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programmingHS 2012
Shodor > SUCCEED > Workshops > Archive > programmingHS 2012

The first day of the programming workshop proved to be a challenge for many of the students, as they had not worked at length with programming before. However, Doug and Aaron were eager to help them dive headfirst into the world of computer programming. Today, Doug explained the concept of programming as if it were a recipe. It's a form of instruction and problem solving used to solve things not significantly different from other ordinary problems, only using computers in a language that they understand. Doug introduced the students to w3schools, a great resource tool for JavaScript as well as HTML. He had them do an activity involving playing around with JavaScript, a standard programming language, on the w3 site. They experimented with different equations and how they were represented in JavaScript.

Later, Doug asked the students to do a math quiz based off of what they had learned with JavaScript syntax. He explained how JavaScript is related to other languages and programs using inforapid; a website that displays how whatever is searched is related to other things in a spider web like diagram. Next, Aaron gave a visual demonstration of object orientated vs. procedural languages. This demonstration let the students see that there are "ups and downs" to each method. Some programmers prefer certain languages or methods, not everyone writes code in the same manner, and this concept really helped the students break the surface to see a glimpse of the bigger world of programming.