Interesting Links 15 February 2016

What a week. No school Monday because of snow. Stayed home sick on Friday. The first is a a lot more common than the second. I really hate missing school. I’m feeling better now and enjoying scanning through the collected links from the week to share the best of them with you. For my UK friends some BBC Micro:Bit news included.

Computational Thinking - A guide for teachers from CAS Computing at School

Female Coders Are “More Competent” Than Males, According to a New Study  My first reaction was “well duh!” But that is because it fits my preconceived notions based on my limited experience. Naturally there are detractors of the study. If you want to read both sides take a look at Before You Get Too Excited About That GitHub Study

Know a graduating HS senior who will study CS in college? Have them apply for $10k @GoogleForEdu scholarship:  Google for Education scholarship 

Why Harvard and One of Its Professors Are Fighting to Trademark a CS Course This is sad really. When a course becomes more than just a course. It becomes something of theatre and something that separates faculty from the university.  

Friction Between Programming Professionals and Beginners – this is one reason it is so hard to learn on your own. Reading this should make anyone appreciate teachers who create a supportive environment. 

Florida DRAFT K-12 CS standards open for public comment until Feb 24 

A Beginner's Guide to Designing Video Game Levels   via @tutsplus Maybe useful for game development classes.

Interesting - Amazon Lumberyard is a free AAA game engine deeply integrated with AWS and Twitch – with full source. Written in C++.

I’m still keeping a close eye (or as close as I can from across the Atlantic) on BBC Micro:Bit activity.
 
Andrew Mulholland has had a BBC Microbit the past few weeks. and has written up his first impressions

Andrew has also been playing with BBC Microbit with MicroPython. and is  extremely impressed!

Mr Limbada posted these #microbit block cards. Print double sided and laminate for quick reference