1.27.1 👀 Creepy Faces, Holiday STEM Gifts, Internet Speed, Probability and Rescues, Coding Comments

Welcome! If you're wondering, the number 27 in the email subject is the number of weeks I've published emails in the first year. It's a versioning system. It also means I've published for half a year. Hopefully it's been interesting and useful for you to get STEM/STEAM links and content. This week I have a second SketchUp project, an interesting article about how probability is used when rescuing people, ideas for holiday gifts (if you get started early), and how comments are used in coding. Oh, and a Dad joke. Thank you for reading!

SketchUp Project: Creepy Faces

Two weeks ago my Wednesday email had links about 3D software. This week I want to share a 3D SketchUp article. They're great for kids who like to build things. This more intermediate level SketchUp project shows you how to create creepy faces with circles and distorting lines. Next Wednesday, I'll share a project that creates Halloween pumpkins.

Creepy Faces
https://kidscodecs.com/sketchup-creepy-faces/

Happy Halloween
https://danieltal.com/happy-halloween/

Sketchup Mosaics
https://danieltal.com/sketchup-mosaics/

History of SketchUp
https://mastersketchup.com/history-of-sketchup/

SketchUp for Kids
http://learningfromcities.blogspot.com/2014/01/sketchup-for-kids.html

How to Create Your First 3D Model in SketchUp: A Beginner-Friendly Introduction
https://i.materialise.com/blog/en/first-3d-model-in-sketchup-tutorial/

Bonnie Roskes
https://3dvinci.net/

Using Probability in Search and Rescue Operations

I came across an interesting video from PBS, the US public broadcasting system. It's about using probability to find a needle in a haystack. It uses probability to find a single object in a vast field that has many possible locations. This video shows how the US Coast Guard uses probability to find people lost in the ocean. The video is geared towards high school students. However, kids into boats and searching might find it interesting too.

The PBS site includes extensive teacher support materials at PBSLearningMedia.org. And one possible caveat: PBS websites require you to identify your location. That may or may not prevent you from seeing content. In this case, content appears to come from their New York affiliate where I'm located.

Using Probability in Search-and-Rescue Operations | Prediction by the Numbers | PBS LearningMedia
https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/nvpn-sci-sarops/using-probability-in-search-and-rescue-operations-prediction-by-the-numbers/
https://ny.pbslearningmedia.org/search/?q=probability

STEM Holiday Gifts: Books and Magazines

Since the fall of 2014, I've published an annual holiday STEM/STEAM gift guide. This fall, I want to publish items in these Wednesday emails. People shop the holidays at different times. And besides it's never too early, amiright? :-)

I thought STEAM magazines and books might be a great place to start. Illustoria, Aquila, and Brainspace are my favorite magazines. They're creative and inspiring to this adult and to their young readers. Illustoria also sells single copies which might make an interesting gift. For me, at least, all three are worth much more than their subscription prices.

For books, I've found a few over years. However, there's always something new and fun advertising on Facebook or elsewhere online. Visual dictionaries might be a fun idea for kids who are always asking how things work, or asking, "what’s that called?"

The Putney Hicks Inventor Adventure series looks like a fun read. If you're looking for similar STEM-focused novels and stories for kids, here are recommendations from ChatGPT (!): The Math Inspectors by Daniel Kenney, The Wild Robot by Peter Brown, Rosie Revere Engineer and Ada Twist Scientist both by Andrea Beaty and David Roberts, Frank Einstein by Jon Scieszka, Max Einstein: The Genius Experiment by James Patterson, and Ellie Ultra by Gina Bellisario. If it matters, my ChatGPT prompt was: “What are STEM novels and stories for kids that are like the Putney Hicks Inventor Adventures series?” I’m sure you could tweak the prompt to find all kinds of fun things for kids. Or for yourself.

Hopefully you won’t mind that my links are to Alibris instead of Amazon or IndieBound. I’m sure these titles can be found there. For me, however, Alibris and local bookstores are truly independent.

And if you want recommendations for something not here, reply to this email. I'll be happy to do a little research for you. We might find something worth sharing with everyone here.

Aquila
https://www.aquila.co.uk/

Illustoria
https://www.illustoria.com/

Brainspace
https://brainspacemagazine.com/

Edie’s Experiments
Written by one of our writers, Charlotte Barkla, this two book series might engage kids interested in science and engineering. It’s about a new school, a classroom full of potential new friends and a science kit. What could possibly go wrong?
https://www.penguin.com.au/books/edies-experiments-1-how-to-make-friends-9781760891770
https://www.penguin.com.au/books/edies-experiments-2-how-to-be-the-best-9781760891763

Putney Hicks Inventor Adventures
https://www.alibris.com/search/books/author/Marsha-Tufft?aid=11529546

Lift-the-Flap Computers and Coding
https://www.alibris.com/Lift-the-Flap-Computers-and-Coding-Rosie-Dickins/book/32101083

Goodnight Exomoon
https://www.kimarcand.com/goodnight-exomoon
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/inspire-your-toddlers-stem-career-goodnight-moon-parody-180975520/

