Career day in kindergarten: how to demonstrate programming in 20 minutes?
Original Question
I was invited to the kindergarten group of my elder daughter to talk and answer the kids' questions about my profession. There are 26 kids of age 4-6 in the group, plus 3 teachers who are fairly scared of anything related to programming and IT themselves, but bold enough to learn new tricks. I would have about 20-30 minutes, without projector or anything. They have an old computer though, which by its look may be a 486, and I am not even sure if it's functioning (Update: it isn't).
My research turned up excellent earlier threads, with lots of good tips:
- How would you explain your job to a 5-year old?
- Career Day: how do I make “computer programmer” sound cool to 8 year olds?
- What things can I teach a group of children about programming in one day?
My situation is different from each of the above though: the latter ones are concerned with older children, while the first one is about talking to a single kid (or elder person) — a group of 20 is a whole different challenge.
How can I teach the kids and their teachers about programming in a fun way?
Plan Based on Answers
Thanks for all the amazing answers, guys :-) I don't think it makes sense to accept a single answer, but I like Jim's the most, just as the majority of SOers apparently do. However, a lot of other answers contain useful hints and ideas (some of which I will surely use on future Career days in the school...).
I put together a rough plan:
- Briefly explain what programming is, like in this answer.
- Tell that computers are everywhere, and collect examples with the kids (as suggested in several answers below).
- Do Jim's presentation with the sandwiches.
- If time allows, build it further:
- explain that the strength of computers is that they remember exactly what they are once taught (and demonstrate it by preparing a second sandwich, repeating all the faults of the first attempt)
- have a second round trying to fix the bugs in the process
- explain the concept of loops: you can make the computer prepare
nsandwiches with a single instruction
This is my plan - I am pretty sure it will turn out very differently, so I will improvise according to the situation. The presentation is scheduled in about 2 weeks time - I will update the post afterwards and tell how it actually went...
Results
Finally the day of the presentation arrived today... in brief, all went fine and it was a huge success :-)
The group turned out to be quite restless and energetic this time, so the conversation occasionally went a bit chaotic. I had to cut it short and get to the Big Sandwich Maker Show. Just as Jim described, the kids loved it.
There was one unforeseen side effect though: after the first slice of bread finally got ready, everyone wanted to eat! So for a while - during which I tried to keep up the conversation and explain more about programming - we had to install a sort of emergency service line with the kindergarten teachers to produce immense amounts of marmalade bread and feed the hungry crowd (this was half an hour after breakfast, for the record :-). Then we ran out of bread, which clearly meant the end of the presentation. The biggest burst of laugh erupted when after cleaning up the mess, the kids noticed that the poor computer stepped on a patch of marmalade which ruined his sock :-)
The teachers themselves were also very positively impressed - judging from the feedback, this was the best and funniest Career day in this group so far. Thanks again to all of you for the great ideas!
Things that could be improved (next time):
- When I asked "do you think computers are smart?", to my surprise most of them answered "no". I then asked who thinks computers are smart, and why. However I neglected to ask who thinks computers are dumb, and why - thus I think I missed some potentially intriguing answers.
- Inviting the kids to come around the table got them actively involved... but maybe a bit too actively at times. Bread slices started to disappear from the table and some of the audience mimicked the computer as closely as dipping their own fingers into the butter and the marmalade :-) So it is better to keep some distance.
- To keep the hungry crowd under control, the kids should be clearly told in advance: "you can eat all the bread, but only after the demonstration!"
But overall, I am quite happy with the outcome. And I am sure the kids got the core message: as a programmer, if you avoid creating a mess, you can make your bread (even with marmalade :-)
Answer
I've done this before.
I laid down a lot of paper towels on a table, and got out a loaf of (cheap) bread, a small tub of butter, a small jar of jelly, and a plastic butter knife.
I said to the kids, "How many of you think computers are smart?" Most of them raised their hands. I said, "Computers are really dumb. People are smart. You have to tell a computer everything. It doesn't know how to do anything. I'm going to show you what I mean. I'm going to pretend I'm as dumb as a computer, and you guys tell me how to make a sandwich."
And when the first kid said "open the bag of bread!" I ripped the bag apart and let bread fall randomly all over the table. That got a lot of giggles. I continued to take the kids literally at their words until they learned to give short, specific commands, and eventually we ended up with a butter and jelly sandwich. There was a lot of laughter but they came away understanding, at least a little, what a programmer does for a living.
(I should note, I've also done this demonstration with adults in an "intro to programming" class, and it works just as well with them.)