<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body>
<p>Hi, Bernhard!</p>
<p>The lack of reading and writing skills was the issue I faced.
You nailed it. I was also teaching lower income families so
starting with a written language could start earlier depending on
the student or groups writing level.<br>
</p>
<p>Yes, I did try codecombat and it was good. When I tried this a
few years back the site was newer than it is now and there was not
a lot of content to keep the kids intrigued. At the time it was a
good activity for a few days. The page is free software, but
"Note: the levels on codecombat.com are not open source." It
would be amazing if there was a community effort to make libre
levels. If it exists, I am unaware.<br>
</p>
<p>From the board game page you listed, I have Code Master and Robot
Turtles which are similar. I found that the board games like that
are not very exciting to young kids, but could be useful for an
introduction to robotics concepts. A successful game we would use
to introduce robotics was using the instructors as robots and the
room as a game board. The children would write instructions and
the instructors would interpret the instructions very literally.
This can add comedy which balances out the frustration.
Interpreting a one line program written as "Walk across the room"
might result in walking in a straight line through the room and
falling over the couch for example. Ambiguous instructs like
"Turn right" could be interpreted as a 360 degree turn in place.
"Walk forward three steps" would be interpreted correctly. The
low tech nature of the game also helps reduce the economic barrier
to entry.<br>
</p>
<p>The partner program that we used for robotics chose the Lego
mindstorms platform which is proprietary, but also drag and drop
like blockly and friends. A blockly based Arduino robot would be
a great free software addition to the education space. If it
exists, I am unaware.</p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">Best,
Michael McMahon | Web Developer, Free Software Foundation
GPG Key: 4337 2794 C8AD D5CA 8FCF FA6C D037 59DA B600 E3C0
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://fsf.org">https://fsf.org</a> | <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://gnu.org">https://gnu.org</a></pre>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 10/28/21 7:59 AM, Bernhard E. Reiter
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:202110281359.47265.bernhard@fsfe.org">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">Michael,
thanks for sharing your experiences.
Am Dienstag 26 Oktober 2021 18:38:20 schrieb Michael McMahon:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">Around the age of 10, I would switch them away from drag and drop
languages to Python or Lua if they were inclined through modifying
simple games and modifying Minetest mods.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">
Reading and writing is an important precondition of course.
So is logical thinking and having fun with puzzles.
Do you have experience with
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://github.com/codecombat/codecombat">https://github.com/codecombat/codecombat</a>
and the service based on it?
What I found good is that they were available in German.
So the local language matters a lot, because most children cannot do enough
English at 10 years.
Anyone experiences or even research about board games that should prepare for
coding, like
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.thinkfun.com/type/coding-games/">https://www.thinkfun.com/type/coding-games/</a>
Best Regards,
Bernhard
</pre>
<br>
<fieldset class="mimeAttachmentHeader"></fieldset>
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">_______________________________________________
Discussion mailing list
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:Discussion@lists.fsfe.org">Discussion@lists.fsfe.org</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/discussion">https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/discussion</a>
This mailing list is covered by the FSFE's Code of Conduct. All
participants are kindly asked to be excellent to each other:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://fsfe.org/about/codeofconduct">https://fsfe.org/about/codeofconduct</a>
</pre>
</blockquote>
</body>
</html>