Category: Special Event

Hour Of Code 2018

, , ,

It’s December and that means it is time for the Hour Of Code! December 3rd marks the start of Computer Science Education Week Below are links to coding activities for various grade levels:

What is the Hour Of Code?
The [glossary]Hour of Code[/glossary] started as a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify “[glossary]code[/glossary]”, to show that anybody can learn the basics, and to broaden participation in the field of computer science. Once you have finished your hour why not go beyond the Hour Of Code

Code.org

This year Code.org is hosting a Code Your Own Dance Party! Everyone should check it out:

Code Your Own Dance Party!

Below is a list of activities from previous year’s [glossary]Hour Of Code[/glossary] events from the Code.org website:

Google

Hey Teachers! This year Google has updated their Santa Tracker site with new games and activities. For an educator’s view of the activities, visit Google’s For Educators – Learning with Santa Tracker page. Below are a list of activities from the Santa Tracker page (Events start to appear on December 1st) for your students to try out:

  • Code a Snowflake – Nothing says “Happy Holidays” like Rudolph on the beach. Create your own holiday card by programming your own snowflake, selecting one of many backgrounds, and share with your friends.
  • Code Lab – Use coding fundamentals to navigate the elf through the forest to find dropped presents.
  • Code Boogie – The elves are back to coding practice, while mixing in their dancing skills. Use [glossary]code[/glossary] to choreograph the elves’ dances – but watch out, as you get better, the dances get harder!
  • The Santa Tracker Code Lab – Learn to program by helping the elf get to the presents. This Code Lab is perfect for early learners as no reading is needed. All lessons are taught through pictures and animation!

Tynker

Kindergarten

candy-quest-1Candy Quest – Beginner

1st Grade

puppy-2Puppy Adventure – Beginner

2nd Grade

dragon-dash-1Dragon Dash – Intermediate

3rd Grade

hot-wheels-obstacle-courseHot Wheels – Beginner

4th Grade

code-commander-1Code Commander – Intermediate

5th Grade

code-monsters-1Code Monsters – Intermediate

First Blizzard Of 2018 – SnowCam Video

, , , ,

I setup an online cam to record our first Snowstorm of the year. The storm became a blizzard and hit the Jersey Shore pretty hard. The camera ran through night taking and uploading photos every 30 seconds as our Mt. Tiki Soki stood guard. All was working well until about 10:00am or so when the snow buried not only Mt. Tiki Soki but the wind created a drift right in front of the camera, blocking the view! Next time I will have to tape the phone higher up on the window.

I had hoped to capture the storm from beginning to end but mother nature chose to cut things short. It continued to snow through most of the afternoon. Oh Well, what you see below is a time lapse video from the night of the storm into mid morning:

 

Below are some images of the contraption that took the images to create this video. Unfortunately the app I use to capture and upload the images, MobileWebCam, seems to have been abandoned and is no longer available in the Google Play store. It still works on this phone for now. As you can see my camera rig was very impressive. It took a long time to build and setup! It consisted of: An old phone, USB cable with charger and plenty of blue painter’s tape.

I don’t know what the official snow totals for our area are but we did get buried. With the wind blowing the snow around it’s hard to judge but I would say there is at least a foot, and probably more, of snow on the ground. I hope everyone stays warm and well this 1st French Toast day of 2018. You did go out and get bread, milk & eggs before the storm, right? Nothing left to do now except make French Toast!

Snowstorm in NJ? Must… Buy… Bread!

 

SnowCam Time Lapse

,

What do you do when you have webcams setup to take pictures of a storm and they each save over 2000 images? Why make a time lapse video of course! Here are 2 videos from the SnowCams I had running during yesterday’s March nor’easter. Unfortunately both camera stopped multiple times during the storm so there are jumps here and there but this was a hacked together setup using old phones, a webcam app, some duct tape and a really old version of Google Picasa to create the time lapse. For the most part the videos turned out well all things considered. There is no sound because who has time for that?

Dueling SnowCams!

,

As we settle in and get ready for the rain/sleet/snow/blizzard/storm that is creeping up the east coast towards New Jersey I decided to make use of some old smartphones by converting them into makeshift webcams. New pictures are uploaded every 30 seconds and you will need to manually refresh (Hit F5) the page for new images.

MrErricot.net - SNOWCAM 1 - Backyard

The camera is no longer online.

MrErricot.net - SNOWCAM 2 - Frontyard

The camera is no longer online.

Nerdy Stuff: This is being done with a pair of old Samsung Galaxy S3 phones. One is running stock Kit Kat, the other is rooted and running CyanogenMod with Lollipop. I am using an app on both called MobileWebCam. This app allows me to have the cameras take a picture and upload it for display here, all automatically. The phones are inside the house mounted to the windows with duct tape, of course! This is why you should hang on to your old technology & gadgets, you never know when they may come in handy.

Note: The brave volunteer in Snowcam 1 is a Mt. Tiki Soki water sprinkler. He no longer shoots water out of the top of his head and has seen better days. I filled him with cement and he makes a good base for a Tiki Torch in the summer. Check out this Mt. Tiki Soki commercial to see what he once did, many years ago.

If you are an Asbury Park schools student or teacher enjoy the snow day on Tuesday!