Introduction to Functional Programming | Start Creating With Code! (Ages 12-14)

Completed by 14 learners

Ages 9-14

Live Group Class

In two hours, students will learn the basics of Elm programming to create their own masterpiece. Grouping simple shapes and applying transformations will develop their algebraic thinking, laying the foundation for STEM educational pathways.

Fondation STaBL Foundation

Average rating:

4.9

Number of reviews:

(16 reviews)

Live video meetings

2x per week, 1 week

3-6 learners per class

60 min

About Learning Overview Teacher Reviews

What's included

2 live meetings

2 in-class hours

Class Experience

What will be taught? 
      Problem solving by decomposition. Elm graphics coding.

What topics will you cover?
      Basic shapes. Translation. Rotation. Scaling. Cartesian coordinates. Fractions. Negative numbers. Color theory. Grouping.
 
How is your class structured?
      We will cover new topics in the first 30 minutes, and children will use the rest of the class to perfect their creations.

How will you teach?
      The instructor introduces a topic as a how-to. For example, "This eye is in the middle of my face, how can we move it to the right?" Then, the children try to duplicate it and then make their own version.
 
How much will learners get to interact with you and each other?
      Children are encouraged to answer questions either out loud or by typing and to offer each other suggestions. 

Any required experience or knowledge learners need?
      They must know how to type, copy and paste.

Learning Goals

Children will learn that all the math they are learning in school has this cool application to computer graphics. They will be motivated to practice their estimation because everything must be created from basic shapes, and they will "draw" faster if they can guess proportions and directions better. Children will define their own variables, and since Elm is a functional language (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_programming), the meaning of a variable in Elm matches the meaning in high-school algebra. If your child continues to learn Elm, they will be getting a head start on what the world's leading universities teach their undergraduates.

Other Details

Parental Guidance

To access the Elm Coding Platform, please agree to the privacy policy at the bottom of this website: https://stablfoundation.org/privacy.html, and follow the pop-up link. Each child will need an account to access the Elm Coding Platform. The username and password will be provided once you purchase this class.

External Resources

In addition to the Outschool classroom, this class uses:

Elm Coding Platform

Sources

Example code: http://www.cas.mcmaster.ca/~anand/CoolDemos/ Shape creator: http://www.cas.mcmaster.ca/~anand/ShapeCreate2.html Colour Visualizer: https://macoutreach.rocks/rgbflashlight/

Offered by

Fondation STaBL Foundation

Joined April, 2022

4.9

16reviews

Profile

Teacher expertise and credentials

Our coding curriculum, designed at McMaster University and tested in hundreds of schools, is designed to  
  (1) introduce Algebraic Thinking so children are primed to succeed in high school algebra, 
  (2) build problem-solving, team-working skills and self-confidence, and 
  (3) be fun!  
We can do all these things by starting to draw with 2D shapes in the first minute, building on the knowledge they already have about shapes, colours, transformations and symmetry, and teaching them that coordinates are easy to learn and a really fun way to create animations.  

Founded by Professor Christopher Anand and members of McMaster Start Coding (https://outreach.mcmaster.ca), our non-profit is the first step in our journey to teach the next billion coders!  We use our own open-source graphics library in the Elm programming language modelled on algebraic notation. This will prepare children for the leap to high school algebra–the gateway to careers in STEM.