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Lambda Expressions for the Fifth Grader

If you had to explain lambda expressions to a fifth grader (10-11 years old), how would you do it? And what examples could you give, or resources to which you could draw them? Perhaps I am in the position that I should teach this to level 5 developers and could use some help.

[EDIT]: The reference to “5th grader” was supposed to refer to an American television show that is suitable for adults versus 5th grade in a quiz setting (I think). I meant that people who need to learn do not know anything about Lambda, and I need to find a way to make things VERY simple. I'm sorry that I forgot that this forum has a worldwide audience.

Many thanks.

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Just call it a function without a name. If she had not undergone much programming, her mind had not yet been calcined, thinking that all functions should have names.

Most of the complexity associated with lambda expressions is caused by the complex name and placement on a marble pedestal.

Many kids create great sites with lots of Javascript content. Most likely, they use lambda expressions all the time, not knowing about it. They just call it a cool trick.

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I don't think you need to explain lambda expressions for children ages 10-11. Just show them what lambda expressions look like, what you can do with them, and where you can use them. Children at this age can still learn something new without relying on an analogy to figure it out.

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Lambda expressions are what I consider higher order programming. A rigorous explanation will require extensive prior training. Of course, this is not practical at the 5th grade level.

Nevertheless, it can help to simply cover up some concepts with an example in such a way as to reflect real life situations.

For example, scale is a kind of lambda expression. He counts the mass of objects placed on it. This is not a variable because it does not store the number anywhere. Instead, it generates a number during use. When reused, it recounts based on its inputs. You can take this place and use it somewhere else, but the basic mechanics (expression) is the same.

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If he already understands what a “function” is, you can say that it is a function that you need only once, and therefore it does not need a name.

In any case, if you need to explain functional programming, I would recommend trying to steal some ideas from http://learnyouahaskell.com/ - this is one of the best explanations of functional programming ideas I've ever read.

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C # lambda expressions are basically just anonymous delegates, so when explaining that they are for ANYTHING, they need to understand in the following order:

What is a delegate and what are they used for.

What is an anonymous delegate and how is it just a short way to create a delegate.

Lambda expression syntax and how it's just an even shorter way to create an anonymous delegate.

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Probably not the best thing to start explaining to the fifth grader if the front language OO (C #) has not received it for 10 years.

It is rather difficult to come up with an analogy for a function without a name ... Perhaps this is important because a less logical way indicates a callback?

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I assume that you are really looking for a basic introduction for programmers, not for 5th grade. (For 5th grade, Python or JavaScript is generally better). In any case, two good introductions to C # lambda expressions:

The first (disclaimer - my blog) will give you a brief explanation of the basic concepts. The book provides full coverage of all relevant topics.

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