Why teach your child to program? Especially if your future ballerina or football player is growing up? The answer is simple: in order to teach you to think logically and plan your actions. Parents boast that modern children are able to turn on tablets and computers almost from the cradle. An interest in technology and a desire for fun can be combined with learning and development by offering your child games that teach how to compose algorithms and even write code.
What do you think, at what age should you start learning programming? The creators of Kodable claim that their game is available to two-year-olds. You can learn the code before learning the letters. Even kids can really drive funny faces through the labyrinths, and at the same time master the drawing up of programs, indicating the sequence of actions. Hints and recommendations are made using graphics, so that the child does not have to read anything.
The website Code.org, created by the non-profit organization, the international movement "Hour of Programming", has collected several educational courses for children and adults. The age to start at is four years. There is no one game that will teach everything at once, but there is a step-by-step game training with characters from various cartoons. Moving from level to level, you can learn and create your own short programs.
In a game available on a smartphone or tablet, a small robot, obeying commands, must light bulbs in the right places. The main task that the child will face in this case is to design the path of the toy using simple commands. The parent's task is to explain to the kids what the pictures mean.
It is not a fact that a child playing Lightbot will grow up to be a brilliant developer, but he will definitely learn how to plan actions and draw up the simplest algorithms. This application can also be recommended as one of the starting ones, even for preschoolers 4-6 years old. The developers also offer a more complex version, which is suitable for children over nine years old.
Parents, by the way, can also gladly take the time to draw up routes. The robot is fun enough to please kids and serious enough not to bore adults.
"PiktoMir", developed by NIISI RAS on the order of the Russian Academy of Sciences, is our answer to foreign analogs. The NIISI RAS has already developed the Kumir system, in which senior schoolchildren get acquainted with programming, but there is no game element in it. "PiktoMir", designed for preschoolers, turned out to be fun and very affordable.
The robot paints the fields, and the child learns to compose algorithms. All the hints are made with the help of graphics, so PiktoMir can be safely given to children who cannot read, starting from the age of five: it is noticeable that scientists have tried to make the actions understandable even for toddlers. If parents do not know English and do not understand anything in programs themselves, but really want to develop logical thinking in children, PiktoMir will be a real salvation. Mobile versions are available for iOS, Android and Windows Phone, but the last two will have to be downloaded from the developer's website.
To complete tasks and make an algorithm for the movement of an arrow along a puzzle - this is the meaning of a game that younger students can already play. True, an ordinary arrow is unlikely to captivate a seven-year-old for a long time, especially if this is the first of such games. But it can seriously interest schoolchildren from the age of ten who are already familiar with algorithmization, because the most interesting puzzles, of course, are found at more difficult levels. Robozzle provides almost unlimited possibilities for creating and finding new tasks, so it is most suitable not for learning the basics, but for constant repetition and practice.
Cargo-Bot
Another easy-to-learn game, at the initial levels of which preschoolers will feel comfortable. Since there is little text in it, it is enough for children to distinguish between individual letters in order to complete the first tasks and shift the boxes in fewer moves from place to place. Even adults can think about complex combinations for a long time. Among other educational and entertainment applications, Cargo-Bot stands out with a very nice picture. By the way, Cargo-Bot has been fully programmed for iPad.
It is not entirely fair to include Scratch on this list, because it is not a game, but a specially designed environment for teaching children to program, and it is impossible not to include it, because it is a great educational tool. Scratch is authored by MIT, and in the community most of the information is translated into Russian, so Scratch is available to a very wide audience.
Scratch's capabilities are really impressive, although it does not have tasks and levels, but it has a lot of imagination and the means to use it. Since the child must set the goal in each project independently, there are no universal solutions, but there is scope for creativity, which is lacking in games that teach algorithms. Scratch is perfect for children from eight years old who are already tired of chasing robots and monkeys along their usual routes.
We must not forget about the classics, even pretty dusty. CeeBot educational games appeared in 2003 as a special development for educational institutions. Initially, the developers created Colobot - a game about the colonization of a new planet, the main feature of which was that you had to write your own programs to control the characters.
