Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Engineerin or Computer Science games or activities

When I asked my 10 year old son what he wanted for his upcoming birthday, he said that he would like something to do with engineering or computer science. Does anyone have any suggestions for games or activities that would be fun for him?

Thanks!

He could actually learn some computer science. He could begin by learning some computer programming skills. Robotics and electronics in general are some other options. There are some beginning electronics sets that might interest him. Arduino seems to be growing in popularity. What has he learned and done so far?

The trouble with computer science for a present is that most of the best resources are free - but you might get away with not telling him that :-) Does he already do Scratch programming? If not, that's where I'd start for computer science. (http://scratch.mit.edu )

Things my son really liked at 10:

Scratch http://scratch.mit.edu/

Minecraft https://minecraft.net/ (if he has XBox and an XBox live account, he can work with his friends to create things together)

Other ideas:
Remote control kits for planes, cars, etc. The planes were the real hit, especially the ones they had to build and wire
Lego robot or other robot kit
Home weather station

My ds 8 is loving a game design course he is taking on-line at youthdigital.com. It is not free. I got a discount on it through the homeschool buyer's co-op, but you can purchase on their website. It is really great.

Thanks for the great ideas. He doesn't have any CS experience and I didn't know what was out there that would appeal to kids but I wanted to find something fun to get him started.

He's probably a bit beyond these, but the Snap Circuits are pretty cool. You can buy them on Amazon and there are lots of different sets.

If that's way too simple, consider looking into buying him an Arduino board - http://www.mouser.com/arduino http://www.arduino.cc/ They are tiny little microcontroller boards that he can do just about anything he can think of with. Just go on youtube and search arduino, you'll find a ton of amazing stuff.

I haven't used it, but apparently the SC-750R set includes an electronics curriculum.

If you have money to spend then lego mindstorms is both engineering and computer science.

Do you live close to any colleges, they might have some computer programming classes that meet on the weekends, or over the winter break, and summer classes. The classes might be offered directly thru the computer science, or computer design departments instead of thru a formal program such as CYT. Not only are these classes substantially less expensive, the content is taught by students/professors from the department. Your DS can meet other students/teachers with his interests.

A few more ideas:

Java, with a free IDE such as Eclipse
scripting languages such as Javascript or Python
other children's programming environments (Karel springs to mind, though maybe a bit old)
children's books for languages and resources mentioned in this thread (they are out there)
Khan Academy

IIRC one can also program Mindstorms in different languages including Java and C/C++. The built-in drag and drop programming environment is somewhat similar to Scratch, and I think both of them would be a little basic for an advanced ten-year-old, though there's certainly no harm in trying them.

My ds loved Legos Mindstorms when he was that age - and many schools have teams for the Lego First League (sorry I can't remember the exact name!). If you could find him a team to join he might like that - although I will warn you, the league includes a component of research and presentation on a topic that's not entirely robotics-related, and most of the kids we coached in our group didn't really get into that, they were just interested in the robotics. BUT fwiw, there are a lot of kids who love it, and there are a lot of teams all across the US, and sometimes the teams are one of those places where you'll find a lot of GT kids.

My ds also really loved building things with his dad... who's an engineer. I have no idea how you could replicate that *but* if you no anyone who's an engineer maybe they would have ideas for you and might volunteer to mentor him on a project?

Model remote control airplanes (the types that you build from scratch and they actually fly) were also really interesting to my ds at 10. If you're not into it, there might be a club that you could find through a local hobby store where you'd find someone who could help him if he needed any kind of mentor for it.

My ds has also enjoyed programming - he learned SCRATCH and something else at his school, and did an individual JAVA course at home. He seemed to enjoy the classes at school where he had a live instructor more than the online computer courses, and I'm not sure why (or if it would matter to any other kid on the planet lol). He's a-ok with online work in general - he worked through ALEKS on his own for years and now has been taking CTY courses online and enjoying them, just didn't like the computer course he took (I can't remember what it was through).

Another idea is to check with your local universities and see if they offer any kind of science/engineering programs for young students.

polarbear

Or Octave, which is like a free, stripped down version of matlab.

Looks cool!

I found this Slashdot thread fun to read. I wholeheartedly agree that any flavor of Basic should be avoided as a first language, though Visual Basic.NET is far less offensive than previous versions. And I second the advice to learn assembly language fairly early on.

Polarbear outstrips me. Lego mindstorm looks great for your request .... I will just add that it is definitely not free. I would own one if it were not that expensive ... but it probably deserves it. And I guess it might require some help at least at the beginning even for a gifted child.