Be Brave, Be Brave, Be Brave: A True Story of Fatherhood and Native American Heritage* by Native American author F. Anthony Falcon comprises the thoughts of the author about what lessons he would pass from his heritage to his son.

There is also a Hurricane. This is a large format picture book with text to read to a young one, mainly. Adults will enjoy the read as well.

Copycat Science and Nature’s Light Spectacular are two books I have already reviewed. They are excellent, highly recommended, and I’m putting this reminder here to remind you now that ’tis the season to give your covid-quarantined friends and relatives with kids a nice book.

For littler kids just learning to read and spell, The B on Your Thumb: 60 Poems to Boost Reading and Spelling by Colette Hiller* is a clever expose of the irony of letters and words designed to help kids spell in this zany, crazy, language called English.

Continuing along on the theme of words, since your first kid ate the last letter book, consider a newer version, printed on heavy card stock and with no sharp edges, ABC for Me: ABC What Can I Be?: YOU can be anything YOU want to be, from A to Z by Sugar Snap Studio* adds adventure and diversity to this genre. Each entry (I think there are about 26 of them) is a person in a profession, such as “Game Developer” and “Helicopter Pilot.”

All of these books are solid works of printing, colorful, excellently illustrated, well composed and written, and fun.

For example, look at the code block to the right. This is an object that is called when the user clicks on the green flag button on the user interface. That green flag is how one starts a program in Scratch. This is hooked, literally, to a “forever” lop. Within the forever loop, execution (of that object) is delayed for a fifth of a second, then an “If” statement is executed. If the object linked to this object (such as a sprite that might be able to move around on the screen) has come into contact with something green, a chomp sound is made.

The Scratch interface is normally accessed on a web page, and in that context, every single Scratch programmer (that uses the basic interface) has access to every bit of code developed and saved by every other programmer. Or, you can run it on your own computer.

You will see scratch like coding in Lego projects, in association with various robot kits, and I suspect over time, with Internet of Things objects. The coding is so straight forward that even Mikey can do it.

The book Make Your Own Scratch Games! by Anna Anthropy, produced by No Starch Press, brings an elementary school or middle school age kid, or an adult who just wants to screw around, through the process of developing three significant game projects and countless elements that users can use for a number, approaching infinity, of different games.

As is usual for No Starch books, the source code is available, but more importantly, among the on line resources are certain graphics and sound files and such used in the game making.

This is a great book for STEM oriented kids, and Scratch is a great Age of Covid activity.

Anna Anthropy is a video game creator and game historian, and author of Rise of the Videogame Zinesters: How Freaks, Normals, Amateurs, Artists, Dreamers, Drop-outs, Queers, Housewives, and People Like You Are Taking Back an Art Form, a guide to game design that encourages aspiring developers from all backgrounds to create games and contribute their unique voice to the video game industry. Her most recent book, ZZT, explores a shareware game from the ’90s and its lasting impact on developers everywhere.

The Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi model 3 is a small computer. At its core, it is similar to the computer inside a modern smart phone. It has a Quad Core 1.2 GHx Boradcam 64 bit CPU, 1GB of non-upgradable RAM, Ethernet, Wireless, Bluetooth, and HDMI output. It has a special connector for a camera, a special connector for a small touchscreen display, a micro SD port which serves as the operating system’s “hard drive” including storage of your data. You plug it into a 2.5 amp Micro USB cabled power brick.

The Raspberry Pi also has 4 USB 2 ports.

It costs $35. All you need to do is to add a power brick, an SD card, an HDMI monitor of some sort, maybe a case, a keyboard, a mouse, and perhaps a few other accessories, and pretty soon you nave a reasonably powerful $35 computer for a mere $200!

Or, you can leave off much of that stuff, hook it temporarily to a monitor, keyboard, and mouse (optional, I suppose) and set it up for SSH, then turn it back into a headless (and keyboardless, mouseless) server, communicating with it via wireless from your desktop or laptop.

Then, you take the thing and build stuff with it. Think of the Raspberry Pi, potentially, as a controller you might use for any device that requires controlling, but a very very smart one. Not yet mentioned is one of the key features of the Raspberry Pi: The GPIO header. This is the General Purpose Input Output array of 40 pins that are controlled by the computer, for both output and input, and power supply, to any of a very large range of sensors, actuators, and other devices.

