Posts Tagged coding

STEM Tuesday– Coding– In the Classroom

By STEM Tuesday on June 13, 2023 / Coding, STEM Tuesday

Although I studied Electrical Engineering in college, I ended up spending most of my time as an engineer working with code. I love coding, and I’m happy to see so many great books about coding for young readers. Here are the books I read.

Coding Games in Scratch: A Step-by-Step Visual Guide to Building Your Own Computer Games
by Jon Woodcock

I love Scratch. It’s a block code, meaning you put the commands together rather like Legos. The code blocks are designed to help keep you from putting the code pieces together wrong. This book does a great job of walking you through the building of computer games in Scratch. If you want to learn basic coding concepts while making fun games, check out this book.

cover image of the book "Get Coding!" featuring two cartoon people, a computer, and a dog

Get Coding! Learn HTML, CSS & JavaScript and Build a Website, App, and Game
by Young Rewired State

This book is packed with information and activities for learning about coding and the web. It even has a related web site – https://getcodingkids.com – to help you through the missions.

Bonus Book: Hunting the Cyber Trail: Be a Computer Forensic Scientist
by Alix Wood

Follow a fictional computer forensic scientist as he searches computers for clues to the whereabouts of two missing kids. I love that this book gets into how information is formatted within computers, something I dealt with a lot when I was programming. This book also has lots of activities that are computer-related, but don’t require a computer to complete.

Now for some other activities you can try to get you into a programming frame of mind.

How-To

A computer program is basically a how-to for a computer. Programmers put together instructions that tell computers what they need to do.

A great activity as you start programming is to write a how-to. This could be a recipe, instructions for completing a craft, or instructions for something you do every day, like washing your hands. Once you’ve created your how-to, have someone try to follow your instructions. That’s when you find out if you forgot any instructions or if anything was unclear.

Flow-Charts

Flow-charts are really useful tools for programmers. They’re a graphical representation of a process or algorithm. Learn about flow-chart symbols and create a flow-chart for a process or algorithm. Here are some resources to help:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z3bq7ty/revision/3
https://www.digitaltechnologieshub.edu.au/teach-and-assess/classroom-resources/lesson-ideas/have-fun-with-flowcharts
https://technovationchallenge.org/curriculum/coding-15-flowcharts

Explore ASCII

Remember me mentioning the formatting of information in computers? Well, one of those things is called ASCII – American Standard Code for Information Interexchange. It is a way to represent text characters using numbers. This is generally written in hexadecimal (base 16) numbers.

To learn about hexadecimal, read the beginning of this article: https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/hexadecimal or this: https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/4069/Learning-Binary-and-Hexadecimal. You don’t have to get too deep into hexadecimal to work with ASCII.

Use an ASCII table (either from p. 24 of “Hunting the Cyber Trail” or here: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/references/ascii-table. (There are lots more versions out there if you want to find something different.)

Get the hang of ASCII by converting your name into hexadecimal ASCII code. Then, write a full message and give it to a friend. See if they can decode your message.

Explore More

There are lots of great resources out there that support programming. One of the biggest is Code.org. They have fabulous activities there, including a bunch that don’t require a computer: https://code.org/files/Hour-of-Code-Unplugged-Activities.pdf

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Janet Slingerland is the author of more than 20 books for young readers, including 3 books about coding. To find out more about Janet and her books, check out http://janetsbooks.com.

STEM Tuesday– Coding– Book List

By STEM Tuesday on June 6, 2023 / Coding, STEM Tuesday

Coding is an essential skill in our fast-paced digital world. With activity books, reference guides, historical narratives, and fiction, this month’s book list is sure to inspire readers to take the next steps in their coding journey.

Code This!: Puzzles, Games, Challenges, and Computer Coding Concepts for the Problem Solver in You

by Jennifer Szymanski

Code This! contains many puzzles, games, and quirky characters that highlight programming concepts in kid friendly ways. Readers will be engaged as they find hidden treasures, decode ciphers to read secret messages, and more. All in all, a great introduction to coding.

