Teaching my 5 year old how to code & interact with machines…
Teaching my 5 year old how to code & interact with machines.
A thread:
I began introducing the concept of programming to my 5 year old over the weekend. We've always talked about coding & robots and how to give them instructions.
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For those not familiar with Ozo the first step is to introduce the student to coding without a computer. This is accomplished by using different color markers to literally create lines of code.
This is where the power of this teaching tool blew me away.
She accidentally created her first loop!
You later introduce more advance concepts like functions with other colors. This allows you to do some really neat stuff.
Watching her face light up when she understood this will be one of the more memorable experiences of my life. 💗
I only really began to think of the construct & sometimes paradox of loops in my adult life.
Over the last week I found a cool tool to help take these concepts to the next level. So this weekend we actually had our first official class at home & began working with a tiny robot named Ozo (highly recommended).
So this is where the story gets interesting. After we got past understanding the basics of the straight line we began to draw curves & squiggles & other shapes to see what Ozo would do. Then I gave her some free time to draw whatever she wanted.
Ozo will follow the colored lines diligently & consume all inputs it finds on the line & responds accordingly. The basics are showing that a straight black line on a paper will cause Ozo to begin moving forwards consuming everything on the line.
Watching her brain soak up the fact that the robot would follow her code till his battery died was awesome. It allowed me to explain there was no way for him to get out of the "code loop" she drew on the paper because there is no end or way out.
I truly wonder what planting this small seed so early in her life will do to her creativity/mind.
I plan to continue to document this journey if you all find it useful.
I ’ll share pics of the loop she drew once I get some image posting powers. 🎨🖌️
To be continued…..
very cool, thank you for posting!
Thanks for reading 🙏. Hope to share more.