Explorers Activity

Use this link as a starting point to learn about the information on the Internet:

• Explorers Activity

Note: To be able to keep your question page open in one tab while continuing your work, click on the links while holding the key - the link will be loaded into a new browser tab.

Internet Search Engines for Kids

It can be fun for children to search the Internet, but some websites are not designed for children to be able to understand them, and some post inappropriate content.

Try these two search engines to find content on the Internet that should in general be suitable for kids:

• http://www.kidrex.org/
• http://www.kiddle.co/

The Internet, Privacy and You

The Internet is a lot like a shopping mall. It can be fun to visit, serves a very useful purpose, but children and adults alike need to keep their wits about them to have a safe and enjoyable experience.

Try this Privacy Pirates game to test your knowledge of privacy on the Internet:

• Privacy Pirates Game (requires Flash)

Pi Day 2017

This year March 14 (3/14) is in the middle of March Break, so we will be celebrating Pi Day a few days early.

The website that says it all:

• PiDay.org

Here are some fun links:

• Fugue on Pi
• Mathematical Pi Song
• Pi Limericks
• Pi Symbol Domino Chain
• Pi Mnemonics Song

Pi's relationship with all things circular is well-known. But pi turns up in some other surprising places:

• Buffon's Needle Problem

Electricity Safety and Conservation

We will be having a special presentation on electricity safety and conservation tomorrow. But what is electricity? Here are some good links to help you learn more:

• Overview of electricity
• Electricity Quick Facts and Fun Games

Creative Computing Time Coding Activities from code.org

Here are some activities to choose from for Creative Computing Time, all from code.org, that are different from the Hour of Code activities:

• code.org "Artist: Functions"
• code.org "Maze: Conditionals" 
• code.org "Artist: Nested Loops" 
• code.org: Pong Style Game, step-by-step

Advanced choices:

• code.org "Artist: Variables"
• code.org "Play Lab: Variables"

Video Tutorials for ScratchJr

Here are some neat ideas of projects to build with ScratchJr:

• Addition Game
• Knock Knock Joke
• Beginning Letter Sounds

Happy coding! 

Chomp

The interactive game in the next Caribou Contest (on Wednesday January 18) is Chomp. This is a game that is simple to play, but without practice, can be difficult to win! Here is a link to the Caribou webpage where you can learn about Chomp and practice playing:

• Caribou - Chomp Game

When starting out, it is a good idea to figure out positions on the board from which there is no hope of winning, and then try to never give your opponent a board that is one step away from these losing positions.

Here is a "cheat sheet" that shows some losing positions. (Note that for the Caribou Contest, the minimum board dimension is 4 x 4.)

• Losing Positions Cheat Sheet

Here is another worksheet that can be used to keep track of the winning opening move for various sized Chomp games.

• Winning Opening Moves Worksheet

Thanks to Serge Mister for preparing both the losing positions and winning opening moves sheets.

Hexaflexagons - How amazing is this paper folding?

What is a hexaflexagon? A strip of paper, folded into triangles that can do some really cool flips!

Cool videos:

• Vi Hart video about Hexaflexagons 
• Vi Hart video about Hexaflexagons, Part 2 
• Vi Hart Hexaflexagon Safety Guide
• Vi Hart Flex Mex
• Vi Hart - How to Make a Tri-Hexaflexagon (advanced method) 

Written instructions and templates:

• Instructions for making tri-hexaflexagon
• Flexagon.net The biggest collection of flexagon facts and fun!
• Aunt Annie's Crafts - good hexa-hexaflexagon templates

Hour of Code Challenges from code.org

December 5-9 is Computer Science Education Week, and code.org has developed a number of fun Hour of Code challenges.

Here are some great activities to choose from.

Making art:

• Code with Elsa and Anna - Drawing Snowflakes and Patterns
• Artist - draw shapes and patterns  

Solving puzzles:

• Moana - Wayfinding Puzzles
• Kodable Puzzles
• Build a Galaxy with Star Wars - Blocky
• Minecraft - Adventurer - solve puzzles 

More challenging puzzles:

•  Build a Galaxy with Star Wars - JavaScript
• Minecraft - Designer - Program the characters to do what you want

For math lovers who want a programming challenge:

• Introduction to MATLAB Hour of Code challenge 

For those who want to try activities with Python:

• Python with Penjee
• Turtle Graphics with Python - does not work properly