The History of the Computer: People, Inventions, and Technology that Changed Our World

by Rachel Ignotofsky

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the computing machines that have changed our world, from the abacus to the smartphone. Everyone knows how much computers have impacted our lives, but this book goes on to answer questions like who created them, why, and how they have transformed the way we interact with our surroundings and each other. It’s also packed with fun facts and engaging illustrations.

DK Life Stories: Ada Lovelace

by Nancy Castaldo

In 1843, Ada Byron Lovelace wrote the first computer program… long before technology was advanced enough to try it out! Part of DK’s “Life Stories” series, this engaging biography brings to life the curiosity, imagination, and scientific contributions of this coding pioneer. Sidebars, quotes, definitions, maps, and photos give readers more historical context about the world where she grew up.

Kids Get Coding

by Heather Lyons and Elizabeth Twedale

This Lerner series includes eight short, illustrated books that bridge the gap between unplugged activities and computer-based skill development. Some of the titles in the series include “Learn to Program,” “Coding, Bugs, and Fixes,” “Online Safety and More,” and “Coding in the Real World.” A character named Data Duck walks kids through basic concepts within each book, and a companion site gives readers the chance to try out their new skills with book-specific projects.

Gamer Girls: 25 Women Who Built the Video Game Industry

by Mary Kenney, illustrated by Salini Perera

Gamer Girls introduces readers to the dynamic women who created iconic video games and changed the industry forever. From Roberta Williams to Mabel Addis Mergardt, this book highlights the history of how women got started in this industry, and then profiles 25 of them. The text is easy to read and engaging, and it’s accompanied by eye catching illustrations.

My Life as a Coder

by Janet Tashjian, illustrated by Jake Tashjian

My Life as a Coder is the ninth book in Janet Tashjian’s fictional My Life series. It stars reluctant reader Derek Fallon. In this particular book Derek receives a new laptop. However, it has no Wi-Fi so he can’t use it for gaming. If he wants to play computer games, he’ll have to learn how to code them himself. This premise will inspire readers as they watch Derek struggle but eventually get the hang of the world of tech and coding.

Girls Who Code: Learn to Code and Change the World

by Reshma Saujani

Girls who Code champions females and girl-empowerment. The book includes easy to grasp explanations of various coding principles as well as real life stories of girls and women who work for such companies as Pixar and NASA. It goes on to detail what a huge role computer science plays in our lives and how much fun it can be. It also features bold illustrations on every page.

Coding Games in Scratch: A Step-by-Step Visual Guide to Building Your Own Computer Games

by Jon Woodcock

For students who are just getting started with coding, Scratch is a great block-based program to use. This practical guide provides illustrated tutorials that show readers not just what to do but also why! It introduces strategies for problem solving, collaborating, and thinking creatively.

Get Coding! Learn HTML, CSS & JavaScript and Build a Website, App, and Game

by Young Rewired State

The beginning of this book contains a plea for help from the fictional Professor Harry Bairstone, who has just found a precious gem called the Monk Diamond. As readers progress through the chapters, they will embark on a quest to help him keep the Monk Diamond safe from nefarious jewel thieves. Along the way, they will complete short coding projects and learn how to use three of the most important programming languages used in web development and design: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Python for Kids, 2nd Edition: A Playful Introduction to Programming

by Jason R. Briggs

This kid-friendly guide aims to make Python fun to learn and use! Python is one of the most widely used text-based computer programming languages in the world, and this book walks students through the basics of text-based programming in a comprehensive but digestible way. The sample code problems feature everything from gorillas to secret agents, and the main text is accompanied by colorful illustrations, puzzles, definitions, and a section on troubleshooting.