CeeBot is a multi-task game tutorial with detailed instructions. The story about programmable robots on a new planet destroying the local fauna, of course, is not suitable for kids, but for teenagers who have already managed to get carried away with computer science and imagine what an algorithm is, it will be a good tool. CeeBot looks a little pale against the background of modern games, but where else can a child control characters, creating their own programs that are as close as possible to the C ++ syntax?
CodeCombat is already serious, because in this game real code is taught and the winner will turn out to be a ready-made programmer. You choose a programming language in which you have to write commands for your character (the game offers Python, JavaScript, Lua, or some experimental ones like CoffeScript), and set off on a journey for crystals.
You can put boys and girls from eight years old to play. Training and tips in Russian, for $ 9.99 you can get new levels every month for passing (the first 70 are free). The game can be used in schools, there are separate bonuses for teachers.
In the game, before the start of each level, the child will read funny and motivating quotes about programming, reminding that "this code will not learn itself." CodeCombat is more addictive than the usual "action games" and "shooters", one of the best combinations of relaxation and training.
Education is expensive. A good education is very expensive. Nevertheless, everyone has the opportunity to get free and high-quality education. Companies and corporations around the world are investing in free educational products. Partly to provide themselves with qualified personnel in the future. In part, to overcome poverty, to provide everyone with equal access to quality education.
Everyone has the opportunity to use the Scratch programming environment specially created for teaching schoolchildren, which is developed by specialists from one of the most prestigious technical educational institutions in the United States and the world - Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Or the game Minecraft, for which Microsoft paid $ 2.5 billion a year ago and with the help of which, among other things, plans to teach children to program. Or educational games created by enthusiasts and volunteers around the world.
An obstacle to the use of such resources may be ignorance of their existence or lack of knowledge of the language. Indeed, there are much more English-language resources and games. But there are also Russian-language games teaching programming.
Here are collected free Russian-language browser games that will teach you how to compose algorithms and even write code. They are arranged in order of difficulty. The last of the games on this list are for adults. You can hardly become a programmer just by playing. But you can get a positive charge at the start, study the basic algorithmic constructions and programming logic, and acquire skills in planning actions when solving practical problems.
Learn to program. Learn to think
Code.org
The resource was created for children from 4 to 10 years old, but, according to its creators, it will be suitable for users of all ages. Learning starts from the very basics - learning how to use the mouse. A scratch-like block language is used. While playing, the child will understand the basics of programming, learn how an algorithm turns into JavaScript code and create his own computer game.
Minecraft is a joint project between Microsoft and Code.org. The game is designed for children from 6 years old and involves solving various problems by building algorithms. This allows children to master the basics of programming, to understand how its basic mechanisms work.
Minecraft is truly an educational game: it develops spatial thinking, math and logic skills. And the game teaches reading and writing, increases general literacy. However, not only Minecraft has this effect, but any activity that children are passionate about and that motivates them to acquire new useful skills.
Scratch is a special visual programming language that was developed at MIT for teaching children. The study of Scratch takes place in a playful way. Scratch develops logical and critical thinking, imagination, children learn to solve diverse problems, they have new opportunities for self-expression and creativity. Of course, it is not necessary that your child will become a programmer in the future. However, teaching children the basic basics of programming will help them develop faster and more fun.
Blockly, like Scratch, creates a program by connecting blocks. But if Scratch is more suitable for extracurricular activities, Blockly can be used in school. This game allows you to create educational tasks, arrange them into modules, passing which, the student gradually masters a topic.
For example, here's what a puzzle by country and flags created in Blockly looks like:
PiktoMir, developed by NIISI RAS by order of the Russian Academy of Sciences, is our answer to foreign analogs. The NIISI RAS has already developed the Kumir system, in which senior schoolchildren get acquainted with programming, but there is no game element in it.