I’ll stop right here and mention the Raspberry Pi Sense HAT. A “hat” or “shield” is a circuit board designed to stick right on top of another circuit board (in this case, the Rapsberry Pi) to give it a bunch of added functionality all at once. Often, a hat or shield has pass through pins for all or most of the GPIO pins, so you still have the same device you had before, but with a bunch of stuff added. The standard sense hat for this device has environmental sensors such as temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, and orientation. But I digress.

Anyway, a robot requires a “brain” that may or may not be hooked up via, say, Bluetooth, to a hand held remote of some sort, and also, to the motors that control the wheels (or anything else on the motor that moves), lights, sensors, all that. The most efficient way to build a robot probably uses a more basic controller than a Raspberry Pi, and indeed, most robots use a controller that is built with the specifications of an Arduino Uno, which costs typically less than $20 (and cheap Chinese knockoffs much cheaper, but they don’t all work quite like they are supposed to).

The difference between a dedicated basic controller and a fancier full on computer like a Raspberry Pi is like the difference between teaching your pet to do a trick and teaching your child to do a trick. The latter has way more overhead, but you can do fancier tricks and you can also teach the child to bring you a beer. On the other hand, the pet will just do the trick, while your kid will probably, eventually, give you lip and you’ll have to be nice to it or it will stop working right.

A Veritable Robot Army

Today, there is a veritable robot army out there, of robot kits you can build that are based on Raspberry Pi. I myself have built a version of SunFounder Smart Video Car and it is a great robot. The Adeept PiCar-A Wireless is very cool looking, and is a bit cheaper. Do not, however, that most, probably all, ready to build Raspberry Pi based robot kits do NOT come with the actual Raspberry Pi.

The Basic Robot

It might be helpful to know what the basic robot typically consists of.

Robots have two drive wheels, each powered by a separate tightly programmed specialized motor. There is a third wheel or some other roundy object to keep the robot balanced (usually) so the vehicle turns by moving the two drive wheels at different speeds. This works great on small robot scales. Robots typically have lights or sound making devices that are fun for the kids to program. Most robots have this sensor out front that looks like a set of eyes, but it is really a distance sensor, so you can program the robot to almost but not quite run into things, stopping at the last second. Many robots have a separate sensor facing down, out front, that allows the robot to follow lines or edges, if the lines or edges are just right and the programming is well done, and the sensor is set at just the right height (and thus, when they are installed, they should always be adjustable for height!).

And, of course, a basic robot has some kind of controlling device, such as a bit of software on a smart phone, a simple remote control, or, in the case of the robot you build with the book I’m about to tell you about, a Wii remote.

Learning Robotics with a Raspberry Pi

Learn Robotics with Raspberry Pi: Build and Code Your Own Moving, Sensing, Thinking Robots is written by The Raspberry Pi Guy, aka Matt Timmons-Brown. Matt is an old teenager (probably still, maybe he’s 20) and runs a Youtube Channel called “The Raspberry Pi Guy.”

In this book, the reader is given an introduction to the Raspberry Pi, and some basic electronics. Then, you start building the robot, adding more and more capabilities, until you have the basic robot described above, but then going to the next level so it will have the power of vision and a modest bit of artificial intelligence. The book includes five helpful appendixes revealing additional powers of the Raspberry Pi, and basic information about things like resistors and how to solder.

One of the coolest things is using the Wii remote to control the robot. If you don’t have a Wii, you can get a remote on line, new, like this one from Nintendo or much cheaper used, at your local Goodwill, or on eBay.

Most of the chapters require that you get or have some sort of equipment or parts to put this thing together. The total cost, though, is not much and everything is readily available. You just have to plan it out a little, checking a chapter ahead for what you might need. And then, go step by step and you will learn a lot about robots, electronics, and the Raspberry Pi. I strongly recommend this experience.

Linux and beyond

When you are done building this, and you want to have some fun with the Raspberry Pi itself, then it may be time for you to play around with Mathematica, Minecraft, Python or other programming, or just use LibreOffice and the other software you can run to write your next novel, run a printer server, build an entertainment center, or who knows what else?

