I'm not sure if this will work but since I have used MANY child-oriented coding tools (eg code.org,lightbot,scratch ,logo etc...) I'm beggining to think that Sir Clive Sinclair Basic with his Spectrum is still a viable option.
The idea is to give very small programs to the kids with a noticeable result and then explain them and let them modify the code.
Some examples of what I'm trying to do:
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10 PAPER RND*7: CLS: GOTO 10Code: Select all
10 PRINT "Hello"
20 INPUT "Give me X=";x
30 INPUT "Give me y=";y
40 PRINT "Result x*y=";x*y
50 REM PRINT "Thank you - Lets play again ":PAUSE 0: GO TO 10Code: Select all
10 PRINT "NUMBER","BIGGEST SO FAR"
20 INPUT A
30 LET BIGGEST=A
40 PRINT A,BIGGEST
50 INPUT A
60 IF BIGGEST<A THEN LET BIGGEST=A
70 GOTO 40Code: Select all
10 print "sheep counter"
20 FOR M=1 TO 10
30 PRINT M;" Sheep(s)"
40 NEXT M
50 PRINT "Did you fall asleep?"And some that I consider to be a difficult one for that age group :
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10 PRINT "NESTED LOOP"
15 FOR M=0 TO 6
20 FOR N=0 TO M
30 PRINT M;":";N;" ";
40 NEXT N
50 PRINT
60 NEXT MCode: Select all
5 print "SORT"
10 INPUT "Text 1 :";A$
20 iNPUT "Text 2 :";B$
30 IF A$<=B$ THEN GO TO 70
40 LET C$=A$
50 LET A$=B$
60 LET B$=C$
70 PRINT A$;" ";("<" AND A$<B$)+("=" AND A$=B$);" ";B$
80 GO TO 10
And the almost winning entry of CSSCGC 2008 rip-off
:
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10 CLS
15 RANDOMIZE
50 PAPER 4 :INVERSE 1: PRINT "'Mess Screen Simulator' ": INVERSE 0
85 PRINT "(Press any key).": INK 0: PAPER 7 : PAUSE 0
90 CLS
100 LET c$="*"
110 PAPER 3 : PRINT AT 0,0;"Lets start with:* ": PAPER 7: PAUSE 30
120 LET x=12 : LET y=12
1200 PRINT AT x,y;c$
2250 LET x=1+INT (RND*20) : LET y=INT (RND*31)
2300 PAPER 4: PRINT AT 0,0;"Now using : ";c$;" ": PAPER 7: PAUSE 50
2500 IF INKEY$<>"" THEN LET c$=INKEY$
4500 GO TO 1200I don't think more complex program would be suitable.
Any simple program ideas are welcome.
I'm not sure that something will actually come out of this but I could spend 2-3 lessons to try it.
Thanks
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