We have just released the first two volumes of our series
Creative Python Programming with Strype
They are available in print and electronically. The third volume will follow shortly.
A free evaluation copy is available from the book website
Creative Python Programming with Strype provides a practical, hands-on introduction to Python, with engaging, relevant and highly varied projects. Programs students build include graphical games, data analysis, sound manipulation, LLM-type language generation, predator/prey simulations, and more. At the same time, students learn fundamental concepts and good programming practice.
The book uses Strype - an online Python IDE that makes it easy to create graphics, sound and simulations.
You may like to read the book to strengthen your own Python background, or to make your programming teaching more engaging.
The three volumes cover material across all of secondary school (age 13 to 18).
I've had some success in giving short presentations on these topics, but I'm still trying to figure out what other needs and solutions exist in STEM for high school and middle school students.
One solution I have considered is making a "kit" paired with a presentation to give students the opportunity to work firsthand on a career skill and to receive guidance as they do it. For example, students interested in forensics could go through a presentation on forensic technologies and have the chance to "apply" some of them through a guided forensic case. Do you think this is something that could work?
Sorry if this is the wrong forum for this post, but any suggestions you could provide would be greatly appreciated!
I'm talking with Nanoracks about putting small flying robots in a sealed section of the ISS and letting people rent time to control them. Students or other people using the service would be able to either upload instructions for a drone to execute (turn 90 degrees then accelerate, etc) or try to manually pilot it (I'm told that there is about a 500-1000 millisecond lag, which might make that difficult). They would get live streaming video back, possibly from multiple angles and be able to share the video of their time (as well as stuff like graphs of their motion using position tracking, etc).
One of the great unknowns of the project is how much interest there would be and what sort of price would be reasonable. I'm currently thinking of trying to charge $50 per 10 minute slot with a single drone (sharing space with other drones), with free/open source access to a computer simulation of the platform so that you can plan what you want to do. I think it might be something people would want to do because it would be useful in teaching newtonian mechanics, plus the wow factor of actually making something happen on the ISS.
If I may ask, do you think that price sounds reasonable for what you would be able to do? Do you think that is something you or your class would be interested in trying out?
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Links to the other episodes are contained in the description on Vimeo.
We are currently developing new series and are always trying to improve so any and all feedback is welcome and very much appreciated. I sincerely hope that some of our films are helpful! :-)