The Pi is a real computer that runs the very powerful and versitile Linux operating system (though it can run other OSs as well). If you haven’t messed around with Linux, now is your chance! And, the software mentioned above, Minecraft, and Wolfram’s Mathematica, comes free and in special more or less kid friendly form, on the Pi.

In any event, if you really want to play around with the Pi, you may want to get a kit that lets you access more of its functions, such as the CanaKit Raspberry Pi 3 Ultimate Starter Kit – 32 GB Edition or the CanaKit Raspberry Pi 3 Kit with Clear Case and 2.5A Power Supply, depending on what parts you want.

See also: A Beginner’s Guide to Circuits and How to learn Python programming

It comes out of MIT, and is usually used on their server, using a web interface.

That web interface is closing at 7 AM on January 2nd. Later that afternoon, it will be back up, but with Scratch 3.0!

Here’s a video.

I’m especially excited about the physical interface tools. Some of that was already in place in a separate parallel project that was more experimental. It is nice to see Scratch itself advancing.

Like the Iguana book, Erickson’s book for third through seventh graders (8-12 or so years of age) contains real, actual, science, evolutionary theory, and facts about nature, along with great pictures. The key message is that toxins exist because they provide an evolutionary advantage to those organisms that use them. Why are venomous animals so common in watery environments? Read the book to find out.

Species mentioned includ the blue-ringed octopi, stony corals, sea jellies, stonefish, lionfish, poison-fanged blennies, stingrays, cone snails, blind remipedes, fire urchins.

Highly recommended as a STEM present this holiday season.

As is the case with the other kits, the Solar System includes a book, a large format big flat thing to which one might attach stickers, stickers, and a unique on-topic object, in this case, those cool stars you can attach to your ceiling or walls, and they glow in the dark.

Also, there are figurines including an two astronauts and a few rocket related items. The rocket items include a Saturn V launcher, a Gemini capsule, and a space shuttle (not to scale). I think one of the astronauts is Gemini/Mercury era and the other is post space-walk probably Apollo era.

Like this:

The book is a good reading level for kids between 6 (better readers) and 12 or so. The science is solid. The price is fair. The materials are good quality. The box is nice. All systems go, a holiday gift for some kid you know.

You might consider some Glow in The Dark Planets too.

Expect the patriarch to grab the reins. Indeed, it already has, with the marriage of the technology boys club and the MRA movement, not to mention other nefarious groups.

Girls With Dreams: Inspiring Girls to Code and Create in the New Generation is new, self published, inexpensive, and cool. Buy the book.

I promised Women with Cards. This is just a reminder to check out my sister’s project, “The Educational Card Project.” This is physical scientists who are women made into playing cars. A lot of STEM teachers use playing cards in various exercises, or should if they don’t. This allows them to sneak 52 women who have accomplishments in the physical sciences and related fields into the classroom. Check it out here. If you as a person buy a deck of cards (but really, buy two decks!) a portion of the take goes to provide cards for free in classrooms. Also, you can simply donate cash money to the project. So, go do that!

Here’s the deal.

Many teachers use playing cards in their teaching, to employ a readily understood and recognized symbol system (suits, numbers, face cards, etc) in a thought exercise, lab, or what have you. A deck of cards that also provides pictures and biographical information about actual scientists adds value to that activity. And, displaying a panoply of women in physical sciences reminds people that there really have been, and are now, many such women! So this is a great girls-in-stem patriarchy-fighting device.

So, if you buy a deck of educards depicting a sampling of the great women of the physical sciences, you help teachers get cards for their use in shcools, for free. The profit from selling cards to retail buyers (you) is converted into cards for use in schools. Everything should be like this. Educard also distributes cards to educators using moneys that come in from donations.

You can read about the Educard Project here.

You can purchase cards at the links above or here.

You can donate to the project here.

The future holds great things, as Educard is planning more decks with more different sciences and more women.

Help science teachers and their students play with a full deck, by buying one or a few decks of Educards, giving them to someone worthy as a gift, and thus, spinning off some free cards for use in some needful schools.

The original version of this book was all English, and was a best seller. This new version obviously gives you mucho mucho mas and math to boot.

