The continuing adventures of Kano Boy!

As you may be following, my 10 year old son Tuvia is taking a week-long summer camp called "Programming with Kano" from the Star Education group here in Los Angeles (http://www.starinc.org).  I asked Tuvia if he would share his experiences with my blog readers and he was all for it!

So here is how it works... I ask Tuvia questions (some from you...) and he answers them.  Ready?  Here we go!!

Tell me what your impression was as you came to the camp?

Tuvia: It was a tall building, 4 floors and Ima (mother in Hebrew) and I went up to the second floor.  We went to a balcony where waited for camp to begin.

Were you excited?

T: YES!

How many kids were there?

T: about 30.  Some were younger and a few older.  We broke into three groups grades 2 and under, grade 3 and 4 and grades 5 and up.  I was in the last group.  Most of them are older than me though.

Did they all know programming already?

T: No, there were only a couple of us that had programmed before. I was pretty advanced and there was one other kid more advanced than me.

What was your schedule for the first day?

T: We broke into our three groups and my group went into the Scratch Programming class.  We used PC's and and those of us who knew how, started right away!

What did you do?

T: We made a game that has a dragon chasing a scratch kitty that was chasing cheese puffs.  By moving the cheese puffs, we could move the kitty so that it would not be caught by the dragon.

Sounds like fun.

T: It was!  I added a score counter!

How long was this class?

T: About 30 minutes

ONLY 30 MINUTES?

T: Ok, maybe longer... It's hard to tell time when you are having fun!!

So what was next

T: We had a break and then we played a game called Robot.

How did the game work?

There were three of us, a Robot, a Programmer and and Translator.  The programmer pointed to a paper with arrows on it and then the translator would tell the robot what to do.  Then we had Lunch.

No time with the Kano's yet?

T:NO!! I didn't want to keep waiting, but there was another group ahead of us... (at which point Tuvia sighs heavily!)

So when did you get to the Kano's?

T: Right after lunch.

Note:  At this point Tuvia just let loose with 10 year old excitement about what he did with "Kano Time."  I will just list it as the stream of consciousness that it was...

T: Very excited!!  I wanted to make a computer.. that's why I signed up.  each student got their own box.  Opened box - excited in ripping off the box - like my birthday.  Inside there was an orange box, and then another box and inside was the Kano set. The teacher told us what the parts were, but not what each one does...  plastic case.  Mother Board into case.  We then hooked up the speaker to the Mother Board.  put speaker on top of the case.  Plugged components... USB key for keyboard, plugged in flash memory, hooked up to monitor and put the charger into the charging station that gave it power. USB keyboard was plugged in...Booted for the first...exciting.  turned on Kano OS.... put in name, setup procedure... used it  play two games that came with computer.  Pong and snake....  then loaded scratch... and used it....  our group was the most advanced, so it was very easy for us. 

What was the most challenging thing about the day?

T: WAITING... to build the Kano!!

OK, after that...

T: Building the computer was the most challenging... I had to plug in the cords and some didn't work and the teacher came and helped.  I couldn't touch the circuit board as static electricity could have blown the Mother Board.

Wow, sounds like you had a great time!

T: Yes, I can hardly wait for tomorrow!!

And so there you have it... day one of The Adventures of Kano Boy!!  Oh yes, Tuvia started a journal... Here is a sketch he did of assembling the Kano!

More tomorrow!

Yossie

Yossie Frankel

I.T. Director - Shalhevet High School
Technology Specialist - CIJE

Checkout my blog @ technorebbe.blogspot.com
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