FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - 11 year old is interested in CAD software - recomendations?
Old Jul 30, 2009 | 9:02 pm
  #12  
lskohn
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Depending on what he's looking for and why, you might send him over to the MIT Media Lab site: http://www.media.mit.edu/research/demos-downloads
Two examples:
"Scratch is a new programming language designed to help young people (ages 8 and up) develop 21st century learning skills. As they create Scratch projects, young people learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also gaining a deeper understanding of the process of design."
"Processing is an open-source programming language and environment for people who want to program images, animation, and interactions. It is used by students, artists, designers, researchers, and hobbyists for learning, prototyping, and production. It is created to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context and to serve as a software sketchbook and professional production tool. Processing is an alternative to proprietary software tools in the same domain."

Yeah, he may only be 11, but if his reading skills, independence and curiosity are up to it, one of these may spark his interest. (One of my kids taught himself to program in C from a 2-inch thick guidebook/resource for programmers at about the same age 15 years ago, so I never sell curious kids short!) CalTech and CMU may offer similar resources.
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