Great minds — other books, not just ours, you may like

Great minds think alike and there are other books in our space that we think you may like. These are a few titles we’ve come across recently.

  1. Hello, Ruby by Linda Liukas, cofounder of Rails Girls (see our post on supporting girls in STEM subjects). This forthcoming picture book for 4-7 year olds features a girl called Ruby and her adventure that just happens to relate ideas of computer programming such as sequencing, variables, loops, conditionals and operators.  Read about it on mashable.
    ruby
  2. Hot Air by Sandrine Dumas Roy, illustrated by Emmanuelle Houssais. “An unusual, sideways look at global warming and environmental politics” according to publisher Phoenix Yard books.
  3. LEO the Maker Prince: Journeys in 3D Printing by Carla Diana. This picture book teaches the basics of 3D printing and all the items and characters in the book are downloadable 3D “patterns” on Thingiverse. Get more background on the book on c|net.
    leo
  4. Dot by Randi Zuckerber, illustrated by Joe Berger. How Dot, a young tech-savvy girl, learns to moderate her use of technology and actually goes outside to play. Read Zuckerberg’s Huffington Post article about the book.
  5. How the Meteorite Got to the Museum by Jessie Hartland “chronicles how a rock from outer space broke free from its billion-year orbit, crashed into a teenager’s Chevy Malibu, and landed in New York City’s American Museum of Natural History”  according to publisher Blue Apple Books.
    Meteor
  6. Papa’s Mechanical Fish by Candace Fleming, illustrated by Boris Kulikov, is the story of an inventor, based on real life personality Lodner Phillips, who creates a submarine to talke his family for a trip to the bottom of the lake.
    papa-mech

What additions would you make to this list? Let us know in the comments.

Resilience and Sustainability at Kids Future Press

iStock_landscape-with-alfalfa-300x200
No matter what you call it—sustainability or resilience, even thrivability—there are a few key elements that always arise. It’s not just about ecology and natural systems, although those are the foundations. Here’s the skeletal framework for how we think about it…

  • ecology: ecoliteracy (understanding how nature works) and protecting, restoring and coexisting with the natural systems around us
  • energy: carbon neutrality, people powered transport, renewable energy, energy conservation
  • material efficiency: reduction, recycling, reuse, local sourcing
  • the public realm: public or community places, public transport
  • food systems: organic agriculture, urban agriculture
  • diversity: gender, race and other social markers
  • equity: improved income equality, fair trade, equal opportunity
  • distributed systems that are diverse and adaptable: for water and energy infrastructure, agriculture, manufacturing, services
  • health and happiness: spiritual, physical, and mental. Sometimes tied to a person’s sense of capability (having, doing, being, interacting) and fulfillment of human needs for subsistence, protection, affection, understanding, participation, leisure, creativity, identity, and freedom
  • cultural systems and heritage: collaborative consumption, social capital, sharing economy, places of distinction, localism, the slow movement, and more

Supporting girls in STEM: 10 organizations that inspire

  1. Black girls code is a San Francisco based group aiming to empower girls of color ages 7 to 17 to innovate in the STEM fields. Their long-term goal is to increase the number of women of color in the digital space
    blackgirls
  2. Girl Scouts has an impressive array of programs and research aimed at introducing STEM to girls through “fun with purpose.” Their report, “Generation STEM: What Girls Say about Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math” includes a tip sheet for parents and girls.
  3. The National Girls Collaborative Project is bringing together organizations throughout the USA that are encouraging girls to head for careers in science, technology, engineering and math. Through collaboration the group hopes to maximize resources, strengthen capacity and build towards a tipping point for gender equity in STEM.
  4. Girlstart works to increas interest and engagement in STEM through innovative learning programs. Girlstart emphasizes curiosity and creativity.
    girlstartcatalogcover2013
  5. Million Women Mentors is a campaign to increase the number of women mentors from STEM for girls interested in these fields.Research shows that having successful female role models helps break down stereotypes about girls not performing well in STEM subjects.
  6. Anita Borg Institute focuses on supporting women in computing, helping them grow their careers and find their female peers
  7. STEMettes. This UK-based organization, launched in February 2013, is “showing the next generation that girls do Science too.” They host events, such as a girls hack-a-thon, and produce a news blog featuring women in STEM.
  8. WISE (women in science and engineering) promotes female talent in STEM subject from “the classroom to the boardroom.”
  9. Engineer Girl (National Academy of Engineering) is designed to highlight for girls the exciting aspects of engineering as a career. The website provides stories and information about women in engineering.
    engineergirl
  10. Rails Girls, taking its name from programming language Ruby and a web application framework known as Ruby on Rails, is a group that provides tools and a community to help women and girls understand technology and build their ideas.

These are few groups that we know about. Do you have any to add? Let us know it the comments.

8 tech learning games and projects

Are you looking for creative, hands-on ways to engage your kids with design and technology? Ranging from inexpensive iPad apps to more pricey kits, here are 8 projects to try.

1.    littleBits are LEGO™ – like bricks that are “wired” so kids can easily build simple circuits for basic functions such as light, sound, sensing, or motor operation. The bricks, which are color coded and snap together with magnets, have tiny circuit-boards making it possible to create fairly sophisticated electronics in an intuitive way.

boxes of littleBits
Read a review from a family with children.

 

GoldieBlox Toy2.    GoldieBlox aim to get girls building by combining a story book with a set of construction blocks. They say, “Girls have strong verbal skills. They love stories and characters. They aren’t as interested in building for the sake of building; they want to know why. GoldieBlox stories replace the 1-2-3 instruction manual and provide narrative-based building, centered around a role model character who solves problems by building machines.”

3.    Big Shot is a build-it-yourself digital camera in a kit that you and the kids assemble and then use as a regular digital camera. A big goal of the company is to “draw young minds to science and engineering,” particularly young people in underserved communities.

bigshot camera

4.    3D printer: There are many, many 3D printers on the market, some you can get as a kit of parts to assemble yourself, others are assembled out of the box. Two that have kids in mind are Cube 3D and ultimaker. Read how Kai Falkenberg’s kindergartner can 3D print.

In addition, according to makezine, Hasbro has teamed up with a 3D printing company to bring out a “toy” 3D printer that involves playdoh.

5.    Electronic playdough: Speaking of playdough, it’s quite easy to create circuits from playdough by making salty, conductive dough and sugary, insulating dough and using these doughs to string together a battery and components such as lights or sensors. Instruction available over at Squishy Circuits.

playdough circuits

6.    Mindstorm is LEGO’s robot-building kit that enables kids to program walking, talking robots. Using an icon-based programming interface helps kids bring their creations to life.

7.    Hopscotch is a character-based iPad programming app that lets kids write simple programs to control the characters. The programming language works by dragging and dropping small blocks of instruction into a script panel.

hopscotch ipad app

 

8.    Move the Turtle is an iPad app that engages kids with the basics of programming.  As with hopscotch, children use a simple interface to give a turtle instructions for moving around the screen. Read a review on Wired.

moveturtle

This is just a starter collection of ideas. When you’ve given some of these a try, let us know how you get on in the comments. Have ideas for other projects and kit? Please share them in the comments too.