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This month’s STEM Tuesday book list was prepared by:

Lydia Lukidis is the author of 50+ trade and educational books for children. Her titles include DANCING THROUGH SPACE: Dr. Mae Jemison Soars to New Heights (Albert Whitman, 2024), DEEP, DEEP, DOWN: The Secret Underwater Poetry of the Mariana Trench (Capstone, 2023) and THE BROKEN BEES’ NEST (Kane Press, 2019) which was nominated for a Cybils Award. A science enthusiast from a young age, she now incorporates her studies in science and her everlasting curiosity into her books. Another passion of hers is fostering a love for children’s literacy through the writing workshops she regularly offers in elementary schools across Quebec with the Culture in the Schools program. For more information, please visit www.lydialukidis.com.

Callie Dean is a researcher, writer, and musician living in Shreveport, LA. She writes stories that spark curiosity and encourage kids to explore their world. For more information, please visit https://www.calliebdean.com.

STEM Tuesday — Coding– Interview with Janet Slingerland

By STEM Tuesday on December 22, 2020 / Coding, STEM Tuesday

Welcome to STEM Tuesday: Author Interview & Book Giveaway, a repeating feature for the last Tuesday of every month. Go Science-Tech-Engineering-Math!

Many of us on the STEM Tuesday team work hard to showcase the often unsung heroes writing books that spark the imagination of young readers. But it is not often that we get to celebrate one of our own. Today we are interviewing Janet Slingerland – author Coding Creations, Coding 123 and Video Game Coding. Janet is a STEM advocate whose books have covered a wide range of non-fiction topics for k-12. The subjects include plant development, atoms and molecules, nanotechnology, military vehicles and more.

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Christine Taylor-Butler: Janet, You are a kindred spirit. We both grew up reading, writing and conducting science experiments as kids. What was the most ambitious experiment you tried as a child? Was there praise and encouragement or were your parents (like mine) a bit flabbergasted?

Janet Slingerland: When I was growing up, I did a little bit of everything. I wrote really bad poetry, played lots of instruments (everything but strings and percussion) and sang, wandered around the woods, did theater, played sports, and read A LOT. When I was really young, I remember making mud pies and performing “experiments” at the dinner table. I’m sure you can guess what my parents thought of those experiments. I’m not sure I ever got really ambitious with science experiments after that. I fell in love with math and physics in high school – that propelled me into engineering school.

CTB: Women in children’s literature aren’t often acknowledged for our technical backgrounds. You earned a degree in electrical engineering and wrote computer software before becoming a writer. Tell us a bit about that journey. What it was like writing subroutines for submarines (and other machines)!

Janet: I’m not sure I really knew what I was getting into when I went to engineering school. I loved physics and math, but the science and math I had to learn in college was at a level I had never imagined! It was in college that I wrote my first computer program. Programming (or coding) combines learning another language with logical thinking – two things I’m pretty good at. (I was almost fluent in Spanish when I graduated from high school – unfortunately, I’ve forgotten most of it since then.)

When I graduated from college, I entered the Edison Engineering Program at General Electric Aerospace. The location I worked at was originally an RCA/Victor facility – where they once made Victrola phonographs. It still specialized in communication systems, so I ended up working in both coding and codes. I programmed computers inside things like submarines, telephones, and airplanes. The programs I worked on supported secure communications – things that used cryptography to make the communications unintelligible to anyone spying on them.

I found the work incredibly rewarding. I still remember the first day we got our secure telephone system working in the lab. We were talking back and forth, and it sounded like we were just talking over a regular telephone. We spent several days convincing ourselves that our voices were being encrypted and decrypted – old encrypted systems would warp the voices so it was obvious you were not talking on a normal phone.

CTB: When I was learning coding, it was Fortran, then PL1. Computers were room sized. That was a long time ago. How much has coding changed since you were in the field? Ever think of diving back in?

Janet: My first programming language was also Fortran – Fortran 77, to be exact. My college year was one of the first that wasn’t required to program a computer using punch cards. (It was fun to see those in the movie Hidden Figures.)

Example of Fortran 77

When I was working, I programmed primarily in assembly language and C. Assembly language doesn’t read like a normal language. It’s designed at a very low level. Grace Hopper was one of the visionaries who felt that a computer language should read in a way that you could tell what the programmer was intending for the computer to do.

