Coding for Kids
The technological revolution is alive and kicking with a seemingly endless wave of stories highlighting awe-inspiring innovation. Yesterday, it was the out-of-this-world new device your neighbor was showing off. Today, it’s the amazing app your kid downloaded to your phone that’s going to change your life. Tomorrow, who knows?
What’s happening in the world of technology? Are the possibilities to create really infinite? And where does it all start? At its core, everything begins with imagination and the ability to think outside the box. So, the question becomes how to bring these new ideas to life. And in the 21st century, one answer is clear: Computer Programming or Coding.
At Tynker, we teach kids how to code, so we know that triumphs in technology come in different sizes. Although some projects will have an enormous global impact and others only fill a unique niche, both are essential to tech’s vibrant fabric.
Meanwhile, your kid is obsessed with making new Minecraft skins. But, don’t worry. When you add Tynker to the Minecraft mix, they’re also learning code!
Here’s some recent tech news that we think shines a light on how coding is impacting our world:
You got an email from a polar bear?
Researchers at the Norweigan Polar Institute get emails every day from polar bears living in the High Arctic, a group of islands north of Norway. How, you might ask? Well, senior researcher Jon Aars and his team have fit close to 70 of the 300 polar bears on these islands with collars that can track their movement.
Using a satellite, these collars transmit data to Jon via email, letting him know the polar bear’s location, which has been changing in recent years due to global warming. Rising temperatures mean that the sea ice that the polar bears’ main prey the seal enjoys is melting, forcing the seals to relocate and the bears to move south to find other food.
The collar can also record body temperature, letting him know if a bear has moved inside a den — an indication that they could be about to give birth. Fortunately, polar bear numbers in the region don’t appear to have decreased. Still, Jon and his team are monitoring them to see if there’s any way they can help. Thank you!
Are you into drones?
Of course you are! And we’ve got some great news for you. Usually, drone software relies on GPS for state estimation, meaning that without a GPS signal the drone is unable to get the information it needs to keep itself under control and avoid crashing.
Software and hardware for drone motors are normally reliable but the drones themselves are fragile, so it’s usually the damage a crash can cause to an engine or propellor that renders a drone out of order.
Relying on GPS, which is an external system, is risky because it doesn’t work everywhere. However, with an internal system in a downward-facing camera, a spinning drone can remain stable and controllable by using a camera with visual feature tracking software to keep itself safe even under the most challenging conditions. Cool, huh?
AR – It’s how you look at it!
Replacing glasses with a contact lens placed over your eyeball was an incredible leap in technology when it was first introduced to the public. Now, a California startup called Mojo Vision is taking the lens a step further in an effort to enhance the eyesight of people with low vision, which affects over 250 million people worldwide.
Mojo Vision’s goal is to make the next leap in lenses by adding augmented reality in the form of a millimeter-scale microLED display that fits onto a contact lens.
By embedding a lens with a chip and processing circuits to determine what to display on your retina, it can project an image that enhances contrast, highlights edges, and even zooms while taking into account the limited size of the lens and the need for eye-safe batteries. Sounds exciting!
All these advancements in technology began to evolve and take shape with CODE. That’s why Tynker is so excited to teach the next generation of computer programmers.
We can’t wait to see what they’ll create with code!
