My AboutMe Challenge Was a Hit. Then We Hit a Wall.

Hello!

Closures are a tough concept to wrap your head around when starting to code. I found the information on this site along with the accompanying web video. https://www.hackingwithswift.com/read/0/21/closures I think it is best described as code inside a variable. one of the more common uses of closures are attached to controls like button or toggles. The state of the button or toggles changes and that causes a bit of code to run (the closure). I hope this information helps at least a little.

Hi!

Thanks for your reply! It’s interesting that you mentioned buttons and toggles. As we explored user interface design with more SwiftUI, it became easier for students to understand the main purpose of closures.

Thank you for sharing this resource! I love these tutorials! Lots of learning ahead! :)

Here's an idea:

"Sometimes curly braces { } in Swift are closures. A closure is a chunk of code you can hand to something else to run later - kind of like a mini-function without a name.

You’ll often see closures in things like Button { ... } or commands like sorted { ... }. The code inside the braces runs when that thing decides to run it (for a Button: when it’s tapped).

Note: if { ... } also uses braces, but that’s just a normal code block that runs immediately when the condition is true - it isn’t a closure you pass around. Although I often call anything in curlies closures, that's "technically" not true."

Does that help?

Also - if it's useful - I teach Swift in a course that's framed as "zero to full stack" - students that have never taken a programming class can take this course. It is a university course, but I find that new-to-coding topics in Swift can really be taught from bright middle-schooler all the way through grad student. Students are building the same mental models when thinking about how computer code works & executes, so age really isn't all that important. Although often metaphors & language used in teaching is.

If it's useful to you - I teach my entire course "flipped", which means over 100 lessons are online & I share them with everyone. You can find them at:

https://bit.ly/prof-g-swiftui

I update it pretty regularly since I teach each semester, although I haven't yet had time to re-work all lessons for iOS26. I do have a doc part way through the first chapter that shows anything that may have changed from Xcode 16 to Xcode 26.

Also - you might find this a fun exercise to adapt "Magic 8 Ball". Here's a set of lessons (again, sorry I haven't updated these for iOS 26 yet). They may give you ideas.

https://bit.ly/swiftui-for-beginners

Finally - I have all of the Keynote slides I present when we're in class together. They include challenges & solutions with what the students seem to think are fun examples. You can find them in the open Google Drive at https://gallaugher.com.

Always reach out if I can help. I love helping other educators get up to speed. Hack on!