Medina Pupils Show They're (Micro)Chips Off The Old Block -- Kids Design A Computer Program

Seymour Papert is the Jean Piaget of the computer world, a grandfatherly MIT professor who has done more than any individual to help children understand computers and vice versa.

Yesterday, he was the student.

His instructors: The first fourth-grade class in the nation to not only design but also program, package and market science and math software for kids.

The tousle-haired visionary - who worked for five years with Piaget, the great Swiss child psychologist - took copious notes as 29 Medina Elementary School pupils described how they used his legendary LogoWrite programming language to write whizzy educational software on endangered species, fractions, astronomy and . . . dissecting slugs.

Don't laugh. Slugs are complex animals. Why mess around with a frog when you can dissect a slug on-screen, the unslimy way?

Each of the seven programs was the work of four-member teams: A designer, programmer, documentation writer and project leader. They were the Brain Builders, the Kids Funny Facts Corp., the Space Puzzlers, the Endangered Animals Co.

Spurred by their teacher, Jeannine Rogel, they hand-designed packaging, wrote their own manuals and devised commercial skits that would raise the eyebrows of the toughest Madison Avenue corps. Along the way they learned not only computers, but teamwork, humility and commitment.

"In true Microsoft style, we worked all weekend to get our program done by deadline," said Carrie Ross, 10.

At a science fair last March, they sold out their entire supply, 280 copies, in half an hour. Another 300 copies are on order.

The class is selling their wares for $1 a unit in hopes of raising enough money to buy a new Apple Macintosh computer.

Another 300 orders have been placed, by customers ranging from Olympic View Elementary School in Federal Way to Microsoft and MIT.

The students have been invited to tour Microsoft and exchange notes with Edmark Corp. software designers.

Software Production, Inc., in Bellevue has volunteered to machine-program additional copies.

The group's inspirational leader was Devindra Chainani, a Microsoft consumer-software designer whose most recent product was Profit, a financial-management program.

Rogel knows Chainani's mother and "just kept bugging" the Microsoft designer till he agreed to oversee the project.

Through once-a-week sessions over the school year, Chainani and the kids grew so close they forbid him to say the word "cool" and began counting in unison every time it passed his lips.

"The kids are psyched," Chainani said. "It gave them a real sense of completion to see the box (of software) come out."

Yesterday, Papert patiently spent time with Petey Woodman, 10, one of the programmers, asking him how he accomplished certain tricks.

"I see," he said, amused and nodding his head as Petey detailed one routine.

For Papert, the Medina project is the realization of a vision he conceived more than a quarter of a century ago. Because children pick up languages so easily, Papert theorized they could also learn mathematics if immersed in a "country" like Mathland.

Logo preceded PCs

The personal computers needed to test his thesis were years away from production.

But Papert began work on Logo, a language meant for children, and in 1980 published a seminal examination of the subject titled "Mindstorms: Children, Computers and Powerful Ideas." His new book, "The Children's Machine" is due out next week.

Papert has long argued for the concept of one computer, one student in schools. The programming model of experimentation, refinement and success by trial-and-error helps children conquer the fear of making mistakes and fosters patience.

Papert isn't the first national visitor to check out Rogel's Medina classroom.

Daniel Watt, a senior research associate for the Center for Learning, Teaching and Technology at the Education Development Center in Newton, Mass., stopped by in April and said he'd never seen anything like it.