Ron McDermott wrote to Rick Pedley:
-> My concern here stems from the way that things went in high school -
-> Computer courses became just
-> programming courses under the aegis of the math department.
-> They then became another math class.  Kids stayed away in
-> droves.  I think that for 6th graders you have to approach
-> this the way one does when s/he is trying to get a child's
-> interest: Make it fun first, THEN, if the child becomes
-> "hooked", bring in the complications...
I can appreciate your points. Somehow at our school we have managed to
keep programming in a separate department from the math classes
(although in early June when I found out I'd be teaching programming
next year, the asst. principal suggested to me that we might want to
change it to be included as part of the math dept. I told her I didn't
think that was a good idea....).
My first programming course at the university involved very little math,
per se. Mostly turtle graphics, string manipulations. I hope to
incorporate a lot ofthis approach in my class this fall.
I think that Bob Anderson can have a LOT of FUN with his kids with the
appropriate programming language and resources/lesson plans. There are
some excellent resources for programming with elementary school kids
that do approach it through the "fun" aspect, as you suggest. I'm going
to post some of the things I found on the Web in another message to Bob.
Sheila
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