Computational Thinking

@Rihana thanx for the tag!

@nayidulhan
You said the child is a preteen (I'm assuming age 10-12), and knows scratch, html etc. Wordpress (a tool to create websites) and scratch AI extensions could be the next levels...

I will use "he and him" as it is not specified ... but it applies to any gender!

You want the child to do "Problem solving and computational thinking"
What exactly is Problem solving and Computational thinking?
From the child's point of view -
You want some action done, you define a set of rules/constraints and say this "problem can be solved" by applying some logical sequence of steps.
The steps include some input validation, recursion loops, if & then statements and some output - which is where CT comes in...

What I would suggest is -
rather than take new courses - which might or might not be suitable - first use the existing knowledge to actually solve problems at his level.
Give the child a set of problems in his particular area of interest -
Say for instance - he likes online games and puzzles - let him create a few games that he enjoys in the real world !
He could create an app on android or even a website - so many resources are available online
Say - he likes photography - can he create a blog with his photographs.
Or baking - he could set up a recipe website with his baking experiments

From here, go to the next level of problem sets - e.g can he create a shopping list out of his recipes automatically ?
Can he predict whether a person of certain age group would like his photographs ?
Can he create the next higher level for the game or puzzle. Make it more complex

You know your child the best - you could give him the problems that he would like to solve and enjoy solving - keep encouraging his skills !

That said - I have great feedback from my students about this course - https://pravartak.org.in/out-of-box-thinking by IIT Madras

Also, instead of going to coursera or udemy which is market run and which might not be suitable for a kid, I would suggest - go to open university websites like mit.edu (scratch is also from MIT), NPTEL, swayam etc - NPTEL and swayam host a number of courses from our IITs professors ...

Also, please do check some advanced mathematics courses if he is really good at PS and CT, he has to excel at maths & logic - do ensure his numerical skills, pattern recognition skills, algebra and statistics is well developed

 

Yes, I do teach Maths and logic - I teach students who on one end are scared of maths and at the other end of the spectrum there are students who want to explore maths higher than their school levels!

But currently I am engaged in a couple of projects related to the NEP that will take a few years to implement, so I dont have the bandwidth to conduct regular classes...

Coming to your daughter - Do start off on Wordpress and Scratch AI ...

At 12, she would be able to easily do algebra, simple equations - but can she apply her algebra skills to answer an advance compound interest or geometry question? She knows the rules of different quadrilaterals, but can she figure out how to approach a circle with a quadrilateral inside?

Have a look at SAT entrance question papers, MBA CAT question papers and try some of the 1st level sums...

This cannot be done by her alone, or even with your guidance - you might want to find a retired teacher or a college student who might want extra cash - someone needs to be with her for her to bounce of ideas when they get stuck and work on the problems - have a separate timetable for the extra maths - the idea is not to do school maths, but to challenge yourself ...

The idea is NOT to learn higher maths at 12, but to APPLY the concepts that she knows already to different kinds of problems...

1) You could look at some Math textbooks and workbooks from other countries - say - if you're in US, look at Indian textbooks, if you're in India, look at Singapore or Australia textbooks!
2) for CBSE, you can download the textbooks and question papers freely from cbse nic website or mycbseguide
3) Look for the CBSE exemplar textbooks for your daughter's class - they have exactly the same lessons as CBSE but 100s of higher order thinking problems
4) There are advance maths books by Trishna Pearson for foundational IIT - buy one level lower than your daughter's class first and then approach her class
5) Look at some of the co-schooling programs and summer camps by Agastya Gurukulam. They teach you to approach Maths from an integrated point of view.
6) Do check out Raising a mathematician foundation - they have some very good programs, summer camps and online courses.

I know several people at both these places and though classes are online, I find the teachers really genuine and the students really enjoy and benefit from the programs.

Keep smiling
HR