I know coding has changed a bit since I first learned it. There are a lot more languages out there, running on a lot more platforms (like cell phones and e-readers/tablets). But I think at its core, coding hasn’t changed much at all. Logic really doesn’t change over time, and a coding language is really just a tool coders use to communicate with a computer. It’s easy to learn a new tool once you know the basics.

I do sometimes feel the desire to get back to coding. There is something very satisfying in starting with just an idea and building up code that brings that idea to life.

CTB: Your books cover a wide range of topics. Why did you make the switch from engineering to writing books about STEM?

Janet: I’ve always loved books and reading. It turns out, I also always had a love of writing. I was often the person (or one of the people) who wrote the documentation for our work – whether that was a lab in school or a project at work.

I found being a woman in the field of engineering/coding to be very challenging. When I was pregnant with my 3rd child, I struggled a lot with the work environment. When he was born, I found the joys at work were too few compare to the struggles. I started following my second love – writing. My background in math, science, and engineering, and my endless curiosity made writing STEM a natural fit.

CTB: So one advantage of writing in STEM is that you are never bored. It’s a major component in the development of just about everything.

Janet: So true! I have yet to find a subject that wasn’t totally fascinating once I started learning about it

CTB: For purely selfish reasons I was fascinated by your book, Coding Creations, which covers Scratch, a free coding language for young people developed by my alma mater. I had not realized MIT’s Media Lab had a Lifelong Kindergarten Group division. Did you have an opportunity to experiment with Scratch while writing the book?

Janet: Absolutely! The first thing I had to do for Coding Creations was to decide on what computer language we would use. I tried out a few, including Scratch and Python – two free coding languages. (I didn’t want money to be a barrier that would keep a curious kid from learning about coding.)

A lot of people dismiss Scratch because it is a block coding language. Each command is represented by a block you connect together to build a program. Scratch doesn’t let you put the blocks together in a way that won’t work. In traditional coding languages, you have to use the proper syntax – you need to spell commands correctly, give them the correct inputs, and use the proper punctuation – in order for it to work. Sometimes, a simple error in syntax can take a long time to figure out.

Scratch 3.0

When I was working with Scratch for the book, I realized it’s actually a very powerful language. It has some limitations, but there are ways to work around most of them. It also works on many different platforms. You don’t even need to download it onto your computer – you can work with it online, if you have a reliable internet connection. That means you can work on your code from different computers if you have to.

My kids used Scratch when they were in school. One of the things that frustrated them is that they were given a lot of time to “play around.” Unfortunately, they didn’t really know much about coding and didn’t feel comfortable playing around with it. My goal with Coding Creations was to introduce readers to Scratch so they would be comfortable playing around with it. Not only did I want to give them a taste of what they could do with it – animation, music/sound, drawing, and coding – but I wanted them to see what other resources were available from Scratch so they could explore more on their own.

CTB: For students interested in video games as a career, your book on Video Game Coding might serve as a launching point for exploring careers. At my daughter’s college, for instance, students in the video games division had a 100% rate of employment at graduation. If you had to do it again, would you code video games? Or better, what’s your favorite if you play them?

Janet: I wrote the Video Game Coding book mainly because I have a son who is interested in coding – specifically in video game coding. I wanted to learn how video game coding was similar to and different from the coding I did. As I suspected, the basics are pretty much the same, but there are differences in the details – and, of course, in how fun the end result is.

I think a lot of young gamers imagine video game coding to be a very glamorous career. While I’m sure it has its moments of fun and glamour – it’s like all other programming careers. It’s a lot of work and long hours.

All of my kids are big gamers. My favorite video games are puzzle and word games. I’ve tried playing games with my kids, and it’s pitiful – I have no idea what I’m doing. If it’s a game where you lose lives, I die VERY quickly. I could probably get into something like Animal Crossing (one of my daughter’s favorite games), but I honestly prefer to read.

CTB: One of the things I love about your website is that you include resources to pair with each book. For instance, for your graphic novel on The Secret Life of Plants, you list not only links to science experiments, but a plant detective game, and the world carrot museum. Whats one of the most unusual or fascinating resources you encountered?

