Programming Pupils

CODE OF CONDUCT: Busy day at MPA! We worked on CJ's custom Nerf gun some more, had a 'campus' clean up, braved the throngs at Costco, tackled some science homework, and then came home and had lots of fun learning more about coding! 

Thanks to an ad on Facebook, believe it or not, a couple of days ago I learned about Code.org's "Hour of Code" educational campaign.  Here's a short promotional video all about it: http://youtu.be/FC5FbmsH4fw

Founded in 2013, Code.org  is a non-profit dedicated to expanding participation in computer science by making it available in more schools, and increasing participation by women and underrepresented students of color. Impressively, some 59 million students have already tried the Hour of Code. Today, it was our turn!

I used Code.org's lesson plan called "The Drawing Machine" to get things rolling. The lesson was intended to help prepare us to program Anna and Elsa from Disney's "Frozen" in the Hour of Code activity.

We started off by talking about what a computer is - and isn't. I pointed out to the kids that the box on the floor (hard drive) of my computer was nothing but bolts, conductors, electronics all sitting there, unthinking and undirected. Without a program, which requires a programmer (or coder), a computer is just a fancy paperweight. 

Using Code.org's educator's guidelines, we talked about how a program is a set of instructions. But it's not just *any* instructions - it's broken down step-by-step, they have to be in the right order, and they have to be specific, detailed, precise. Using the right words/language is key.

Then, we were ready to launch into the Drawing Machine activity, where one student would be the programmer, using only specific instructions, to 'program' Student 2, who would be the computer, and execute those instructions. Sounds simple, right? ...

The programmer was limited to phrases like 'move forward' or 'move back' 5 inches, and turn right or turn left, and they could include the number of degrees to turn (45, 60, 90, or 120), but that's it. 

Annabelle was the computer first ...

and CJ was the programmer. 

He started using too many words and going off script, to which Annabelle replied, 'Does not compute!!"

Eventually, they got on track, and using CJ's program, she drew a square.

Then, they switched roles. Annabelle chose a bit tricker shape for CJ to draw. Her instructions were OK at first ...

but that third angle proved problematic, as you can see by Computer CJ's final drawing (in blue).

That acticity complete, we were ready to move on to a *real* computer challenge, the Hour of Code Frozen exercise!

It was a total of 20 steps, each using block-based coding, each building in complexity.

We started by drawing a simple box (just like CJ and Annabelle had done) ...

, and worked our way through more and more complex instructions. Concepts of repeat blocks, loops and functions were introduced, as was efficiency in programming.

Eventually, we were doing thing like drawing Anna skating 10 squares (with 36 degree turns between each of the squares) to make a snowflake. you can see our program work by following this link: http://studio.code.org/c/51803772

The kids were also successful in making a program that made Elsa carve out a multi-colored snowflake by skating back and forth 100 pixels, with 4 degrees between each line, for a full 360 degrees. That program is here: http://studio.code.org/c/50197953

The kids also had Elsa making 'doughnuts" out of circles and a function command called create circle: http://studio.code.org/c/53005797

After the kids finished their hour of coding, the Web site referred us to a page featuring ways to go beyond and learn more (http://code.org/learn/beyond). They definitely look like great resources we'll be using in the days and weeks to come!

I liked the fact that the interface let us know if our program could have been shorter or more efficient. (When your programmers want their snowflakes to be colorful, it takes more lines of code!)

After the kids completed the 20 steps, they earned a certificate - cool!

All in all, it was a wonderful, educational endeavor, and we'll absolutely be back for more. Big thanks to Code.Org for making it possible!

NEWSY: This morning, the kids worked through a couple of Time for Kids issues. One had a cover story about a toy sharing business, one of which is Pley, a LEGO-sharing subscription business. It also mentioned Yerdle, an app for giving and getting used items (it encompasses more than toys and looks very intriguing!). 

There was also an article about Catalonia, in northeastern Spain, and its recent vote regarding seceding from Spain (81 percent were in favor of independence, but Spain courts have ruled the vote unconstitutional). There were stories about poppies planted to honor WWI soldiers in England, bats' communication, sweet potatoes, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings, a look at past pilgrims, and a story about a deadly infection attacking salamanders. 

