Kids must code on iPads An important 21st Century skill This post is about a topic and app close to my heart. Computer programming is the engine of modern life and dream maker for tens of thousands. More and more countries are introducing the subject as compulsory schooling at surprisingly young ages. What learning to code offers young people. Even I was surprised at how much my students have enjoyed their first experience of coding this year. Accessible to anyone Coding is problem solving and like any puzzle, it seems to immediately engage kids as long as the puzzle pieces are easy to play with and move around. Quick & keen My colleague and I had written a typical coding introduction for our 12 & 13 year olds using Hopscotch but very quickly realised that the app negated traditional approaches as it was so intuitive. “Let’s make Flappy Birds!” Within the first hour, a 12-year-old had already realised the the ‘world issue’ that was “the death of Flappy Birds” could be solved with Hopscotch. Personalised learning
Hopscotch, An iPad App That Helps Kids Learn To Code, Raises $1.2M There are lots of systems clamouring to help educate the next generation of coders. One of them, New York-based startup Hopscotch, closed a $1.2 million seed funding round last August which it’s just announcing today, in conjunction with the release of v2.0 of its app. The seed funding came from Resolute Ventures, Collaborative Fund, Kapor Capital and other unnamed investors, and was used to expand the team, launch the community and build version 2 of the app, says co-founder Jocelyn Leavitt. Hopscotch’s special sauce is to be mobile device focused. Its graphical programming language has been specifically designed for use on the iPad. “Hopscotch works by dragging and dropping colorful blocks of code to build routines,” explains Leavitt. “Hopscotch is an object oriented programming language, but it is visual. After a year on the app store, Hopscotch said its app has been used to create more than 1.5 million projects, compiling more than 57 million blocks of code.
scratch – Shall We Learn You never know what will happen next in life. One lazy afternoon, when I was enjoying my afternoon tea, two funny yellow birds showed up at my door. They introduced themselves as Tweet and Mini Tweet. I guess they are twins, but one is much much bigger than the other. Continue reading “Learning Scratch with Tweet and Mini Tweet: What is Scratch?” Have you heard of Scratch? Continue reading “Scratch Lesson 1: Introducing Scratch and Creating Sprite” » In Lesson 1, we created a sprite and also create four costumes: “front”, “back”, “facing left”, and “facing right”. In this lesson, we will make our sprite dance, and dance to the beat. Continue reading “Scratch Lesson 2: Animating a Sprite (Dance)” » In this lesson 2, we make our sprite dance. In this lesson 3, we make our sprite dance. In this lesson, I will show you how to make sprites move to certain locations on the Stage. Continue reading “Scratch Lesson 5: Work with the Stage” » In this lesson, we will modify a sample game named “Pong”.
girldevelopit/gdi-intro-web-concepts How to Grow a Thriving Indoor Apartment Garden Is lack of expansive outdoor space the only factor that is preventing you from putting your green thumb to good use? Even if your tiny apartment doesn't come with a balcony or an outdoor patio, you can grow a number of green things within the limited confines of your indoor space for your visual and gustatory pleasure. Sunny windowsills are perfect for growing herbs and small vegetables. Empty walls can be used to install vertical planters, and ceilings can even be taken advantage of to install hanging or upside-down planters. If you are a complete beginner and want to start with something super-low-maintenance, you can sprout seeds, raise tiny succulents or make friends with air plants. If you have tiny space and limited access to sunlight, then a gourmet oyster mushroom growing kit is perfect for you. Got your own experiences and tips for indoor apartment gardening? Click on image to enlarge.
These Tween Girls Created An Android App For The Blind A group of six grade school girls in Los Fresnos, Texas took it upon themselves to solve a problem for blind kids. They built an app for them. The app, Hello Navi, first came from the imagination of a particular girl in the group, Grecia Cano. The girls 6th grade science teacher, Maggie Bolado was inspired to get the girls involved in building the app after seeing a tweet from the Verizon Innovative App Challenge. The challenge invited the interest of over 1200 applicants, but it turns out navigation for the blind was a winning idea. The girls didn’t have any coding experience themselves so a group of programmers from the MIT Media Lab helped the girls put the app together. One of the girls, Sandra Baquero, said she was more encouraged now to get into coding. Hello Navi unnamed-4 unnamed-2 unnamed-3 unnamed-5 The app was made in Java and should be available in Google Play on June 1st.
