Other

CONTESTS, ROBOTS, ELECTRONICS, GAMES, etc . . .

• Arduino  www.arduino.cc 
  Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.  Arduino can sense the environment by receiving input from a variety of sensors and can affect its surroundings by controlling lights, motors, and other actuators.   excellent tutorial

• Blogs:   A great way to express yourself and become more computer savvy is to create a blog (or mini-blog) with free, easy to use blogging platforms and hosts: Kidblog or Blogspot or Wordpress or Tumblr

•  CONTESTS

• • Food Intake App for NASA:  http://www.topcoder.com/iss/fit/

  • Equal Futures App Challenge http://equalfutures.challenge.gov/   This one is over, but an interesting venture.  From the White House Council on Women and Girls -- successful apps promote civic education and inspire girls to serve as leaders in our democracy.

  • National STEM Video Game Challenge  www.stemchallenge.org/about  Middle and high school youth are encouraged to submit their original game designs for the opportunity to earn recognition and prizes.  Opportunities for mentors to get involved through a new website featuring toolkits resources and curriculum.  Goal:  to motivate interest in STEM learning among America's youth by tapping into students' natural passion for playing and making video games.   

  • Technovation Challenge  technovationchallenge.org  Technovation Challenge partners high school and middle school girls with professional women in tech and business to create and pitch mobile apps.  What app would help your community? In Minnesota, see Technovation[MN].org

• CSUnplugged www.csunplugged.org   is computer science without the computer... a collection of free learning activities that teach Computer Science through engaging games and puzzles that use cards, string, crayons and lots of running around.

• DIY   DIY.org is a new website(for profit, but currently free) for kids with lists of projects to do to earn cool patches.  One of the topics, called n00b, presents 7 challenges in elementary computing. Here's the link to the n00b challenges.   

• Hummingbird  www.hummingbirdkit.com Create your own robots from craft materials, then program them.   Cool kit ($199) developed at Carnegie Mellon University's CREATE lab    summary from CMU  article

• Lego Robotics  mindstorms.lego.com  Build robots using special Lego pieces and then program the robot on your computer and download optically to the NXT "brain" -- expensive equipment, but lots of opportunity for learning and fun.   In the Minneapolis area, kids can take Lego Robotics classes at Leonardo's Basement,  The Works or The Bakken.
  

• NetLogo   website   a programmable modeling environment for simulating natural and social phenomena that lets students open simulations and "play" with them, exploring their behavior under various conditions.

• Raspberry Pi  www.raspberrypi.org/faqs Can a $35 computer put the fun back into programming?  Can it transform coding education for kids?  summary

• SketchUp  www.sketchup.com/ Not coding, but way-cool software to build and control.  With this free 3D modelling software you can design a building, or a video game landscape or program a laser printer to cut two dimensional pieces for your project, or many other applications.