Greg M. Johnson wrote:
> I'm considering teaching povray to a group of kids-- perhaps a youth group
> at my church.  I'm wondering what age you'd think say the top 80% of the
> kids would have the capacity to appreciate it.  (Or say an application like
> blender using freeware models).

I would say 8th grade or later keeping in mind your 80% bar.

My 8th grade daughter showed a capacity for it.  After I constructed the 
SDL to produce a cylindrical platform with a circle of pillars around 
the edge for her, she was able to figure out how to add more elements 
like capitals and lintels on her own.  But this did not really grab her 
interest.

I introduced my son at maybe 6th grade with similar result.  He made a 
pile of spheres into a snowman to humour me, then got outta Dodge.

Incidently my daughter had fun with SPatch at a very, very young age. 
She would generate rotated shapes and I would render them.

I think the success would be highly dependant on a seductive and highly 
organized presentation.

Two half-formed and probably obvious thoughts:

If there is a strong sense that the raytracer is just illustrating the 
math after the fact, it will not be so appealing.  You would have to 
create a sense that it was dynamically adding insight.  For instance I 
remember back to my school days when they would haul out an oscilloscope 
to show us a sine wave.  Ba-Bump.  But animated film shorts illustrating 
how mechanical cams and the like can trace a sine wave, that worked!

Another hook would be to come up with relatively simple projects that 
create appealing results quickly.  The student can be seduced by showing 
them the result that they could achieve too!  But initially they would 
have to be able get to it quickly.  If you hook them, then they will 
develop the patience for more elaborate stuff later.

Post a reply to this message