Python lesson 2: print() and strings

For parents: how to use this lesson

You don't need to know Python yourself. The lesson explains each step on screen, the way Mr Babbage, our Head of Computing, likes it: a worked example first, then a go for your child. Code questions run your child's program in the browser and mark it straight away.

1. Read what your child will learn together.
2. Press Start the lesson below. Sit with your child for the teaching and the worked example (about 14 minutes): ask them to say what each line does.
3. Let them do the practice on their own. When code goes wrong, the error message is a clue – let them read it out and try again before you help.
4. Finish with the exit questions and the talk question: “When would you use a comma, and when +, inside print()?”
5. Later that day or the next day: the homework (20 minutes), then a practice test.

Watch out for

• "4 * 5" gives 20. Quote marks make text; take them away to do the sum.
• + adds a space between strings. Compare print("a" + "b") with print("a", "b").

Miss Lovelace's tip for home: ask your child to explain one line of their program to you in their own words. If they can explain it, they understand it – and every error message is a clue, not a failure.