I ran a workshop with my fellow 4th years. This is where I taught them some Programming basic then followed by the actual implementation with Arduino with various types of sensors.
I have invented some tools that I think it might be useful for beginner to get their ideas on paper. Here are the tools and their description.
These tools are available to download at http://bit.ly/13ugO5U
So, the workshop was splited into two parts, Teaching the basic and then the 'helping' class. The teaching was pretty much go through basic if and else statement and learning how to use them for different context. The 'helping' class was actually about helping them realizing each of the participant project. Most of them were simple but still needs to be defined. The participants stated that my tools helped them a lot. (more info will be provided)
Basic 'human' algorithm using If statement. This technique is from Jussi Mikkonen
In the teaching parts, I first do the Human algorithm. Pretty much using each of the participant as individual statement. i.e.
Participant 1 = if ( paperclip ==5) {
Participant 2 = Say ("I love you") }
Participant 3 = Else {
Participant 4 = paperclip++
Participant 5 = Say (" I hate you ") }
This turn out to be a bit confusing at the start but then it got easier as we go through it several times
The general atmosphere of the class
The good things is that the first 'Human' Algorithm helps them a lot. One of the participant said that she keep referring to it when she faced problem during the class. Here is the video of her teaching other. She was a newbie 10 mins ago and then she started teaching her classmates, what an achievement!
Here are some feedback about the workshop
“Having it step by step by step by step is really good”
“I found it to be like a recipe. One is the end product, the image of putting things together and the actual recipe”
“These tools help me thinks about (my concept) practically rather than thinking that is it a good thing to do. ”