31st JULY - 4th AUGUST 2015

Pullman Brisbane - King George Square

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Trials & tribulations teaching Python at CoderDojo

This talk will relate the experience of teaching coding, including Python, to a (nominally) 6-18 age group at a local Brisbane CoderDojo for 2015 Term 1 and 2.

Scratch and Alice have become very popular for teaching beginner coding at CoderDojo events. Languages such as Python, and even HTML/CSS, are more difficult to introduce, partly because more skills are required before something "useful" can be created, and partly because the "building blocks" are usually not presented with the same visual immediacy as Scratch, and similar environments. This talk presents some of the difficulties found in transitioning from graphical environments to Python, and observations in using existing tools for learning Python with younger students.

Caleb Hattingh

Caleb has worked professionally both as a software developer and as a chemical engineer, and has been using Python for about 14 years. Currently he is using a fully-Python stack for transient, chemical-reactor modelling in the area of coal-gasification, and data analysis and visualisation.