Introduction
Read the question; these Educational Materials are for Children under age 16.
Do use overly sophisticated in overly-technical language when editing this particular wiki
The question was:
"What is Quick and easy intro to computer science for kids for an Engineering Field Day" It might be best to divide the kids into groups.
My packet of educational materials below is mostly only for teaching kids who can read big kid books (or even books for adults).
Instructions on how to print this packet of educational materials is provided at the end of this post.
A Packet for Kids & Adults on How to Write Code
In this packet, we will learn about a language used to write computer programs known as python
Installing an IDE
I recommend something called an IDE.
I recommend installing something called "PyCharm".
Google "PyCharm" to find it.
Your First Computer Program
print("hello world")
When I first installed pyCharm many years ago I could not figure out how to get it to run the program.
Click the green triangle-shaped button in the upper-right corner of PyCharm to run your program.
In my day, the green triangle shaped button was a lot smaller and more difficult to see.
What are Strings?
Computer scientists sometimes write code which translates English into Spanish.
For example, we might have:
INPUT: the English phrase Blue Fish.
OUTPUT: the Spanish phrase Pez Azul.
If you want to write code, then you need to be familiar with something which computer scientists and programmers call "strings"
In order to store text and translate text from one language to another on a computer, then you need to store your text inside of a string.
Let us talk about three different types of strings:
- Binary Strings
- ASCII Strings
- Unicode Strings.
When a string contains only ones and zeros, it is known as a binary string. An example of a binary string is shown below:
001010101010111111000100101000101010101
Nothing but ones and zeros is difficult for people to understand.
Therefore, ASCII encoding was invented.
To oversimplify things, ASCII encoding is a set of rules for converting for converting letters, such as the letter A, into 1s and 0s.
If you use ASCII encoding to translate A into a binary string, the result is 01000001.
An ASCII string can store text written English, French, German, or other languages from Western Europe.
A lot of people use something called unicode to represent letters written in several of the worlds alphabets.
|
|
|
| Greek Letters (Ελληνικά) |
Oriya |
Korean Letters (한글) |
| Russian Letters (ру́сский) |
Tamil |
Ethiopian Letters (ግዕዝ) |
| Armenian Letters (Հայոց գրեր) |
Telugu (తెలుగు) |
Cherokee Letters (ᏣᎳᎩ ᎦᏬᏂᎯᏍᏗ) |
|
Kannada (ಕನ್ನಡ) |
Plains Cree (ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐍᐏᐣ) |
| Hebrew (אלפבית) |
Malayalam (മലയാളം) |
Khmer (ភាសាខ្មែរ / ខេមរភាសា) |
| Arabic (الْأَبْجَدِيَّة الْعَرَبِيَّة) |
Sinhala (සිංහල අක්ෂර මාලාව) |
Mongolian |
| Syriac (ܐܠܦ ܒܝܬ ܣܘܪܝܝܐ) |
Thai (อักษรไทย) |
Japanese Kanji and Kana (漢字仮名) |
| Thaana (ތާނަ ) |
Lao (ອັກສອນລາວ) |
Manderin Chinese ( 官话 ) |
| Devanagari (नागरी) |
Tibetan (བོད་སྐད་) |
Korean () |
| Bengali (বাংলা বর্ণমালা বা লিপি) |
Myanmar |
Japanese Hiragana (平仮名, ひらがな) |
| Gurmukhi (ਗੁਰਮੁਖੀ) |
Georgian |
Katakana (片仮名、カタカナ) |
In this packet, we will show strings in ASCII instead of unicode because unicode is complicated for some Americans and Europeans.
If you want to, you can put only one or two words inside of a text string . If you want to, write two or three words in the space below:
A name for someone's favorite food might be an example of a text string.
A text string can also be the title of of a book, such a book you like.
A text string can also be the entire contents of a book, such as One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish by Dr. Seuss.
One fish, Two fish, Red fish, Blue fish,
Black fish, Blue fish, Old fish, New fish.
This one has a little car.
This one has a little star.
[...SNIP...]
Where do they come from? I can't say.
But I bet they have come a long, long way.
we see them come, we see them go.
Some are fast. Some are slow.
Some are high. Some are low.
Not one of them is like another.
Don't ask us why, go ask your mother.
The Collected Works of William Shakespeare would be an example of a very long text string.
The simplest text strings contain only one letter.
The text string Containing the letter A
A
The text string Containing the letter B
B
The text string Containing the letter B
C
Most people want to have things inside of their text strings other than letters such as A and Z.
Most people like having space characters.
Otherwise, we have have:
Mostpeoplelikehavingspacecharacters.
As a second example we have The Little Car String :
The Little Car String with Spaces
This one has a little car.
The Little Car String without Spaces
Thisonehasalittlecar.
In general, each of the things contained in a text string is known as a character.
Space-characters might not be letters, but they are characters
Without line-feed *characters everything would all be all be on one very long line going off to the right.
One fish Two fish Red fish Blue fish Black fish Blue fish Old fish New fish. This one has a little car.
We can insert some line-feeds to have a text string appear on multiple lines
One fish
Two fish
Red fish
Blue fish
Black fish
Blue fish
Old fish
New fish.
This one
has a
little car.
All of the letters and other things inside of an ASCII string are called "characters".
CAT.DOG is a text string.
The letter C in CAT.DOG is a character.
The period dot in CAT.DOG is also a character.
"characters"
Otherwise, CAT DOG would be just CAT DOG
Additional Notes
How to Print This Stuff Out on Paper
Select all of the text in this post.
Copy the text
- to copy text on Windows press the control-key Ctrl<\kbd> and C <\kbd> at the same time.
- to copy text on Apple Mac/iOS press ⌘ Command <\kbd> and C <\kbd>
Paste the text into a word processor such as Microsoft Word, office libre, or Pages on Apple Macintosh iOS
- to past text on Windows press the control-key Ctrl<\kbd> and V <\kbd> at the same time.
- to paste text on Apple Mac/iOS press ⌘ Command <\kbd> and V <\kbd>
Print it as ink on a sheet of physical paper
Where to Get Cheap Used Laptop Computer
I recommend buying used laptops off of eBay for less than 30 USD each.
If you are worried about a used laptop being infected with a virus or having pornography on it, then google "how to install ubuntu os2".
If you re-install the operating system (OS), the viruses will be inert and the pornography will outside of the index for in-use hard-drive space.
Make sure that the laptop you buy has more than 16GB of RAM.
The number one reason a computer is too slow is not enough RAM (random access memory).
