3D Game Programming for Kids

by

Chris Strom

When teaching programming to Middle School students (ages 10-14), it is essential to keep the lessons interactive, visually engaging, and intellectually challenging. “3D Game Programming for Kids”, by Chris Strom fulfills all these requirements, and then some!

I was curious to see if the students in my Scratch programming club, would be interested in learning JavaScript 3D programming next year, so using this book, I developed a test lesson to get their reactions. The students are a mix of hardcore "gamers", and those that just love to use computing to express their creativity. The lesson was hands-on and the students got a chance to create 3D objects using the wonderful online editor that the author provides.  At the end of the session,  I polled the students for their reactions to see if they would want to continue in the fall, and the answer was a unanimous, "Please offer this!!". 

So, I am now busy putting together lesson plans, all the while having a great time. The book is well written, and it not only focuses on creating 3D graphics, but quietly teaches solid programming principles. It even includes a section on debugging! For me, what is really compelling about this book, is that the reader is never bogged down in abstract concepts or nomenclature, but is just having a great time without realizing that there is a lot of heavy duty learning going on.

If you know of a kid (of any age) who would like to learn JavaScript, this is the book to buy!

I give this book 5 Stars *****