Janet: That’s a really tough question. In addition to writing, I do a lot of work with scouts. When my daughter was younger, I was a Girl Scout leader. Now, I’m a Scouts BSA merit badge counselor. For that and for STEM Tuesday, I’m always looking for new ways to engage with or learn about things.

There are a few things that pop into my head as being unusually compelling – and the World Carrot Museum is definitely up there. Another is the Molecularium Project – which was put out by one of my alma maters, Rensselaer – https://www.molecularium.com. It’s like a video game where you can explore molecules.

I also love PhET – https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations. This site is filled with simulations that illustrate just about every math and science concept you can think of. For instance, here’s one that shows how people see color: https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/color-vision . It shows that seeing color actually involves more that one science – it involves the physics of light and the biology of the human eye.

CTB: People often conflate STEM with pushing young people into careers in coding. Your book Sports Science and Technology was an excellent example of how STEM is used everywhere, including careers that might dovetail with a person’s real interest. For instance, part of helping a gymnast improve their skill is understanding physics. What one thing fascinated you as you researched sports related applications for STEM?

Janet: I think we need to stop thinking putting things in bins. People think they’re either artsy or mathematical. They’re either sporty or sciencey. There are crossovers in everything.

My father was a gym teacher. Growing up, I played field hockey, volleyball, and track and field. I also marched in marching band. It amazed me that people didn’t view it as a sport – it was just as physically demanding as the other sports I participated in.

I think what fascinated me the most while researching my Sports Science books was how old the idea of sports science is. These ideas started long, long ago, when gladiators were fighting in the Roman coliseum. What’s kind of amazing is how long it took for those ideas to catch on in modern-day sports.

CTB. What’s next on the horizon for Janet Slingerland? Any upcoming books or projects we should be watching out for

Janet: A few years ago, I wrote a 12-book series about the weird creatures in the world. The books were delayed, and then 2020 happened. I hope I get to see them in print before too much time goes by. I have another book coming out in 2021 from The Child’s World called Quiet vs. Loud. This book helps young readers learn about the physics of sound.

There are a few other books I’m working on. Hopefully, I’m able to get some publishers as excited about them as I am. I call one of them a SHTEAM book – it adds history to science, technology, engineering, art, and math – all related to an object so common people barely notice it anymore.

CTB: Thanks, Janet, for taking time out to talk to us!

Win a FREE copy of “Coding Creations” or “Video Game Coding”.

Enter the giveaway by leaving a comment below. The randomly-chosen winner will be contacted via email and asked to provide a mailing address (within the U.S. only) to receive the book.

Good luck!

Janet Slingerland studied engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Drexel University. She has written many science books for children, including The Secret Lives of Plants!, which was named a Top 40 YA nonfiction book by the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association. Janet lives in Mount Laurel, New Jersey with her husband, three kids and a dog named “Rocky.”

To learn more about Janet and her books, please visit www.janetsbooks.com. You can follow her on Twitter @SlingSong. Or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/janetsbooks

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Your host is Christine Taylor-Butler, MIT engineering nerd and author of Bathroom Science, Sacred Mountain: Everest, Genetics, and more than 70 other nonfiction books for kids. She is also the author of the middle grade sci-fi series The Lost Tribes. Follow @ChristineTB on Twitter and/or @ChristineTaylorButler on Instagram

Posts Tagged coding

STEM Tuesday– Coding– In the Classroom

How-To

Flow-Charts

Explore ASCII

Explore More

Like this:

STEM Tuesday– Coding– Book List

Like this:

STEM Tuesday — Coding– Interview with Janet Slingerland

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Posts Tagged coding

STEM Tuesday– Coding– In the Classroom

How-To

Flow-Charts

Explore ASCII

Explore More

Share this:

Like this:

STEM Tuesday– Coding– Book List

Share this:

Like this:

STEM Tuesday — Coding– Interview with Janet Slingerland

Good luck!

Share this:

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Giveaways!

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