The PyCon US Blog

We're once again excited to offer our free tutorials for kids! Called " The Young Coder: Let's Learn Python ", we invite kids 12 and over to join us for a day of learning how to program using Python.  We first offered the Young Coders tutorial at PyCon 2013 in Santa Clara and it was an immediate hit. The followup blog post from that event is the most popular post in our blog's history. Kids came from all over to attend it. One flew from South Africa and helped teach other kids. I gave my laptop to a girl who took the tutorial and wanted to attend Richard Jones' PyGame tutorial the next day. Overall, it was so awesome to see kids so excited about learning, about computers, and about Python. Last year, our second year offering the tutorial and our first year in Montréal, the tutorial was offered both in French and English. We're going to be offering the same this year: a French version of the tutorial will take place on Saturday April 11 , and an Englis...

While attendees at PyCon have traditionally been adults, Python's use had long spread to more than adults in the workforce. Colleges have been teaching Python for years, high school students have been using Python for projects, and programming books for kids have become quite popular. In 2012 we cut the student rate in half, bringing the ticket cost down to $100 for a three-day conference. We figured this would reach out to those college students, particularly local ones, and it worked. However, we still had another group to reach: the kids. In 2013 we introduced a tutorial session for kids 12 and over called, " The Young Coder: Let's Learn Python ," taught by Barbara Shaurette and Katie Cunningham. It was an absolute hit. Barbara and Katie loved it.  The kids (and parents!) loved it . The sponsors loved it . It was so well received that the material has now been taught at other conferences, including PyOhio last summer, and this weekend at PyTennessee . If ...