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Teaching Kids Programming
This area is for information on computer books and software to help children learn about computers, programming, and creating multimedia programs.
Programming for Kids
- Stagecast Creator lets kids, parents and teachers build
programs - everything from simulations to games to animated storybooks. The interface is very easy to use! They have downloadable demos at their site. (Win and Mac).
- Agent Sheets lets you build simulations and games and you can have it make versions that you can run on your web pages, too. (Mac only)
- Klik and Play - highly recommended to me by a parent whose child has built many programs with it, and says it runs on
a machine as slow as a 386. It is now available for FREE to schools at www.clickteam.com The fee for others to register is only $9. It has been replaced by The Games Factory - below. (PC - 386, Win 3.1 up)
- Adam Stamper (14) writes:
The Games Factory by Click Team (Hit multimedia) is a useful Windows (16 or 32 Bit)
tool for making graphical games, screensavers, and presentations. You mainly Drag & Drop
items onto the "Level Editor" screen, then assign them things to do in the "Event Editor", and arrange the order/atttributes of the levels in
"Storyboard Editor". Ages 10+ (Unless computer Whizz-Kid). Crashes less than Klik & Play, its predecessor.
- Softronics, Inc. has FREE MSW Logo for Windows, with Tutorial documents.
- Softronics, Inc. has a evaluation copy of MMLogic, a Multimedia Logic Design System (Win 95)
- Logomation is a beginning programming package that lets you program cool graphics. Free download to try it. Review and download for the Mac or PC.(Mac, Win 95/98/NT)
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L3 allows students to create rather sophisticated interactive multimedia animations, and to publish their
programs on the Internet. You can download a free trial version. (Win 95/98/NT)
- The MIT Media Laboratory FTP site has several different free logos, for the mac, pc, and unix.
- Visual MacStandardBasic is an easy to learn programming environment - and the standard version is only 29.95. You can also download a demo for a look at the program. (Mac)
- Don Sleeth has been teaching his daughter to program using MicroWorlds Project Builder, a commercial product for the PC and Mac. Check out the examples of how he and his 9 year old daughter began to program.
- And here's a link to LCSI, the makers of MicroWorlds, available for the PC and Mac.
- Terrapin Software offers Logo products for PC and Mac including stuff for Robotics, curriculum materials (with site licenses available) and a
selection of books.
- Ron Nicholson has FREE Chipmunk Basic, and pointers to other Basic programming pages. (Mac is complete - Windows is under development,)
- The Liberty Basic Homepage has a lot of Basic tips and information.
- HyperCard has been used successfully by students to make books, animations, small games, and the like. HyperCard Heaven has a lot of information, including where you can download the player if you don't have it. (Mac Only)
- How Can I Do That?is a HyperCard Stack that demonstrates neat animation tricks for beginners, designed by Diane Bunde and her son Granite to teach children at his school. (Mac)
- Conrad Weiler (conrad@outlawnet.com) recommends:
HyperGasp, a very useful Hypercard
stack creation helper that allows color, animation, sound, text,
etc. including creating WEB materials. Very useful helper for those who
don't have time to learn Hypercard scripting (Hypertext language). You can download HyperGasp Light for a free demo.
- Run Mac Programs on your PC using the ARDI Executor. Guy Louis says, "It's GREAT. It runs fast. HyperCard 2.2 runs on it. You
can download a full demo at the ARDI site."
- Run Mac Programs on your PC using Basilisk II for Windows.
- Paul Mace's Xpower is a set of
visual composition tools that let you do those things that are naturally
visual by pointing, clicking, dragging and drawing for picture, text or
window placement and animation path creation. An Editor and interactive
debugger are built around the 'G' language. 'G' is simple, English-like,
and free of inscrutable programming symbols and conventions. Add a few
commands, such as BUTTON, SHOW, FLY and COUNT to a presentation, and you
can be finishing interactive Windows applications. Demo available from the web site.
- GamesBasic is a game creation package available for free download. It is currently in beta test. Win 95/98.
Multimedia for Kids
- Storymaker+ VGA (PC) is a multimedia kit for creating
interactive storybooks with sound, music, and text-to-speech. Storybooks of up to 99 screen pages can
also be compiled into stand-alone, personalized programs for easy distribution among friends, family,
or for educational and commercial purposes. (PC)
- Storymaker+ EGA is the EGA version of the program above, for those with older EGA systems. (PC)
- PC WholeWare has Slim Show, a with a 5-star ZDNet rating. Create and play professional looking, interactive multimedia projects. System requirements: IBM
PC or compatible computer running Windows 3.1x or Windows 95. Sound card.
- HyperStudio is another neat multimedia program, and you can download the player and projects built by students, or order a free CD-ROM and check it out for yourself. You can also download a copy to enter their yearly contest! (Mac and Win)
Art for Your Projects
'Books' About Computers for Kids
- Bill Rubin rubin@ibm.net writes:
I've been looking around for a good book which my 9 year old
could use to learn about how computers work (on the inside,
she already knows how to use them) and I think I finally
found one at my school's Scholastic Book Fair last week!
It's called "Computers for Beginners" from Usborne Computer
Guides and the copy I have is a special Scholastic edition.
It's only 46 pages long, but it explains how various things
in a PC work, including ink jet, CD-ROM, monitors. [...]
The ISBN is 0-590-67311-4, although that is likely the
Scholastic edition which book stores can't get. The price on
this edition is $3.95. Oh, and the authors are Margaret Stephens and
Rebecca Treays. [Grace adds, "I have liked almost every Usborne book I've seen, they are excellent books for kids"]
- Gary Hunt recommended the above book, and added:
Usborne also sells the book "Computers" as part of their
Young Scientist Series, which is my favorite. It is filled
with great illustrations and explanations, along with
projects the children can do, such as building a paper
computer that uses Basic to generate 16,000 limericks and
creating a binary to decimal converter with your fingers.
It's terrific and my children agree.
- Frank Caggiano wrote:
One book I highly recommend you add to the books section is
"The Great Logo Adventure" by Jim Muller.
- Jacob Abrams (starfire@netwiz.net) wrote a document (mac only) about computer hardware. It was written to enable anyone who knows a little about
computers to be able to read it, and still appeal to those
whom are trying to learn more.
This document doesn't cover macintosh hardware only. It does have some misspellings in it, but it also is free. Many good illustrations along with the text. This seems good for older kids. (1897 k, download info-mac/info/how-computers-work.hqx)
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