Best way for a middle school students to learn Java offline?

November 21, 2019 9:14 AM

I am a mentor with our local FRC (FIRST Robotics Competition) team. Due to a lot of kids graduating out, we will have a relatively young and inexperienced team for the next year or two. I need help getting a couple talented 8th graders a good solid introduction to Java programming. (Challenge: must be offline)

We have a couple students who are interested in writing code for the robot (which is done in Java, using Visual Studio) but both are short on experience. I'd like to get them connected to some kind of learning resource geared towards new programmers.

I'd suggested TutsPlus or Codeacademy, but the parents of both students have made a choice to not allow the kids unsupervised online access. They can install apps with parental approval, but online courses are not going to be an option.

Is there a good installable, offline course that you'd recommend? Books are fine, or DVD/Blu-Ray, or a standalone offline installed app; it just can't be something that requires online access to use. The students will have access to Visual Studio, and we're aware of the resources provided by FIRST and WPILib.

posted by xedrik to Education (4 answers total)

Best answer: Maybe a book like Head First Java would be good for that age group? I used to for review when I was like 35, and I thought it was pretty good, if a little....twee.
posted by thelonius at 9:36 AM on November 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Nice, I hadn't found that one. Thank you!
posted by xedrik at 12:20 PM on November 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

Best answer: You might also look for options for teaching programming to people in prison, where there is no internet.
posted by rockindata at 3:15 PM on November 21, 2019

Response by poster: Excellent idea; thank you!
posted by xedrik at 5:17 PM on November 21, 2019