What We Teach

We create courseware and best teaching practices guidelines for the following:

1) Introduction to Programming using Microsoft Small Basic

Designed for children ages 10 and up, this program consists of mulitple one-hour teaching units called recipes. Each recipe (or lesson) has 4 to 5 components) and is designed to teach 1-3 core programming concepts. The recipes are designed to be taught sequentially, as they are presented on our wiki.

Teaching this course requires:

– one PC with .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 or better (Windows XP or better) for each TWO kids
– Microsoft SmallBasic version 0.9 or better (FREE) – http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/
– Our SmallBasic extensions (CodePlex – FREE) – http://extendsmallbasic.codeplex.com/
– Our SmallBasic recipes (wiki – FREE) – http://teachingkidsprogramming.org

For more detailed information on how to setup a TKP classroom for SmallBasic classes – go here. Tip: You can run SmallBasic and the extensions from a USB drive (just launch the *.exe) to avoid installing on the student’s machines.

Also we have created video-based training to share teaching practices. That can be found on my blog here.

2) Introduction to Database Programming with the SQL language

We have two versions of this course. One is designed specifically for high-school aged girls and uses data around dating to peak their interest. We have two one-hour units, designed to be taught sequentially. These cover core database query concepts, specifically the formation of increasingly complex WHERE clauses, and then we layer on JOIN queries.  Here’s a blog post with more information.

We are developing a new version of this course, with different source data to appeal to both boys and girls ages 12 and up. The working title is ‘Insulting SQL’ and the data will be around this topic.

Teaching this course requires:

– One computer for each two students with Silverlight installed for the browser-based web client (PC or Mac)
– Either a SQL Azure account where the database is hosted -OR-  SQL Server Express 2008 R2 with Advanced Services installed on each PC (software is FREE)
– Classroom artifacts, i.e. power point, DDL script for setup, answer key, sample data is on CodePlex – http://datinggame.codeplex.com/

3) Introduction to Visual Programming using Microsoft Kodu

This workshop is designed for kids ages 5 and up. We run this with kids working in small groups to create worlds.

Teaching this course requires:

– One PC for each group of students
– Kodu and preqrequisties installers (FREE) – http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/
– Kodu classroom courseware, see ‘Classroom Kit’ tab on this page (developed by MSR)- http://fuse.microsoft.com/project/kodu.aspx
– Kodu 2 hour introductory class – here

IGNITELA Video – 5 min – Lynn talking about the types of courseware created and taught by TKP teachers