How Do You Explain Software Development To 2nd Graders?

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."

Easy!

[TheCouchPotatoFamine]

Have them stand together and execute a "program" as if each of them are "utilities". Something like getting an apple onto the teachers table, but each person does one thing and one thing alone. Then let them have fun seeing what they can figure out to do - so long as they still only do that one thing. This isn't about "code" it's about a way of thinking!

Scratch?

[Max Romantschuk]

A projector, and Scratch?
http://scratch.mit.edu/ [mit.edu]

Mindstorms could also make sense?

To explain a programming I would demostrate how changes to a simple piece of code changes something that you can see, like an animation (scratch) or a robot's behavior (mindstorms).

Get them involved!

[matt-fu]

Whatever you do, print out some copies of "Snake Wrangling for Kids" to hand out while you're there. It was written for kids who are eight years or older, but chances are there are at least a couple of kids in there who would get it if they looked it over. I gave a copy to my daughter when she was seven and she thought it was pretty fun. Even if nobody has access to some kind of Python install, it may plant seeds for later.

http://www.briggs.net.nz/log/writing/snake-wrangling-for-kids/ [briggs.net.nz]

Re:Easy!

[sconeu]

I did this with my daughter's 3rd grade class, only I showed them how a computer counts to 5.

Someone was the CPU, someone was the display, someone was memory, etc...

Re:Scratch

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know why no-one suggests Inform 7 in these cases. http://inform7.com/

I mean, it's not the simplest programming language, but it's fairly intuitive. I really think it could make it easier to learn programming.