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  • How to help a 12 year learn about/get interested in coding
  • IHN
    Full Member

    My nephew is getting a laptop for Christmas, cos he needs one for his schoolwork. He’s not terribly excited about this as there’s ‘nothing fun he can do on it’.

    He and I were chatting and he said that he wants to be an aerodynamics engineer when he grows up, which is admirable and probably mainly down to his obsession with F1. I said to him that he could use his new laptop to learn to code, because there’s a lot of computer stuff involved in F1 cars, aerodynamics and all that. This prompted a flicker of interest from him.

    So, is there any software that I could get for him as a Christmas pressie for his new laptop that would start him on his quest to F1 glory?

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    Find a way to challenge problem solving, it’s the real skill

    Mackem
    Full Member

    At a guess, some sort of modelling thing might be cool, like Unity 3d. Make some games…

    https://unity3d.com/

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    ajantom
    Full Member

    Something like a Microbit – he can then learn to code using Python on the laptop, and set up the Microbit to use it’s accelerometer to record acceleration/speed data.

    Attach it to any object – car, bike, kite, skateboard, rocket car (a small one obviously – we did this in one of my STEM clubs) and harvest the data.

    Microbit website

    Microbit kit

    See if his school has thought about entering the Bloodhound Rocket Car Competition. Kits given to schools for free. The winning team gets to go to Africa to see the Bloodhound world speed record attempt!

    Dendrite Rocket Car Competition

    bensaunders
    Full Member

    My son is a bit younger than your nephew, but we’ve been working through a book from the library on how to code using the Scratch language (website here).
    You can start of using the building blocks to build up the code that lets you do all the sorts of things you would in a normal language, IF-THEN statements, DO loops, etc).
    Once you know what you are doing you can write the code rather than using the building blocks.

    dmorts
    Full Member

    So, is there any software that I could get for him as a Christmas pressie for his new laptop that would start him on his quest to F1 glory?

    MATLAB?

    Seriously though, I think all of the good software teaching tools are free. so perhaps something outboard that can be programmed/controlled by the laptop instead. Top of the list would be a 3D printer, but they’re rather pricey…. but something along those lines?

    djglover
    Free Member

    We got my 7 year old daughter a fuze, it uses a basic programming language, but it also comes with a robot arm that you can make move! She loves it, but at her age does need a lot of help…

    nonk
    Free Member

    Top uncle
    Just sayin

    JackHammer
    Full Member

    Refuse them pudding until they can code.

    Cougar
    Full Member

    See the discussion at http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/raspberry-pi-6

    Start with Scratch and he can make things with flashing lights.

    dragon
    Free Member

    Microbit seems a big fat wasted opportunity. Most of the project aren’t even remotely interesting, and a lot of the basic ones are just a complex way of doing something basic electronics could achieve. And what kid who has grown up with Nintendo Wii, Xbox etc. is going to be impressed with some crappy flashing LEDs.

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