OK so relational databases are perceived as both boring and complex. So why not make them interesting and easy to understand? Get yourself a wii, get 4 wiimotes, play a few different games record the scores/times, whack them into a database and go to work with queries and reports. Kids enjoy it, you get to teach databases "properly" and afterwards they should be able to apply the techniques to other scenarios. Other consoles are available and the principles are the same but I find the 100m event and 4 players is fun and the best way to generate usable data quickly.
The videos below were made a few years back when the wii first came out so the are for Access 2003, however the principles are exactly the same for 2010
vid 1 - our first 3 tables | |
vid 2 - adding a character table | |
vid 3 - table 5 and 6 | |
vid 4 - forms and subforms | |
vid 5 - indexes | |
vid 6 - query and report | |
vid 7 - tweaking our forms and buttons |