How To: Turn Logs into a Natural Raised Garden Bed! » Curbly | DIY Design Community So... let's say you just finished up an epic weekend of tree pruning and yard clearing, or just happen to have a pile of sticks and logs hanging around. If you're a resourceful Curblier, you know there's something to be done with all that yard waste besides tossing it or turning it into a giant bonfire. But what? After clearing his yard for a garden makeover, Instructables user "Jamieicecream" had two dilemmas: 1) What to do with all that yard waste? Jamie offers an in-depth walk through of the whole process, start to finish, over on Instructables so head over there to see how it's done. Tagged : Inspiration, thrift, garden, outdoor, repurpose, recycling, Reuse, branch, logs, tree, wood, stump, How-To, natural, rustic, Affordable, budget-friendly, DIY
Code Monster from Crunchzilla <h2>Code Monster gets kids excited about programming. It is a combination of a game and tutorial where kids experiment with learning to code. <p> Code Monster use Javascript. Please enable Javascript if you want the play with the Code Monster. Otherwise, Code Monster will not be able to play with you. </p><p></h2> I'm Code Monster! Getting Started Lesson 1 BACK How to Play | Lesson Sections | About | FAQ | Terms of Use | Privacy | Contact | © 2015 How to Play Code Monster teaches kids and adults a little about Javascript programming! It's easy to play. Click on the Reset button if you really mess up your code and want to start over on a lesson. Code Monster saves what lesson you are on, so feel free to stop at any time and come back later. Have fun! About Code Monster from Crunchzilla is an interactive tutorial for kids that focuses on action. Projects start with simple boxes and colors, rapidly progressing into exciting experiments with simple animation and fractals. Sure! Terms of Use Oh my.
Grow a Year-Round Salad Garden Curbly-Original As you may have gathered from my weekly "Foodie Friday" posts I enjoy cooking, but equally I enjoying growing my own food, which I write about on my site, curate this space. Aside from the health and nutritional benefits of doing so, there is also something quite primal about knowing where and how your food is grown. Today I'm going to teach you how to grow your own easy to grow salad garden which will grow all year round in frost free areas. If you are new to gardening and growing your own here are a couple basic concepts you you need to grasp that will stand you in good stead for growing healthy plants. SOIL: A balanced potting mix is 1 part sand, 1 part compost and 1 part peat. SUN: Most vegetables and herbs need a minimum of 6 hours of direct sunlight a day, fruiting plants closer on 9 hours. WATER: Sadly water isn't an impirical measurement, but a yardstick I like to work with is to insert your index finger up to the second digit and gauge it. Room : Kitchen, outdoor
Introducing Tynker’s Tutorial Designer It’s now easier than ever to teach programming with our new Tutorial Designer that allows anyone (even students) to design a lesson for others to follow. Just start with a project you’ve already created, and you can easily add step-by-step instructions to show someone how to build your project. Review these sample tutorials Sign in to Tynker, and you can take a look at sample tutorials created using the Tutorial Designer: Fun with Spirographs – This tutorial explains how to build Spirograph designs with code. (Don’t have a Tynker account? Tailor lessons to your students! You can easily add videos, pictures, links, voiceover and step-by-step user actions, to bring your lesson to life and give your students everything they need, accessible from a single convenient place. Tutorials are saved with the project and the When your students open the project, they see the yellow tutorial tab on the left and will find it easy to follow instructions or review your lesson notes.
How to Turn a Pallet into a Garden Good news and bad news. I had planned to film a short video showing you how to make a pallet garden, but the weather didn’t cooperate. I was stapling the landscape fabric onto the pallet when it started drizzling and got really windy. That’s the bad news. So keep reading my pallet loving friends, instructions on how to make your own pallet garden are just a few lines away… Find a Pallet The first thing you need to do is–obviously–find a pallet. Don’t just take the first pallet you find. Collect Your Supplies For this project, you’ll need the pallet you found, 2 large bags of potting soil, 16 six packs of annual flowers (one six pack per opening on the face of the pallet, and two six packs per opening on the top of the completed pallet garden), a small roll of landscape fabric, a staple gun, staples, and sand paper. Get Your Pallet into Shape Once you’ve dragged your pallet home, give it a once over. Let the Stapling Begin! Lay the pallet face down. Now for the sides. Caring For your Pallet