They also read a "TFK Extra!" supplement that was all about the NFL's Play 60 Challenge, a campaign to get kids to commit to being active at least 60 minutes a day. It was full of ideas to "jumpstart your play." I especially liked one bit of advice it included - "Ditch the Wrappers," encouraging kids to choose snacks (vegetables or fruit) that don't come in wrappers.

LEFT COAST LAUNCH: A little after 7 p.m. our time, we tuned into Spaceflightnow.com to watch live coverage of the countdown and launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket on the NROL-35 mission with a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office. 

The mission is super duper top secret. It sure had an interesting mission patch!

BREAKFAST: CJ starts his day checking on his nutcracker collection. This morning, he mused over whether or not the largest nutcracker would be able to 'eat' the smallest one. The answer? Probably.

Season's Greetings

MEANWHILE, IN INDIA: Isn't this lovely? Meet the Indian Space Research Oganisation's most powerful launcher ever, GSLV Mk-III. It has rolled out from their Vehicle Assembly Building to the launch pad for its Experimental Flight slated later in this month. Good vibrations are still soaring high after ISRO's successfull Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) inserted succesfully into the Red Planet's orbit a couple of months ago.

CHRISTMAS HISTORY: Thanks to a link to a home school based email list, we learned that the History Channel has a Christmas-centric site to learn more about the traditions in late December.   

There are 24 short videos (2-3 minutes apiece) about Christmas, plus 11 "Christmas in Depth" articles. My eye immediately fell on one story headlined, "7 Historical Events that Took Place on Christmas." Among the events: Apollo 8 orbits the moon, and Washington and his troops crossed the Delaware ahead of a pivotal battle in the Revolutionary War. And speaking of war, another item that made the list was the spontaneous truce in 1914, on a World War I battlefield in Belgium, when scores of German, British and French troops cast off their arms. The event was filled with caroling, hand shakes, sharing cigarettes and whiskey, and even a pickup game of soccer, so the story goes. 

Here's a wonderful illustration of the event, by A. C. Michael, originally published in The Illustrated London News, January 9, 1915.

In other news, just for fun, Dollar Tree has a cute Web site with holiday-themed games at http://www.santachallenge.com/. I suppose it's for kids, but I enjoyed some mindless distraction for a few minutes, too.  :)

THE KING AND THE COLONEL: Today, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield shared a link to video of him playing his favorite Elvis song. Sweet! http://youtu.be/eAzKearicsM

Musical Memories

MUSIC MARATHON:  Yesterday afternoon and evening, we headed for Seattle Center to see a loooong concert - Deck the Hall Ball, featuring a whole bunch o' 'new music' or 'alternative' bands (whatever that means any more). The show started at 3. We arrived a bit after 4, and spent the next SEVEN HOURS rockin' out. 

I'll let CJ and Annabelle tell you more about it, with CJ's review up first. ... 

On December 9th, I went to Key Arena to see Deck the Hall Ball, a holiday-themed concert run by a radio station called 107.7 The End. According to Wikipedia, Deck the Hall Ball has happened every year since 1992, in varying venues.

When we came to the concert, the band that was playing was a South African band called Kongos, which was followed up by bands including TV On The Radio (yes, you're supposed to capitalize it that way), Young the Giant, Cage The Elephant (yes, the capitalize 'The,' too), Weezer, and Imagine Dragons, most notable for their hit single "Radioactive."

During the intermissions between bands at the concert, what 107.7 The End was currently playing on their station was played through Key Arena's speakers. A highlight of the concert was that when Imagine Dragons was playing their song "Demons," many people started waving their cell phones around as though they were candles.

In the end, I enjoyed this year's Deck the Hall Ball.

And here's Annabelle's take ... 

On December 9th, 2014, I went to see an event at Key Arena called Deck the Hall Ball. It included some popular bands such as Weezer, Cage The Elephant, and Imagine Dragons. There were also other bands up-and-coming such as Kongos, along with TV on the Radio.

First was Kongos. We didn't exactly watch the whole thing (we really just wanted to see TV on the Radio and everyone after them), but it was fun none the less.

Next, TV on the Radio. They played their popular "Happy Idiot" and others. Surprisingly, they had a black singer (which you don't often see in alternative rock)!

