Software Engineering Demo for a K-5 Career Fair?

gmjohnston asks: "A local elementary school is having a Career Fair in a couple of weeks and I volunteered. The idea is for parents with various jobs and careers to show and tell the kids a little bit about what their's is, why they think it's interesting and rewarding, etc. It's to try to give kids a little early exposure to some of the diverse kinds of things one can do with one's life. I'm a software engineer, so I'd like to show something that has to do with programming or Computer Science, but which would be interesting to an elementary school student." What would be the best way to illustrate what a software engineer does to a group of primary school kids?

"I'm trying to come up with something like what got me hooked way back when, which was when my Organic Chemistry professor in college showed me a listing of a Basic program (Basic Plus on a PDP-11/70 running RSTS/E if you must know) and I realized that, computers relied on a bunch of instructions that tell the machine what to do, and that if I could change the instructions then I could make the machine do what *I* want it to do! I'll have my laptop with me and I'll be at a table that the kids will be able to gather around and see the screen (or potentially do something themselves on the laptop, depending on what I come up with). Of course, showing them the kind of code I really work on (software development tools) would likely instantly bore them to death. So, the question is: What should I show? If other Slashdot readers have done this kind of thing, what did you do and how did it work out?"

Realistic?

[RobertTaylor]

Bring loads of coffee in with you and feed it to the kids to get them hyper, give them all keyboards and glasses to simulate eye strain. Break their wrists to simulate RSI and get a megaphone with someone shouting 'code faster'...

Truth in education...

[kclittle]

What would be the best way to illustrate what a software engineer does to a group of primary school kids?

Show them how to quickly switch the browser window away from /. whenever the PHB comes by.

My first suggestion...

[EmagGeek]

A basic understanding of how to speak Hindi...

cubicles

[PoopJuggler]

Bring a cardboard box and a chair and make them sit in it for 8 hours a day for the entire school year...

Show them how you spend your free time...

[Anonymous Coward]

Bring in some anime DVD's, some pr0n, an empty pizza box, and a crusty sock. If that doesn't convince them, I don't know what will!

Simple

[stinkydog]

Show them how to write a BitTorrent client in LOGO. All the kids are doing it.

SD

That's scary sounding.

[Anonymous Coward]

What would be the best way to illustrate what a software engineer does to a group of primary school kids?

It depends on the programmer. I wouldn't do anything to them at all.

Question.

[gerardlt]

What would be the best way to illustrate what a software engineer does to a group of primary school kids?

What do software engineers do to primary schools kids?

There was a dilbert about this

[acomj]

Dilbert in front of a class:

"I work in a cube, its kinda like a bathroom stall but the walls are lower"

"I spend most of my days worring about the electronic fields from my monitor are killing me"

by the end all the children are in tears..

I like this approach. We have enough competetion, the fewer of us there are the more they'll have to pay us.

The best way to illustrate...

[MondoMor]

What would be the best way to illustrate what a software engineer does to a group of primary school kids?

To illustrate, I'd draw a picture of an overweight, pale man with bad facial hair. Next to that, I draw several hundred children with looks of repulsion and disgust, then one kid with glasses with a longing, wistful look on his face.

Then I'd color it with bright primary colors and cel-shade it because cel-shading is fucking RAD.

Unrealistic

[Col. Bloodnok]

Or turn up in a sports car with a leggy blonde on your arm.

(You may need to rent these items...)

My invaluable contribution

[Nine Tenths of The W]

." What would be the best way to illustrate what a software engineer does to a group of primary school kids?

Pick a random Indian kid and put him in charge of the stall halfway through.

Make it applicable to their life NOW

[Coderifous]

Explain to them that the entire world is run by computers, and by doing things in the computer, you can affect the "real world". Then hack the school lunch network while they watch and transfer everybodies lunch money into your kids account. "And now you all have to ask Tommy for lunch, because Tommy knows computers, and you don't!" Not a direct endorsement for software design, but it'll get them to see nerds in a whole new way. Oh, then teach your kid how to fight.

Fireman!

[yotto]

If you want to get the kids interested in your job, pretend to be a fireman.

Sick bastard

[bungley]

They're only young, at least give them a chance to have a life when they grow up. In fact, it's probably your moral obligation to scare them off software engineering -- I wish someone did it to me.

Re:Realistic?

[Anonymous Coward]

For the sake of your children in school don't go

Now, now ...

[ggvaidya]

They won't *all* end up EA employees ...

Re:Realistic?

[sgant]

Also, don't bathe for a few days beforehand, make sure your hair is as messy as possible.

Don't sleep for 2 days beforehand either.

Oh, and at every opportunity keep asking to borrow a few bucks from each of the kids.

When a parent or school official comes by make sure you start shuffling papers and typing on a keyboard to show that "I'm doing something". Then when they walk away just mumble under your breath "damn Suits".

In fact, mumble under your breath quite a bit, and don't forget your red Swingline stapler...because they switched from the Swingline to the Boston stapler, but I kept my Swingline stapler because it didn't bind up as much, and I kept the staples for the Swingline stapler and it's not okay because if they take my stapler then I'll set the building on fire...

Make the math fun and interesting

[ddewey]

Although the code is reasonably simple, it is very mathematical, and that is not something modern children can understand.

Modern children can understand math quite well, they just need to be shown how fun and interesting it can be. I think this could be a great opportunity to do just that. Generate a fractal such as the Mandelbrot Set [ddewey.net] where a very simple mathematical formula produces beautiful images. Kids could experiment with zooming in to find interesting regions of the set. More advanced kids could try changing the formula slightly to produce new interesting fractals (for example, z=z^3+c instead of z=z^2+c).

To make the code simpler and more clear to beginners you would probably want to use a programming language that supports complex variables and has simple graphing commands.