Super Cool Scientists Coloring Book by Sara MacSorley
https://www.alibris.com/Super-Cool-Scientists-A-Coloring-Book-Celebrating-Women-in-Science-Sara-Macsorley/book/41045799

How Technology Works
https://www.alibris.com/How-Technology-Works-The-facts-visually-explained-DK/book/42395645

How Technology Works: From Monster Trucks to Mars Rovers
https://www.alibris.com/How-Technology-Works-From-Monster-Trucks-to-Mars-Rovers-DK/book/54487107

The Visual Dictionary of Everyday Things: Eyewitness Visual Dictionaries
https://www.alibris.com/The-Visual-Dictionary-of-Everyday-Things-Eyewitness-Visual-Dictionaries-Dorling-Kindersley-Publishing/book/14574619

Dorling Kindersley Publishing
https://www.alibris.com/search/books/author/Dorling-Kindersley-Publishing?aid=1344664

STEM Kids Coding Books
https://www.alibris.com/booksearch?mtype=B&keyword=kids+coding&hs.x=0&hs.y=0

The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets
https://www.alibris.com/The-Simpsons-and-Their-Mathematical-Secrets-Simon-Singh/book/24632654

The Book
A lavish and beautiful visual dictionary approach to describing key technologies we use every day.
https://howtorebuildcivilization.com/

Code the Classics Book
Into retro games? Want to code? The Raspberry Pi foundation has published a book full of 1970s and 1980s video games, interviews with their creators, and instructions how to code games inspired by Pong and games from that era.
https://store.rpipress.cc/collections/books/products/code-the-classics-volume-1-2nd-edition
https://store.rpipress.cc/collections/latest-bookazines

Elements of Coding: Comments

This is the eighth and final in a series about common elements across programming languages. Once you learn one language, identifying these elements helps you learn new languages quickly. Plus, you'll get a deeper understanding about the problems languages have to solve. And the trade offs languages make.

Last week explored programming style. It explored how languages use spaces, tabs, names, punctuation, and other devices to organize code. This week, I want to explore how programmers leave comments in their code. Comments can be useful when code is updated weeks, months, or years after it is created. Comments also can be confusing and a waste of time. If you're not careful. :-)

Comments appear either to the right of a line of code or above a block of code. Comments also can be one line or multiple lines in length. Programming languages must identify comments to prevent processing comments like code. Special characters identify the start and end of comments.

Many languages either use or accept the comment notation used by C, C++, and Perl. However, there are differences both interesting and worth discussion.

For example, one of the first programming languages, Fortran, indicated comments with a capital C in column 1 of any line of code. Visual Basic uses a single quote (") at the start of a comment. Meanwhile, a number of languages use double forward slashes (//), others uses a double dash (--), while still other languages use the pound sign (#).

Almost all comments appear above blocks of code. And multiple lines of a single comment begin and end with special characters. For example, in several languages, /* marks the start of a comment and */ marks the end.

Here’s an example of multiple line comment syntax for Python. A single hash (#) indicates the start and end of a comment:

#
build the heading by adding the
HTML tag to the title variable
#
headtag = <h2>" + title + "</h2>"

In PHP, a multiple line comment begins with /* and ends with */:

/* This is the first line of a comment.
This is the second line of a comment. */

Meanwhile PHP has two ways to indicate comments to the right of code:

$color = "blue"; // assign the color
$text = "The house is ".$color; # set color of the house

The Lua programming language uses a double dash (--) to indicate the start of a comment:

-- a basic Lua comment and statement
print "Hello World!"

Things get interesting in Lua with multiple line comments:

--[[
This is the first comment line.
This is a second comment line.
--]]

The use of nested square brackets feels old school. And a little like the JSON nested syntax used to store data objects.

The links below give you an idea of how a few languages allow programmers to add comments. When you learn a new language, pay attention to how the new language uses comments.

Haskell
http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Reference_card#Comments

Lua
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Lua_Programming/comment
http://www.lua.org/pil/1.3.html

PHP
http://php.net/manual/en/language.basic-syntax.comments.php

Python
http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/#comments

Comments in Programming Languages
http://www.gavilan.edu/csis/languages/comments.html

Comparison of Programming Language Syntax: Comments
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_programming_languages_(syntax)#Comments

How Fast is Your Internet?

Recently I finally broke down and got a wifi extender. We live in a two story house. The wifi signal bounces up a stairway wall before reaching our rooms upstairs. The extender grabs that signal and boosts it. To test whether this worked, or not, my son pointed me to a speed testing website, the Internet Speed Test. There's a ton of websites that can provide obscure but useful data. In this case, how fast the internet speed really is in our homes.

Check the Internet Speed Test out to see how fast or slow your internet speed is. Once it's done, click the Show more Info button to see additional data plus the ability to define test settings.

Internet Speed Test
https://fast.com/#

This Week

Our Sunday email this week will have fun often offbeat links about how to take a scrolling screenshot on iPhones (if you have one). There's also links about a place where time is missing, a video of northern lights from the space station, an opinion piece about teaching AI, and more. Look for the email this Sunday.