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Will for sure include this into my elementary school hour of code lesson!
Do an Hour of Code with Disney’s Moana!
Today Code.org and Disney revealed a new Hour of Code tutorial featuring characters from the upcoming Disney animated film Moana. We are thrilled to be able to offer this activity to teachers across the globe as they prepare to do an Hour of Code with their classrooms between December 5-11 to celebrate Computer Science Education Week—and no experience with code is required to teach it.
We’ve partnered with Disney and Lucasfilm in the past on Hour of Code activities featuring Frozen and Star Wars™ characters—some of our most popular ever. We were particularly excited that both of these beloved tutorials featured strong female characters, which helped the Hour of Code introduce female students around the world to computer science.
The Hour of Code has now reached over 50 million girls, a milestone in female participation for computer science. We look forward to continuing that momentum with “Moana: Wayfinding with Code,” which features a strong female character and a male companion.
We also recently announced that we’re teaming up with Walt Disney Animation Studios and Lucasfilm to create Frozen and Star Wars-themed puzzles for our Computer Science Fundamentals curriculum on Code Studio. The puzzles will be developed and integrated into our curriculum over the next year.
We’ve found that kids are much more likely to try computer science if it contains topics they are interested in, like their favorite Disney stories and characters. Our work with Disney over the past two years has helped Hour of Code reach record numbers, inspiring millions of children of all ages to try coding and pursue an education in computer science.
The story of the “Moana: Wayfinding with Code” tutorial centers around Moana and Maui as they sail through unknown territory across the ocean. As students follow Moana and Maui’s travels, they learn basic coding commands that help steer the boat. Along the way, students are introduced to conditionals, sequences and loops while they master the art of navigation. When Moana and Maui are suddenly attacked by the Kakamora – coconut-clad warriors—they must use their coding skills to dodge their pirate projectiles and penetrate their defenses.
The “Moana: Wayfinding with Code” tutorial is available in more than 180 countries and 23 languages, including Samoan Polynesian. Educators can also find Hour of Code toolkits in English and Spanish on the tutorial’s website!
Thank you to Disney for helping us give children all over the world the opportunity to learn the basics of coding.
Computer Science Education Week (December 5-11, 2016) is almost here! Sign up your Hour of Code event here and check out all the new activities that you can filter on our site based on grade level, experience level, subject area, and more. Find the perfect activity for your class at https://code.org/learn.
Hadi Partovi, Code.org
PATHWAYS INTERNSHIP (Co-Op) postings for NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX to open September 12th-16th, 2016! Get your USAJobs.gov resume builder resumes ready because the have changed the website layout! Mine was 20,000 characters and 7 pages long so don't wait until the night before. They are looking for business and technical Co-Ops. It looks like they are accepting COMPUTER SCIENCE students now as long as your college's curriculum meets their new criteria! What is the Pathways Intern Program? The NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) Pathways Intern Program (formerly known as co-op program) follows a cooperative education model where current undergraduate and graduate students gain valuable work experience on an alternating school/work basis, and serves as a pipeline for our future full-time employees. Each work tour you will rotate into a different functional area at JSC, this allows you to try out different career paths while you are still in school and decide what you want to do after graduation. Each time you come for a work rotation you'll be assigned a mentor who will work side-by-side with you to make sure that you have a meaningful project and the tools/knowledge to complete it. Additionally, Interns are able to receive the same benefits as full-time employees such as bi-weekly pay, insurance, and paid time-off. Will be posted here on the 12th: http://nasajobs.nasa.gov/studentopps/employment/opportunities.htm
NASA Co-Op Week 3: Sitting Console
A scene from the New York stock exchange center was what I expected from Mission Control. Imagining the flight director with a thick cigar and eyebrows raised, flight controllers sitting console arguing about an experiment or device gone haywire and astronauts happily floating and Tweeting hearing only commands from Cap-Com that got through. My expectation was fortunately far from the truth.
Mission Control is calm, controlled and direct. The flight director welcomes the console leads, PLUTO, Ops Plan, RIO, ROBO, ISO and so on. Each flight controller checks in with a status and their goals to accomplish. Astronauts join in every morning for a daily operations meeting asking questions about upcoming experiments and big ticket events. Cap-Com is the only position in Mission Control that speaks with the astronauts so other flight controllers let Cap-Com know what needs to be relayed to astronauts. While sitting console with PLUTO I could listen to all the audio loops, Russian translation loop, JAXA, ESA, each console, and other NASA centers.
