Chebucto Regional Softball Club

@Phosphenes @Zumbador

Computers give the impression of working with the analog, so much of the way we work with them obscures their fundamentally discrete nature.

But under the hood? that's still how it works.

@Phosphenes @Zumbador

Also, there is a big gap between being aware that "computers use a language of 1s and 0s" and really understanding how that is built in to the way these machines work. Everything must be encoded and decoded. So, I think this concept of encoding and representation is very important.

Not so that you can read binary, but rather so you have a clear sense of what it means to use layers of algorithms to take something like an image and make it into binary.

@Phosphenes @Zumbador

It has never fallen out of favor with those of us in math who want young people to have a good foundation in discrete mathematics?

I have a worksheet where you add, subtract, multiply and divide words in HEX and fifth graders find this VERY amusing.

Things like D6FD-CAFE=BFF

(If you know of any good hex math problems like this please share as I collect them. )

@spacehobo @hakona @MCDuncanLab

Yes. Red meat is generally more expensive than chicken. Fish is complex, some fish is fancy some isn't.

But as Speed demon says the prices generally reflect these differences.

We then work on short conversion programs in python. If anything they come out of it with a better understanding of multiple number bases... but I think we could also learn some things about sorting with some adaptation.

I'm really excited about how well one of my new lesson ideas for fifth grade CS is working out.

I teach them to count in binary early in the class which they LOVE. In the new lesson I have seven sets of cards with numbers and symbols on them from:

binary
hexadecimal
base 3
base 3 but with different symbols
base 5 but with different symbols
cuneiform
decimal

Each set of cards contains numbers from 1 to 150. Students put them in order and match symbols of the same value.

It's chaos.

@Virginicus @graydon

Design an algorithm, implement the algorithm. Use logical operators correctly, subtize and abstract a problem into variables, objects, functions, and understand both the potential and limitations of your abstraction.

Those are the big ideas I'm trying to teach.

I also have come to like the "soft typing" of python. Variable types are important, but some of the time it makes doing simple tasks so cluttered the main idea can get lost.

@Virginicus @graydon

Because of the language changing?
As a teacher, I spend most of my time working with the basics of the language. So, I think I'm less aware of the changes which seem to have more impacts on the wider family of libraries.

I like python because it has all of the major elements of a proper modern programming language and the code looks uncluttered and human readable. It looks like pseudo code, and, in a way, I really want to teach in pseudo code.

@LilahTovMoon

Wow. You just did this didn't you?

girl

@llewelly

Early 2000s is when I started hearing the big hype.

"you just need to accept this is going to happen"

And I totally thought they were right. Even when it took a bit longer. Even through the early tesla days.

But what was the magic bullet? It was superior safety when compared with human drivers. That was the big promise. And somehow "as good as humans" is the new bar.

@kim_harding

The whole thing about driving being so much safer was really exciting to me and I wanted to believe it so badly.

Cars remain the primary cause of accidental deaths. And instead we are being told that since the self driving cars kill about the same number of people (maybe more, maybe in new and unexpected ways...) that ought to be good enough for the "other benefits"

But my brother in christ it was the promise of safer cars that got my attention in the first place.

@va2lam

Listen we could have self driving cars right now if people would just be a bit more reasonable about how they REACT to "acceptable loss."

(it's not "acceptable")

"They're going to make driving much safer. But it will also mean big change for a lot of industries, like trucking."
"I hadn't thought about it like that."
"This is all happening in the next five years."

I remember having this conversation at my graduation with total clarity. And back then I believed them. For years, when talking with urban planners about one topic or another I'd insist we think about the inevitability of self-driving cars. This was decades ago. Multiple decades.

@rapscalorie @GossiTheDog

It's overkill for what I use it for, which is just to know how it works. Just In Case.

@not2b

going on the "offended then gigging" roller coaster again

@karenattiah.bsky.social

I think it's seeking acceptance as much as bragging. Because they hear the cloud of criticism and wonder if it's OK. Or want to push back and make it OK.

"python is the JavaScript of programming languages"

* offended
* agreeing
* confused
* giggling(meanly)
* offended(again)
* confused (again)

@overholt

It sounds like there is a ring leader, or maybe a few who are modeling this way of "getting through class" I can't imagine students coming up with these bad ideas one after the next independently.

@Robmccallum

mmmm true to the book!