What are some exciting, fun, and educational Computer Science activities for students?

Question

I am a volunteer for Let's Talk Science, an organization which places science graduate students into elementary school and high school classrooms to present short, fun, yet educational demonstrations or experiments related to their particular field. Physics, Chemistry, and Biology have an abundance of such demonstrations, however as a computer scientist, I have no good ideas of what I can present to these students which will demonstrate computer programming and computers in an understandable yet inspiring way in only a 1 - 3 hour presentation. So I am turning to SO for suggestions. Thanks.

Presentation Requirements

• Length: 1 - 3 hours.
• Explainable in a single sitting.
• Captivates elementary school and high school audiences.
• Educational.

Please Note

• Computer's are available at the schools.
• Please, indicate the suitable age range for your suggestion in your answer.

Answer 1

When it comes to 10-18 years old males you can't go wrong with video games. Design a couple of small games that demonstrate common problems computer science tries to solve.

Hello Worlds may be the starting point for most CS students but it will hardly impress a 12 year old.

Answer 2

Well, if you really want to get kids attention you can always revolve your presentation around video games. Physics especially would benefit from the video game context as almost all games these days incorporate some kind of physics.

From my school experience a lot of kids end up going into computer science with the intention of making cool video games when they come out. Explaining to them that video games do require math and science would sort of "open their eyes" to why these subjects would benefit them in a video game development career.

Just my 2 cents.

Answer 3

When I was in college we used Lego Mindstorms kits for our Robotics class.

I don't know what your budget is (if any), or amount of prep you want to do beforehand, but we would create simple tictactoe bots etc. and demonstrate them for the local elementary schools when we were done.

There is a visual language that ships with the kits that I think is pretty intriguing as a learning device for kids.

Answer 4

Maybe, have some pre-written code, and put it together to make a game!? show how each piece of code works each part of the game, then maybe describe a function or the overall game loop? prolly grades 7-12

For young kids, make everything u use colorful, and maybe don't use the computer alone. use some hand puppets, and explain how you "talk to the computer" using code. have some prewritten code as well so when u run it, it "makes something happen"

Answer 5

There are a couple of things you could do:

1. Simulation - create an immersive 3D environment that is navigable
2. Artificial intelligence - create some simple neural network that learns to add
3. Graphics - visualization of mathematical functions, like fractals

Answer 6

Explain Computer Graphics.

Starting from some basics - what's a polygon, what's a vertex, what's a triangle mesh
Moving to how one simulates lighting in various degrees of realism, shadows
Show some programs like Maya, Lightwave, 3ds-max and explain that real animators that work om movies like "Shrek" use these tools. Do a 5 minute tutorial with an easy tool to show what it looks like.
Finally, explain what a demo is, what types of demos there are, what are the technical challenges and why people do it. show a fully blown demo from one of the recent demo parties. you can find most of them at scene.org. Some of them can really blow your mind.

Answer 7

Try going from abstract to reality, teenagers think of science as some sort of abstract elite course that only geeks take, you have to prove them wrong by implementing what's abstract to them into an understandable package. It has to be clear and appealing to the teenager mind.

Take any field, think of a really abstract theory that bugs teenagers and explain it to them the best way, it shouldn't sound right to you, it has to be crystal clear for a 10-18 year old.

Answer 8

One of the best resources I have seen for teaching computer science to primary-grade children is Computer Science Unplugged, a web site of activities that teach fundamental concepts like algorithms, number systems, data compression, and such using games and activities.

By "games" I do not mean computer games, but hands-on activities with ropes, cards, and group participation. The activities are fun and understandable without access to computers at all.

Answer 9

The Marshmallow Challenge could work though it isn't purely a CS activity. There was a TED Talk about it if you want some more background about it. I'd think it is worth trying and see what happens. Maybe one could make a virtual version somehow?