The plot of the game: the picture shows the cosmodrome from which the spaceships start, and at the start they burn out the coating. And since everything is hot and radioactive there, people cannot be sent to restore the coverage, and a robotic vertune (suspiciously similar to R2D2) is sent there. This robot needs to be given a program so that it does not crash on the curb itself (the robot turns red in this case) and floods everything that has been burnt out with a protective compound.
The robot paints the fields, and the child learns to compose algorithms. All prompts are made using graphics, so PiktoMir can be offered to children who cannot read, scientists have tried to make the actions understandable even for little ones.
The first four levels of the game are available to everyone, the fifth level - puzzles for gifted children, the sixth level - puzzles for parents, so that they also find it interesting.
Kolobot is a 3d strategy developed by Epsitec in 2001. The game is designed to teach children (10 years and older) programming skills in a playful way. The gameplay consists in creating programs for robots. The goal is to prepare the planets for settlement and mining.
A feature of the game is the ability to create programs in accordance with which robots operate in the game (by giving them algorithms for independent work and replacing monotonous actions that the player himself can do), therefore it is believed that the game contributes to learning programming. The programming language built into the game is similar to C ++ or Java, but there is a limit on the size of the program - no more than 20,000 characters, which does not allow writing serious programs like simulating artificial intelligence. Each mission comes with an extensive help explaining what needs to be done. Also, there is often a cheat sheet - a ready-made program (or pieces of a program) with which you can solve the problem.
There is a Russian localization of the game.
Microsoft Imagine offers learning and development tools from the very first game or application to cloud-based big data research projects. Applications are categorized by difficulty levels. The simplest of them are available to children 9-10 years old, the more complex ones are designed for high school students and students. The use of only some applications is available in the browser, to run the rest, you need to install free software and the Windows operating system. The Imagine Cup competition is held annually, in which schoolchildren, students and graduate students from different countries of the world can take part. The main task of the participants is to develop a project or game idea and create a prototype using modern information technologies.
CodeGym - learning Java programming as an online game. Each level corresponds to a separate solar system on the star map. Lectures inside the level - planets of the solar system. Each open lecture is a flight to the next planet. When all lectures are open, the ship flies to the next star system.
The entire Java Core course in CodeGym consists of forty levels. The first 10 levels are available to everyone, levels 11 and higher are available with a paid subscription.
Each level of CodeGym has 10-15 mini-lectures, so 10 free levels is about 140 lectures and about 230 problems. It is enough for you to decide whether CodeGym is right for you or not.
The developers of Code Combat offer to learn programming, seizing lands and defeating enemies in the best RPG traditions.
You can start playing "from scratch" without having any idea about programming. The user can choose the programming language he wants to learn: Python or JavaScript. The levels of the game are structured as a good programming course with increasing difficulty.
You are going to become a wizard who, with the help of program code, changes the world around you. At each level, the player is given a specific task - for example, to find a mushroom that will help defeat a cannibal, lead soldiers into battle, or get out of a dungeon. In the beginning, everything is simple, you write the code and immediately see on the screen how it will be executed. Then the tasks get more complex and you have to think more and more.
The game has 80 free levels and open source code. Hundreds of players from different countries have put their talent to make CodeCombat better. It is thanks to this that the world of warriors and magicians was quickly translated into different languages, including Russian.
Need to learn to program? You don't need lessons. You need to write a lot of code and have a good time doing it. This is the essence of programming. This should be fun. Not in the sense when "wow, badge", but in the sense when "no, mom, I have to finish the level." This is why Code Combat is a multiplayer game and not courses. We won't stop until you can stop - but this time it's really good. (from the description on the project website)
UPD After 18 levels, two branches appear in the game - one is paid, the other is free. The game has 80 free levels. 60 additional levels are available with a paid subscription.
Convenient and free tool for teaching programming in the Pascal language. Designed for high school and university students. Contains a collection of tasks for practicing a variety of basic programming skills.
City Car Driving 1.5.7 A realistic driving simulator that will teach you how to drive in urban, rural and mountainous areas in a wide variety of weather conditions and times of day.
