Monday, October 21, 2019

Coding Functions (age 6)

Benny has been playing coding games where he was using very simple functions.

"Benny I use functions on my computer too! Come see!"

def my_function():
    print("hi Benny")

"This is my function. It says "Hi Benny". It's like the functions in your game. What do you think is going to happen if I call the function?"

def my_function():
    print("hi Benny")

my_function()

Benny laughs.

"What do you think is going to happen if I call the function five times?"

def my_function():
    print("hi Benny")

my_function()
my_function()
my_function()
my_function()
my_function()

Benny laughs loud.

"Why don't I change the name of my function to "say_hi_to_Benny"?"

def say_hi_to_Benny():
    print("hi Benny")

say_hi_to_Benny()
say_hi_to_Benny()
say_hi_to_Benny()
say_hi_to_Benny()
say_hi_to_Benny()

Benny laughs less loud.

"What if I make a function that calls the other function five times? What do you think's going to happen?"

def say_hi_to_Benny():
    print("hi Benny")

def say_hi_to_Benny_5_times():
    say_hi_to_Benny()
    say_hi_to_Benny()
    say_hi_to_Benny()
    say_hi_to_Benny()
    say_hi_to_Benny()

"Nothing happened! Because I didn't call the function. What do you think's going to happen if I call the function?"

def say_hi_to_Benny():
    print("hi Benny")

def say_hi_to_Benny_5_times():
    say_hi_to_Benny()
    say_hi_to_Benny()
    say_hi_to_Benny()
    say_hi_to_Benny()
    say_hi_to_Benny()


say_hi_to_Benny_5_times()

Benny laughs but I can tell he's losing interest so we stop there.

Monday, October 14, 2019

Why the Store Sells Us Apples (age 6)


"We give money to the store for apples.

The store gives some of that money to the store.

If the store gets $2 for the apples, and they give the farm $1, how much money did they make?  How much do they keep?"

"One dollar!"


"That money is called profit.  Profit is the money the store made.

If the store doesn't make any money, they won't sell us apples anymore because they won't have money to buy apples from the farm. They'll shut down."

"What will they do if they shut down?"

"They'll find out how to make money doing something else.

Do you know why the farm sells apples to the store?"

"So they can get money."


Cialdini's Social Proof (Age 8)

 I want to teach Benny about "social proof" in Robert Cialdini's Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion . Social proof is bas...