Third, Cage the Elephant: I was especially excited for them (I enjoyed plenty of their songs). They played their newest hit,"Cigarette Daydreams" and other songs,such as "Come a Little Closer." After that there was Weezer. Playing many of their popular songs, including, but not limited to, "Undone (the Sweater Song)," with "Buddy Holly" as an encore. They were very fun, even if a little quiet.

And last but not least, Imagine Dragons. They were very fun,along with all the others. my favorite songs of theirs that they played would have to be "Radioactive" and "Demons." Overall,the concert was really fun, and I look forward to going next year!

My thoughts? Cage The Elephant are absolute rock stars, and it was great to see Weezer - though their sound tech was having a B-A-D night. And the whole evening would have been  better if the drunk art teacher from a suburb hadn't shown up and sat behind me. Ya know, if I pay $60+ bucks to see a concert, I pretty much don't want to hear the person behind me babbling loudly about how wonderful their gluten free beer is and all about their problems at work. And why did she even bother coming? She sure wasn't there for the music. We wound up moving seats to get away from her.   That said, overall it was great - and the Center is so pretty at night this time of year!

PAINTING:  The customization of a Nerf gun continues here at MPA. With three or four coats of white down, CJ and Annabelle taped off the areas CJ wanted to remain white, in preparation for some bright orange paint on some of the gun's parts.

As we were all taping, I said aloud, "There has to be a better way to do this." Surely there is a product out there for people custom painting small things (people who customize miniatures for role playing games, for instance). 

White areas supposedly protected, we hit the gun with a couple of coats of orange paint yesterday. Today, we peeled the tape off and while it mostly worked, there were several small spots where the orange somehow bled through to the white. DARN IT. Now, there's a whole lot of touching up to do. Drat. The saga continues.

Rockin' Tuesday

CHECKING IT TWICE: First thing this morning, I found CJ studying the nutcrackers. He had some ideas about how to make their lineup look a little more polished. I told him to go for it, as he is Designated Nutcracker Keeper.

CAT'S IN THE CRADLE: As part of a social studies and math themed "Oregon Trail" centered activity at the kids' Shoreline learning center, Annabelle and CJ have been researching life for those brave souls who crossed that nation to settle in greener pastures (or so they hoped).

Annabelle was tasked with learning about cat's cradle - a game pioneer children purportedly played. My sister and I spent HOURS and HOURS as kids playing it, even though we weren't part of a wagon train, LOL. 

Fortunately for Annabelle, she was able to learn the basics in just a couple of minutes, with just a couple of clicks of the mouse. Bet the Oregon Trail kids didn't do that. ;)

CHRISTMAS CONCERT:  Short blog today as we're headed out the door and won't be home until late thanks to the Deck the Hall Ball concert we're attending tonight at Key Arena. 

Cage the Elephant, Young the Giant, TV on the Radio, Imagine Dragons, Weezer and more. Should be Big Fun!

We love this new song from Weezer, and dig their Apollo-themed video to go with!

IT'S ALIVE: I failed to mention that over the weekend, a NASA exploratory spacecraft 2.9 BILLION miles from our planet awoke from long slumber during its journey to Pluto.

Right now, New Horizons, which left home nine years ago, is 'just' 160 million or so miles from Pluto. It has been in hibernation for about two-thirds of its journey.

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

On January 15, New Horizons will get close enough to Pluto to start taking measurements. By mid-May, we should be receiving the best images to date we've ever had of the dwarf planet

Follow this link for a short (3-minute video) about the mission (http://wapo.st/1D3kWMq):

It's Christmastime in the City

DOWNTOWN DELIGHTS:  We decided to start our week off with some holiday cheer, in the form of a visit to downtown Seattle to see some seasonal sights.

We caught the monorail downtown. 

CJ and Annabelle enjoyed riding in the front seat.

I sure love riding the 'rail. I wish there were lines all over the city. 

We arrived at the monorail's one and only destination: Westlake Park, which is full of holiday cheer.

The kids clambered around on the park's only piece of playground equipment ... 

And they also took a spin on the seasonal carousel.

Afterward, we checked out the temporary Alaska Airlines' "Recharge Lounge." It was a pretty oasis in the middle of the busy city. There were complimentary snacks, and the kids got to do an art project.