The One Minute Mysteries series is well known and widely loved, and is recommended by the NSTA.

Have a notebook or a pile of blank paper and some writing instruments handy because you will need them to work out some of these problems.

This is for kids age 10-14, and is a well written, well constructed, well printed resource. I strongly recommend it if your family has young ones around that age, regardless of their math level. Also check out One Minute Mysteries: 65 Short Mysteries You Solve With Science! and One-Minute Mysteries and Brain Teasers: Good Clean Puzzles for Kids of All Ages.

The first several projects in the book involve making electricity, or using it to make light bulbs shine or to run an electromagnet. [/caption]The most complicated projects are the ones where you make interactive games using LED lights and buzzers.

Electronics for Kids: Play with Simple Circuits and Experiment with Electricity! does almost no electricity theory. Thankfully. It simply delves in to messing around with electricity (and in so doing, provides basic theory, of course).

This is a book about how to play with electricity, not how to get a Masters Degree in electricity. In other words, any kid, the ones who seem destine for a career in electronic engineering and the ones who don’t, can get along in this book because it does not assume itself to be a building brick to a greater career. Yet the projects are interesting and informative and educational, and any kid who does a dozen of these projects is going to learn.

This kind of activity, which should involve parents for most kids, is the cure for the sense of depression you feel when you go to the toy store and look at the “science” section and everything you see is crap. Just get this book, order 50 bucks worth of parts, and get to work-fun. Then order some more parts, probably.

No kids’ book on electronics would be complete without a batter made from something you get in the produce section.[/caption]This book for kids is very kid oriented, as it should be. One of the first practical projects you build is an alarm system to keep your parents the heck out of your room. You can make a noisy musical instrument. You can make a device that makes sounds some humans can hear (the kids, likely) and some can’t (parents).

Although soldering is done, it is minimal and, frankly, can probably be avoided by using alternative techniques. But really, it is not that hard and one should not be too afraid of it.

A lot of the projects use and develop logic circuits. Kids actually love logic circuits, I think because they end up rethinking a bit about how tho think about simple relationships. And, it is good to know this stuff.

Unlike many electronic kits you can buy (which can be quite fun and educational in their own right) this approach does not rely on ICs (integrated circuits) that produce magical results with poorly described inputs and hookups. There are some basic ICs, including gates, an inverter, flip flops, and a timer. These are very straight forward circuits that are mostly (except the timer) really just very fancy switches.

The web site that goes with Electronics for Kids: Play with Simple Circuits and Experiment with Electricity! gives you a list of all the parts used in the book, with enough information to find them easily on line or at a hardware or electronics store. The book suggests a multimeter, which is probably the most expensive thing on the list. (this one is perfectly good and is about 35 bucks.) Other tools include a soldering iron and related bits, a wire cutter, some scissors, tape, etc.

Many of the parts, including a breadboard, LEDs, hook up wires of various kinds, and pretty much all the resistors, capacitors, etc. etc. can also be used with the more sophisticated Arduino projects, should you end up going in that direction.

This is a really fun book. If you have a kid of the right age (maybe from six to 12, with 100% adult involvement under 10 years) get it now, secretly, get some parts, and work your way through several of the projects. Then, make it (and the parts) a holiday present. Then look really smart.

This chapter-end section give you an idea of the level of the projects. There is a lot of stuff in here. All doable, but it will take a while to get through it all. [/caption]Here is the overview table of contents (the book is much more detailed than suggested by this top level TOC):

PART 1: Playing with Electricity
Chapter 1: What Is Electricity?
Chapter 2: Making Things Move with Electricity and Magnets
Chapter 3: How to Generate Electricity

PART 2: Building Circuits
Chapter 4: Creating Light with LEDs
Chapter 5: Blinking a Light for the First Time
Chapter 6: Let’s Solder!
Chapter 7: Controlling Things with Circuits
Chapter 8: Building a Musical Instrument

PART 3: Digital Electronics
Chapter 9: How Circuits Understand Ones and Zeros
Chapter 10: Circuits That Make Choices
Chapter 11: Circuits That Remember Information
Chapter 12: Let’s Make a Game!

Appendix: Handy Resources