many become overwhelmed or confused by professional tools. We work on custom versions of professional libraries and IDE tools to give middle school students a transition between basics block-programming and AP or adult curriculum using professional tools.

Abstract

The next generation of developers will have written their first program in Kindergarten. How they will learn programming is in the process of being defined, but it will look much different than the way that the current generation of developers learned. Meg and Juan are taking on the challenge of creating a transitional learning environment for middle school students. In our experience, most students at this age are ready for the challenge of writing a program that combines different basic CS concepts (loops, conditionals, UI, etc), but many become overwhelmed or confused by professional tools. We use Skulpt to create custom versions of professional libraries and IDE tools to give middle school students a transition between basics block-programming and AP or adult curriculum using professional tools.