They each made a pair of antlers, which the wore the rest of the day.

Our next stop was the lobby of the downtown Sheraton, where the 22nd Annual Gingerbread Village is underway. Each year local architecture firms collaborate with the Sheraton Seattle culinary team to custom design, bake, and build the displays (there are six this year). The theme this year is "Jingle All the Way." 

MulvannyG2 Architecture's entry is "Mele Kalikimaka."  It was nice to see Santa getting some rest before the big night.

The display was a dazzling collection of tropical colors. 

The other side of it had an illuminated waterfall that changed colors. It was beautiful!

Skansa's entry was "O Christmas Tree." It had a whole lot going on.

I liked their crane, complete with a 12 man flag (that's SUCH a common sight in this town), and Blitz the Seahawks' mascot was even riding it (he's hard to see in this photo).

"Feliz Navidad," by Bailly and Bailly used hundreds upon hundreds of sugar cubes, and featured several favorite characters (Olaf from "Frozen," Buddy from "Elf" and Rudolph can all be seen in this frame.

The Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties & Gelotte Hommas Architecture's entry was inspired by "O Little Town of Bethlehem," "Little Drummer Boy," "Do You Hear What I Hear" and "First Noel."

It featured a manger scene and an enormous glass sugar star sculpture.

Callison's entry had all sorts of stuff going on. We spotted the character Carl Fredrickson from the great movie "Up" right away. 

My favorite was 4D Architects, Inc.'s entry, inspired by the songs "Christmas in the Northwest, "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," and "I'll Be Home for Christmas." I LOVED their attention to detail. They had so many landmarks, including the Space Needle, Smith Tower, the Macy's Christmas star, Lake Union and its houseboats, the Aurora Bridge, and even the Ballard locks on this side.

The other side even featured the boondoggle that is Bertha, which is supposed to be tunneling a replacement for the Viaduct. Instead, it's been stuck in place for over a year now. 

Love the use of Chicklets all over this one!

And here's a closeup of Bertha. Note the trail of dollars behind. (I read yesterday that Seattle Tunnel Partners have already been paid $1 billion of their $1.44 billion contract. How is that even possible, given Bertha has dug just a few feet and is nowhere near being done digging?

Frankly, all these creations make the cookies I made for an ugly sweater party this weekend seem rather pedestrian. 

Inspired by all the Christmas cheer, we came home and decked our halls. The (vintage silver!) tree is up, the stockings are hung, and the nutcracker collection is lining our living room window. 

RETRIEVING ORION: If you're a regular reader, you know that for us, last week was all about Orion, NASA's new space capsule for future manned flight.

We watched its fantastic test flight on Friday, early morning, and coverage of it landing in the Pacific Ocean, off Baja, California. 

What we didn't get to see Friday were photos of Orion being recovered at sea and then moved on board the U.S. Navy's USS Anchorage . Navy photographers captured some great shots of the operation!

Below, Navy Divers attach a towing bridle to NASA’s Orion Crew Module as part of the first at-sea testing of the Orion Crew Module using a Navy well deck recovery method. (Photo by U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Gary Keen)

The next photo shows Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Gary Keen, assigned to Fleet Combat Camera Pacific, and Navy Divers, capture imagery of the Orion Crew Module. Keen took some of the photos I'm sharing. (U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Corey Green )

Below, Navy Divers, assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 11 (EODMU11), Mobile Dive and Salvage Company 11-7, attach a towing bridal to the Orion Crew Module (U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Corey Green)

And here, Timothy Goddard (below, in the goggles and helmet), Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory Dive Operations Manager Oceaneering Space Systems, attaches a towing bridle to NASA’s Orion Crew Module. (U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Gary Keen)

I love this photo of Orion alongside the amphibious transport dock USS Anchorage (LPD 23) during the first Exploration Flight Test (EFT-1) NASA Orion Program.  (U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Corey Green)

And the next photo shows rigid hull inflatable boats and combat rubber raiding crafts guiding NASA’s Orion crew module towards the welldeck of the San Antonio class amphibious transport dock USS Anchorage (LPD 23). (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Elena Pence)

And here's a photo of Orion safely on board the USS Anchorage. Pretty cool! (U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Gary Keen)