Comments on: Teaching kids how to create a drum machine with Python http://zovirl.com/2009/07/23/teaching-kids-how-to-create-a-drum-machine-with-python/ Mark Ivey's Blog Fri, 9 Jul 2010 14:24:47 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Boss TU http://zovirl.com/2009/07/23/teaching-kids-how-to-create-a-drum-machine-with-python/comment-page-1/#comment-31562 Boss TU Tue, 23 Mar 2010 15:59:12 +0000 http://zovirl.com/?p=388#comment-31562 Hey Mark - pretty inspirational stuff you have documented here. You mention you would do it again...I note the lessons collectively were 10 hours across the term and it does sound as though there was some serious preparation taking place getting yourself ship shape for the classes, thats alot of resource your giving over. I guess I can draw from your article that the rewards far outweigh the time sacrifice, we have such teaching programs in the UK which are currently being run and heavily advertised locally and regionally including TV which is starting to have an effect on me. I think I will follow your lead...thanks for the push! Hey Mark – pretty inspirational stuff you have documented here. You mention you would do it again…I note the lessons collectively were 10 hours across the term and it does sound as though there was some serious preparation taking place getting yourself ship shape for the classes, thats alot of resource your giving over. I guess I can draw from your article that the rewards far outweigh the time sacrifice, we have such teaching programs in the UK which are currently being run and heavily advertised locally and regionally including TV which is starting to have an effect on me. I think I will follow your lead…thanks for the push!

]]> By: Mark http://zovirl.com/2009/07/23/teaching-kids-how-to-create-a-drum-machine-with-python/comment-page-1/#comment-22494 Mark Fri, 14 Aug 2009 04:42:48 +0000 http://zovirl.com/?p=388#comment-22494 Right, I probably should have linked to the code. It is hosted on Google Code: http://code.google.com/p/sillydrum/. The code is pretty raw right now. I might write a more in-depth post about the code itself, but for now the svn repository is all there is. There are also copies of the lesson plans in the source tree. Splitting up the lessons was pretty easy: at the start of the semester I made a quick roadmap of how far we would have to get each week to finish 1 week early. Then I just tried to stick to that when preparing each week's lesson. I could adjust how much code the kids had to write by given more or less powerful libraries functions for them to use. I used pyglet instead of pygame. One of the pyglet example programs is actually what gave me the idea of making a drum machine: there's a sample that shows how to make a sound play when the user presses a key on the keyboard. After playing rock band one night, it occured to me that it wouldn't be that hard to code something similar using pygame. These kids were mostly 8th graders (13-14 years old?) and they weren't really interested in math. My guess is that they were struggling with the simpler programming concepts (conditionals, event-driven programming, etc.) so they weren't quite ready to worry about the math. Fortunately, there isn't much math involved in a drum machine. I wish I had some experience with other age groups to know how it compares. Right, I probably should have linked to the code. It is hosted on Google Code: http://code.google.com/p/sillydrum/. The code is pretty raw right now. I might write a more in-depth post about the code itself, but for now the svn repository is all there is.

There are also copies of the lesson plans in the source tree. Splitting up the lessons was pretty easy: at the start of the semester I made a quick roadmap of how far we would have to get each week to finish 1 week early. Then I just tried to stick to that when preparing each week’s lesson. I could adjust how much code the kids had to write by given more or less powerful libraries functions for them to use.

I used pyglet instead of pygame. One of the pyglet example programs is actually what gave me the idea of making a drum machine: there’s a sample that shows how to make a sound play when the user presses a key on the keyboard. After playing rock band one night, it occured to me that it wouldn’t be that hard to code something similar using pygame.

These kids were mostly 8th graders (13-14 years old?) and they weren’t really interested in math. My guess is that they were struggling with the simpler programming concepts (conditionals, event-driven programming, etc.) so they weren’t quite ready to worry about the math. Fortunately, there isn’t much math involved in a drum machine. I wish I had some experience with other age groups to know how it compares.

]]> By: James http://zovirl.com/2009/07/23/teaching-kids-how-to-create-a-drum-machine-with-python/comment-page-1/#comment-21986 James Mon, 03 Aug 2009 00:52:12 +0000 http://zovirl.com/?p=388#comment-21986 Would love to see the source code published for this. Would love to see the source code published for this.

]]> By: Andy Harris http://zovirl.com/2009/07/23/teaching-kids-how-to-create-a-drum-machine-with-python/comment-page-1/#comment-21947 Andy Harris Sun, 02 Aug 2009 02:53:02 +0000 http://zovirl.com/?p=388#comment-21947 Great article. I had a similar experience. I taught a game programming class to a high school group for one hour a week for a semester. I used Python and pygame. There was not a book I liked on the topic, so I wrote "Game Programming - the L Line" - published by Wiley Press. Let me know if you're interested in using it. You can see the course (and my online videos for it) on my main web site: http://www.aharrisbooks.net I'm sure you discovered (as I did) that kids who wouldn't be caught dead learning math were asking for math and physics formulas... -Andy Great article. I had a similar experience. I taught a game programming class to a high school group for one hour a week for a semester. I used Python and pygame.

There was not a book I liked on the topic, so I wrote “Game Programming – the L Line” – published by Wiley Press. Let me know if you’re interested in using it. You can see the course (and my online videos for it) on my main web site: http://www.aharrisbooks.net

I’m sure you discovered (as I did) that kids who wouldn’t be caught dead learning math were asking for math and physics formulas…

-Andy

]]> By: Andrew http://zovirl.com/2009/07/23/teaching-kids-how-to-create-a-drum-machine-with-python/comment-page-1/#comment-21942 Andrew Sat, 01 Aug 2009 20:14:00 +0000 http://zovirl.com/?p=388#comment-21942 Not that i wish to diminish what this post talks about in anyway what you have done is great and i only wish i had engaging lessons like that at school, but would you not agree that using coding skills in open source projects is also another way that our skills can be used to teach and help younger programmers. Not that i wish to diminish what this post talks about in anyway what you have done is great and i only wish i had engaging lessons like that at school, but would you not agree that using coding skills in open source projects is also another way that our skills can be used to teach and help younger programmers.

]]> By: Jay S http://zovirl.com/2009/07/23/teaching-kids-how-to-create-a-drum-machine-with-python/comment-page-1/#comment-21940 Jay S Sat, 01 Aug 2009 18:25:21 +0000 http://zovirl.com/?p=388#comment-21940 Also, I guess you used pygame? Also, I guess you used pygame?

]]> By: Jay S http://zovirl.com/2009/07/23/teaching-kids-how-to-create-a-drum-machine-with-python/comment-page-1/#comment-21939 Jay S Sat, 01 Aug 2009 18:19:11 +0000 http://zovirl.com/?p=388#comment-21939 Neat. Can you share the code for the final program, and possibly discuss how you broke it out into separate sessions over the weeks? Thanks! Neat. Can you share the code for the final program, and possibly discuss how you broke it out into separate sessions over the weeks? Thanks!

]]> By: arun kamath http://zovirl.com/2009/07/23/teaching-kids-how-to-create-a-drum-machine-with-python/comment-page-1/#comment-21934 arun kamath Sat, 01 Aug 2009 15:08:48 +0000 http://zovirl.com/?p=388#comment-21934 Care to share the code? Care to share the code?

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