Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hello-

I"m interested in adapting one of the listed projects (programming nanorgs) for my science fair research, but I do not have any real experience with computer programming yet. Could you recommend a beginner computer programming course for me to learn/take since familiarity with programming is listed as a prerequisite to this project? I'm 13 years old.

Thank you.
Arthur Dozier

Hi Arthur,

Luckily there are a TON of free websites where you can learn to program. The most popular super-beginner-level one is probably Scratch:

https://scratch.mit.edu/

It is a "graphical" programming language, meaning instead of writing lines of text, you drag and drop blocks of code together (kind of like snapping LEGOs together, but with computer code). Scratch is a fun, easy way to make animations and games, and a good way to learn the basics. So, you might want to get your feet wet there, but it probably isn't a good way to do something more complicated like the nanorg project.

Here are two other sites that should help you learn "real" text-based programming languages:

http://www.codecademy.com/

https://code.org/

Both sites have tutorials and "courses" you can do to learn different languages.

Hope that helps you get started!