I coded some interactive faces with @p5xjs! Excited to share these with @BrearleyNYC’s Math Dept. #STEMed #STEAM #mathchat #CCfestNYC

1. Mouse movements cause eyes to look left or right

• See the code here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZX_84j2VYPQNt9QEff8X3vMV5_b14JCRPnTAVhC9orc/edit?usp=sharing
• Try it out here: https://alpha.editor.p5js.org/embed/Byx_KndyM
• See a video below:

 

2. Mouse movements cause eyes to cross:

• See the code here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pv7lo6OMzIkO4zWB6ldHkN-Qqg2iV3wCXImcQnTi53c/edit?usp=sharing
• Try it out here: https://alpha.editor.p5js.org/embed/S1tCRt_1G
• See a video below:

 

3. Sounds animate facial features (a work in progress):

• See the code here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1paQjK4ov9vcnrnJSv2Ad2GymHS87bVGrY4tVsC82o1E/edit?usp=sharing
• Try it out here: https://alpha.editor.p5js.org/embed/r1YDuKOJf 
• See a video below:

6th graders programmed kaleidoscopes in Snap! Thank you, @paley2!

One awesome kiddo located images of me as costumes for her sprites…

In July, I took a week-long course about the Beauty and Joy of Computing curriculum co-sponsored by CSNYC and TEALS. They organized a week of learning for us led by Josh Paley (@paley2). Josh adapts the BJC curriculum to teach computer science to high schoolers and college students. Josh shared numerous projects and examples and teaching strategies. While Snap (out of Berkeley) is super similar to Scratch (out of MIT), I have not seen any evidence that there is any East Coast vs. West Coast turf war. Snap is a BYOB environment (build your own block), which is a pretty powerful modification of Scratch. Here’s a Google Doc full of awesome resources that Josh shared with us: http://tinyurl.com/nycbjcaug2014

I replicated the Kaleidoscope program with 6th graders today, as it was one of the easier projects I did with Josh that just entailed having multiple sprites on the screen. The students and I had a great conversation about sprites, costumes, and rules of reflection about the x-axis and y-axis. Here is a link to the program: http://tinyurl.com/krbkaleidoscope — use the space bar starts the action and the c key clears the screen.

Thank you again to Cindy Gao of CSNYC, Nathaniel Granor of TEALS, and Josh Paley for a great week of inspiration!

Checking out the downloadable Creative Computing Scratch guides (one for educators and one for learners) from @hgse

From my friends who attended the Scratch@MIT conference over the summer (while I was stuffing my face with BBQ on my #diameates road trip with @BangkokGlutton), I learned about a new student workbook to go along with the Creative Computing curriculum guide that was created by members of the ScratchEd research team at Harvard Graduate School of Education. Many thanks to Christan Balch, Michelle Chung, and Karen Brennan for writing the guides and sharing their work with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License!

The following excerpt is from Creative Computing website:

We encourage you to use as much or as little of the guide as you like, to design new activities, and to remix the included activities. No matter your prior experience or expertise, we think of every educator as a co-designer of the Creative Computing experience. We would love to learn about what you’re doing, so we encourage you to document and share your experiences with us and with other educators via the ScratchEd community at http://scratched.gse.harvard.edu

The guide and the workbook are downloadable as PDFs or PPTs. I linked them below:

1. Guide as PDF: 
   http://scratched.gse.harvard.edu/guide/files/CreativeComputing20140806.pdf
2. Guide as PPT: 
   http://scratched.gse.harvard.edu/guide/files/CreativeComputing20140806.pptx
3. Workbook as PDF: 
   http://scratched.gse.harvard.edu/guide/files/CreativeComputing20140820_LearnerWorkbook.pdf
4. Workbook as PPT: 
   http://scratched.gse.harvard.edu/guide/files/CreativeComputing20140820_LearnerWorkbook.pptx

Also, the good folks of Creative Computing also offered an online course. Maybe they’ll offer it again. Here’s the information: https://creative-computing.appspot.com/preview

Searching for LEGO Mindstorms NXT project ideas with @gbenedisgrab

Greg Benedis-Grab (@gbenedisgrab) stopped by just now and asked if I knew where to find ideas for robotics projects. I haven’t taught Robotics or Programming in a few years, so I googled NXT project ideas and similar search words. He and I spent a few minutes examining the results, and we liked the following resources:

STEM with Vernier and NXT Mindstorms using sensors!:
http://www.vernier.com/products/books/stem/

Lots of project ideas here:
http://www.nxtprograms.com/index1.html
http://www.nxtprograms.com/projects2.html

Great collection of projects/designs from Tufts:
http://www.legoengineering.com/library/cat_view/30-building-instructions/38-nxt-based-creations.html

Interesting Prezi about robotics
http://prezi.com/xb4tjiln807m/robotics-robots-nxt-and-challenges/

Dr. Graeme’s collection of projects:
http://www.drgraeme.net/DrGraeme-free-NXT-G-tutorials/ChV4.htm

Tutorials from Official MINDSTORMS NXT 2.0 Bonus Models
http://robotsquare.com/2012/03/03/tutorial-official-bonus-models/

Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy (via Adrienne Gifford @edtechlove on Twitter!)
http://www.education.rec.ri.cmu.edu/previews/nxt_products/robotics_eng_vol_1/robo_eng_1_print_preview.htm