How Do You Explain Software Development To 2nd Graders? 430
First time accepted submitter zimania writes "At the start of every school year, my kids' teachers invariably ask if any parents have any special skills they can present to the students. As a software engineer, I'd like to give a presentation to the classes about developing software. The tricky part is making a presentation fun, inspirational, and easy enough for 2nd and 4th graders to grasp. Has anybody been brave enough to attempted such a thing? Are there kid-tested prepackaged presentations freely available? Would it be best to present the development of a simple game? Web page? Any advice is welcome."
Use abstract language (Score:5, Funny)
Use abstract language and flow charts to explain, for instance here is pseudocode for a function called doSoftwareEngineering:
function softwareEngineering outputs betterBonusForBoss and meagerSalary
do until tooOldToEmploy
change jobs
do until bossFiresYouForBonus
do TPSRepeatsReportsUntilYouWantToCry
repeat
repeat
repeat
gosub without return
Re:Build a game in front of them (Score:3, Funny)
First you tell them (Score:1, Funny)
Get a good lawyer...
Software Engineering in a Nutshell (Score:3, Funny)
Most of your days will be spent:
a) in "requirements" meetings: Where people who have no idea what they want hope for some reason that you do.
b) in "testing" meetings: where those same people get pissed that you didn't do what they didn't say.
c) in "bug report" meetings: where people can't fathom that in a hundred thousand lines of hastily written code (because we had a due date, and had too many testing meetings to actually test anything), there could be a mistake somewhere.
d) "developing": where you write some shitty business software that most people are forced to use during jobs that they also hate. Meaning no one will ever be happy with the work you're doing.
e) looking for a new job: And not being able to find something interesting because your experience is in fucking business software, because it was the only decent paying job available when you were first out of college and didn't know any better. And everyone that's going to pay you decently wants experience in whatever they hell their doing, not business software. Even though you have a god damn master's degree in CS, not "business software".
f) Oh god please make the hurting stop.
g) Drinking, and trying to avoid people who want to talk about work.
Feel free to pass this out as a pamphlet to the kids.
Heh, you remind me that joke... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Easy! (Score:3, Funny)
I hate it when I end up with bugs in my PB&J
Yep, he asked about software development (Score:5, Funny)
Yep, that's the trick part, way I see it. He asked about software development, not programming. Programming what you want, especially in a game, is fun. Software development, on the other hand has lower average job satisfaction than being a garbage man, according to a survey from a couple of years ago.
Mind you, it might still be able to explain it via an exercise, but I don't think anyone has the heart to do that to some innocent little kids. I mean, it would probably go like this:
"Hi, kids, my name is Moraelin and I'm here to show you how software development goes. I must thank Mrs Crabapple for letting us come to the park for this exercise. We'll be making this a role-playing exercise, so it's easy to understand. I brought a few friends to help with some key roles. Say hi to Tom, Dick, Harry, Jack and Jill.
"Now the first thing to remember is that we're not in this for the fun. You'll get a grade for this, so try to do your best.
"The most important skill in my profession is to sit in meetings and look interested. It may not be the greatest percentage of the day, unless you really draw the short straw, but you'd be surprised how much more important making a good impression to the boss is than actual work...
"You over there? Yes, you in the blue sweater. What's your name? Well, Billy, you get a minus one point on the grade for fidgeting instead of paying attention. Yes, I know it's boring, but that's the whole point I'm trying to convey. Let this be your first lesson in real world employment.
"Well, anyway, for the purpose of this exercise, you'll be divided into teams and have to draw something on the pavement with chalk. As a team. Remember, what matters is the whole result, not just your own personal performance.
"Now to make things more educational, I brought a second class to pad the teams with. The assignments will be big enough to include them, but they've all been assigned some secret roles to play. Most... let's just say it sounds like 'mazy loron', but occasionally you'll get the guy who just tells you how to do your job instead of his own doing his, the guy who keeps adding pointless "THIS IS A FLOWER" comments to your work instead of doing his own part, the guy who keeps trying to tell you about his vacation instead of letting you work, and so on. Some may even be naturally inclined to go beyond even the assigned role in their being useless and counter-productive.
"I probably don't need to tell you that you're not supposed to beat them up even if they 'accidentally' erase your part of the work. In fact, you're not even allowed to complain about them. Doing so will get you a bad grade for being a bad team member.
"You have a question? Oh, WHAT you'll have to draw? I don't know myself either. Tom and Dick will role-play the customer. You'll have to make them tell you what they want drawn.
"Now they'll be as vague and occasionally wrong as humanly possible, and occasionally obnoxious, but you must extract exact information from them. You don't get points by just doing close enough. If they say they want a flower, you must get out of them exactly what flower and what colour. If they say they want a boat, you must find out exactly what kind of boat. And if they say they want a cow, well, better make sure they don't ACTUALLY mean the kind that meows and catches mice.
"They'll also change their mind or demand changes at random times, and at the end will blame you for not guessing they actually wanted something different. You'll also have to change it to that, and repeat about a dozen times.
"Harry will play the Pointy Haired Boss in his exercise. He'll give you extra directives, like only using blue and yellow chalk because of trying to consolidate into fewer technologies, or drawing with the chalk on paper because he read that that's the latest buzzword. For your grade, you'll have to figure out a way to satisfy both him and your customer. If you end up trying to mix
Re:Easy! (Score:3, Funny)
Me, I'm not bitter or anything