HOW TO GET INVOLVED:
*Tour the Mission Control Center through Space Center Houston
*Apply for a Pathways Internship (Co-Op) NOW ONLY OPEN SEP 14-18 for Johnson Space Center
*Apply for an internship at one of the many NASA centers.
*Follow NASA on Tumblr
Pokemon Go Has Taken Over NASA! Before work, at lunch and after work interns gather at Pokemon lures and battle at Johnson Space Center's gyms. There is a Saturn V, Mission Control and Apollo Statue gym! It appears the majority of NASA folk are blue team. Our unique Pokemon include Jynx, Venasaur and Mewoth.
Working on a Main Bus Switching Unit test bed for a solar array regulator.
#NASAIntern #jsc #glenn #NASA
STEM is uniquely comprised of careers for every person with every desired lifestyle.
NASA Co-Op Week 7: Astronaut, Rovers & Robots
One wheel off the edge of a cliff ten of us were jam packed in a rover sweating like dogs.
Robonaut, Valkyrie, Modular Robotic Vehicle and Small Pressurized Rover are the electrical explorers we visited during a Johnson Space Center robotics tour. Waiting in NASA's Rock Yard was a speedy electric vehicle and a crater climbing rover. MRV is an electric drive vehicle that is has high maneuverability that would score big in drifting competitions. We all got to ride in the Small Pressurized Rover which wasn't really small at all. This giant monster truck looking rover took us in and out of lunar like creators and up a steep Mars like hill. The operator drove us to the edge of the hill and asked, "All right, are you ready to go down?" Grasping to our seats we were all white knuckled. Backing up the rover the operator laughed, "Going down that hill would have wrecked the vehicle". For those few seconds the inside of the rover became even more sauna like. In The Martian movie you will see a modified version of the Small Pressurized Rover that Mark Watney drives around.
Robotnaut is the humanoid robot you see on the news all the time that works in the International Space Station (ISS). Flexing muscles and articulating fingers Robotnaut showed off for us. Robotnaut is very strong able to lift over 20lb of weight in manners that would make arm day miserable. However, Robotnaut is also very delicate able to sense the wight of a nickle on its fingertips.
Valkyrie is a full bodied humanoid robot designed to perform human tasks in conditions unsafe for humans. The idea for Valkyrie came after the Fukushima Accident where more damage could have been avoided if valves were closed near the site, a task a robot could do. Valkyrie is also being designed for low gravity exploration like Mars or Lunar exploration.
Astronaut Michael Fossum talked us student this week too. He flew two Shuttle Missions and a six month long mission to the International Space Station. Before he was in space Fossum engineered ways to repair the shuttle during space walks to prevent any pieces from breaking off. During the space walk Fossum navigated over to the tiles on the space station and sealed spaces and breaks with cocking substance. He mentioned when you look "down" in various directions during a spacewalk you can either see the surface of Earth or a black nothingness. Fossum also was the first to capture a time-lapse of Northern Light and the first astronaut to operate Robotnaut on the ISS.
HOW TO GET INVOLVED
Read about the Small Pressurized Rover and its future missions
Learn about Valkyrie's future endeavors
Watch Astronaut Mike Fossum operate Robotnaut
Robotnaut's younger sibling Robotnaut2 operating switches on the ISS
Human like hand motions by Robonaut2
Start your career with NASA and tune into a Virtual Career Fair and hear about internship, fellowships and scholarships October 8th 12pm-3:30pmCT
Current Mission Control
Directs football field sized International Space Station which orbits every 90min
Attending a DC leadership conference in May!
I will meet US college student leaders, participate in workshops & visit Capitol Hill. One of activity reads, "[Learn about]... advocacy, politics, and policy making from a panel of women who work for senators and representatives on Capitol Hill". Summer of 2013 I attended President Obama's Champions of Change White House event with NCWIT Aspirations in Computing sharing the importance of "project based learning" in schools. I talked with policy makers, company leaders and educators about how project based learning could be implemented and assessed. Additionally, I met Minnesota Senator Al Franken who since has visited FIRST robotics teams in my hometown & supported STEAM heavily. Again I want to have a focused message to share during my DC mission. I may keep the project based learning theme or pick a new one. I would love to hear your thoughts about what message I should share! Who knows who I'll run into!
I am so thankful AAUW Duluth MN awarded me with a scholarship making it possible to attend the AAUW's National Conference for College Women Student Leaders. Here is the agenda of the conference: https://www.nccwsl.org/about/agenda/
Watch for live blogging! Pictures are from my 2013 White House experience.
