How I Taught a 10-year-old to Love Python and Programming

11:15 AM - 11:45 AM on August 16, 2014, Room 705

Eric Matzner

Audience level:

novice

Watch:

http://youtu.be/MqlYgDHNM-o

Description

After many trails and tribulations, a few months ago I finally got my 10-year-old brother hooked on programming with Python. I posted a brief snippet on reddit's /r/learnpython about it and the post went over very well, with many people asking me for more in-depth instructions of and a sort of curriculum they could use. I have created that material and would like to expand upon it with this talk.

Abstract

In the future, the world is going to be run by software and robots. The people who can control these will be successful and powerful, especially relative to their peers. We need to be teaching kids programming as a new form of literacy so that they are prepared for this future. This talk will discuss actionable steps that I used to get my 10-year-old brother to love programming with Python.