Digital Music

NPR story on the development of MP3's

One of the big themes of the new CS Principles course is how data is stored digitally. This article from NPR covers how MP3's were developed and some of the limitaione. I plan on having the students do a discussion board response to this after we have covered binary numbers.

Robots in Space

MIT and NASA team up in a competition to program robotic spheres that will compete aboard the International Space Station.

CS captures collar bomb suspect

Computers save the day

This is the case from Australia about the Teenaged girl who was locked in a collar bomb. As i read the article it struck me how much computer science was a part of capturing a suspect. Deleted files on a usb drive, locations where the email account was created and accessed...it really was the digital fingerprint that led to an arrest.

Computer Architechture

For the new CS Principles class this next year I am panning on covering a bit more about computer architecture than I normally do in class. I'd like to spend a bit more time on things like the von Neumann Architecture and logic gates. For the APCS curriculum this won't have much impact, but for the IB students having a more solid foundation will help.

1. You Tube Video on von Neumann architecture
2. You Tube video on Computer Architecture
3. Flash Memory
4. An Intro to CS course from Central Connecticut State University. Has a good introduction on computer architecture.

Lightbot

This online game moves students through basic commands, functions, conditionals and recursion. Easy interface and a great simple introduction to the concepts of programming.

LightBot

Harvard: Introduction to Computer Science

I've been looking at what colleges do for their CS 101 classes. Here is a site for a Harvard class - all the lessons are available as videos and slides. This course seems to use scratch and C++, similar to what I am planning for the CS Principles course.

I have finished lesson 1. I really like the way binary numbers are introduced.

Harvard Computer Science

Computer Science News Roundup

Recent computer related news stories, no particular order, just caught my eye.

1. China Supercomputing
2. Supercomputers and Electricity Use
3. From Slate: Top Five Technology Innovators
4. The Art of Snail Mail
5. Neighbor Hacks WiFi