Examination tickets SDA 2016 (A, B) 4.0 The program of preparation for passing the exam in the traffic police for obtaining the rights of category "A" and "B". The program contains all the changes and additions to the rules of July 19, 2012.
Schulte tables Schulte tables are used to increase the peripheral field of vision of a person and to train quickly reading text and memorizing information. Exercising with tables also has a beneficial effect on the development of memory and concentration.
English Practice 7.2 Convenient and easy-to-use program for self-study of English. The program will significantly expand your vocabulary and teach you to confidently comprehend English by ear.
Simulator of English 1.12 Simulator software for learning English: fully voiced words, phrases and dialogues, an advanced system of tests and grades, very easy to use
PerfectBrain 2.1 Pro Educational program to train and develop the skills of speed reading, attention and intelligence. With its help, you can improve memory and reaction speed. It will be useful for schoolchildren, students and those who want to improve their intellectual performance.
Keyboard simulator 2.0.2 A small, free program for teaching fast typing and learning the layout of the computer keyboard. The program includes many lessons in both the Russian layout and the English keyboard layout.
Testdel 2.4.7 Testdel testing program is created for passing, creating tests. Supports formulas, pictures. Stores work results, exports each work to a text document, exports all work to Excel.
Mapsmaker 1.0 The Mapsmaker program is designed to help you create and save technological maps for a lesson on the Federal State Educational Standard. All the components of the lesson are selected from those suggested by the program with a simple click of the mouse.
USE GIA tutor and problem book "ExamL 16.2.7 Preparation for the USE and GIA exams for students in grades 9-11 in the following subjects: Mathematics, Russian and Literature, Social Studies, History, Geography, Physics, Biology. Contains 4500 questions from 150 tests for 2012 -4 years and 4150 school tasks.
Recall All 2.0 The program is designed to quickly memorize the 3500 most used words of the English language according to the system of the Guinness Book of Records record holder for memorizing foreign words - Samvel Gharibyan.
MemoryUp 1.1 Do you forget logins, passwords, your own phone number, year of birth? Then the simple program MemoryUp is for you. With its help, you in the shortest possible time will improve the process of memorizing both symbolic and figurative information of any complexity.
Memory training 2.1 Free program for the development of visual memory and mental abilities of a person. Your attention is invited to memorize a few words for a limited time, and then, if possible, remember each of them.
Test Yourself 2.0 A program for testing schoolchildren or university students. The subject of the tests is determined by the compiler with the ability to connect a graphic (jpg, bmp), audio (wav, mp3) or video file (avi, mpeg) to the question.
Examenator Education Pack A program for organizing educational material on a specific subject, creating cheat sheets. Using the export function, you can save your cheat sheets in different forms, ranging from text files to your own Android application
Knowing 2.3 The program is designed to create tests and conduct testing of pupils and students in computer classes of schools, universities, as well as at home, to test knowledge in various fields.
Division table in cartoons 1.0 Educational program for children in mathematics, which allows you to study the division table using pictures and melodies from domestic and foreign cartoons.
AnimalsBaby 1.0 With this simple cognitive program you can broaden your child's horizons, improve his perception of the world and erudition. The program is a colorful textbook on the animal kingdom in which the child must guess the names of the babies of various animals.
Multiplication table in cartoons 1.0 The program allows children to study multiplication table with their parents in three different ways using pictures from domestic and foreign cartoons.
The tasks are to guess the depicted fragment of the cartoon, open the entire image and at the same time make the minimum number of mistakes.
Basics of HTML 2.0 Basics of HTML is a training program, a distinctive feature of which is the graphical presentation of information using knowledge maps (mind maps). Each lesson ends with a validation test with carefully selected questions and practice assignments.
FlowersTest 1.0 Guessing the names of flowers from their images.
The program is testing and educational, designed for children of preschool and school age. Instills in children a love of nature.
Solids of revolution 1.0 Automatic construction and viewing of solids of revolution in space. After building a figure on a plane, the user can see the construction of a body of revolution relative to any of the three coordinate axes, rotate it and pass the test.
