"Next week I'm going into my daughter's classroom to teach about software engineering. I want to teach them about the magic of it."
The best suggestion was
"I think about the PB&J demo a lot."
A few highlights from last year:
* I brought a serrated knife and ketchup packets. When they said put the jelly on the bread with the knife, I gripped the serrated end and pretended my fingers bled (ketchup works great as blood).
* I brought in vaseline AKA petroleum jelly. When they said put jelly on the bread, I contemplated aloud "Well, you said JELLY, and this says JELLY!"
This year I want to do it again. But, I want to add some ideas:
* importance of teamwork: I think this differentiates good software teams from bad teams.
* importance of good communication: I was thinking about teaching them about how important communication and planning is. Last year I had slips of paper where I asked a different scribe to write down the instructions, and then I took those, reordered them with class input and then took action. But, perhaps I can expand on that and really drill into them the value of planning and good written communication.
* managers: I was thinking about talking about how the managers are often the best paid, because they take responsibility for all the moving pieces, and the success or failure of the project. I expect this might be a controversial take here on HN!