I've done this before as an instructor as a tech camp. One great activity for the 12-16 age group is teaching them to mod minecraft.
This is a little more advanced, obviously, so it's not a great activity for total beginners. However, once a kid learns that they can make exploding blocks just by writing about 5 lines of code, they're totally hooked.
It also gives them an initial idea as to what real software looks like. Once that is demystified, their confidence as coders increases substantially.
This is a little more advanced, obviously, so it's not a great activity for total beginners. However, once a kid learns that they can make exploding blocks just by writing about 5 lines of code, they're totally hooked.
It also gives them an initial idea as to what real software looks like. Once that is demystified, their confidence as coders increases substantially.