Category Archives: Youth Resources

FREE library of Shel Silverstein activities & games!

Posted on by BMCP

What better way to celebrate the 50th anniversary of  “The Giving Tree” (My absolute favorite book in the ENTIRE world!) than with FREE games and activities! Shel Silverstein is still creating imaginative playscapes for children to explore. There are drawing booklets, event kits, lessons and activities for the following books:

The Giving Tree

Don’t Bump the Glump!

Everything On It!

Runny Babbit

Any many more 🙂

All of these literary resources are available on the website shelsilverstein.com. Share the gift of the most precious technology in the world…IMAGINATION!

Stay Tuned!

STEM Resource Highlight: Learn to code for FREE @ Codecademy

Posted on by BMCP

Computer science has traditionally been perceived as an enigmatic field. We imagine “The Matrix”  minus the cool slow motion cinematography and instead see someone (usually a man) slouched in front of a computer. This dull figure awkwardly hunched over a keyboard staring at a screen  filled with incomprehensible letters and symbols scrambled together. Fear not!  There is a place that one can venture to and learn the mystery behind digital machine speak.  That place is Code Academy.  Recently our youth digital literacy program integrated coding into our curriculum and the outcomes were interesting. Now we didn’t have lofty expectations that our students would master this skill within a few months. The goal for us this past year was simply exposure and an opportunity to demystify the notion that one has to be a computer genius to acquire this skill. So what was the verdict at the close of the program?:

  • Give them lessons and they will code
  • Make challenging content relevant
  • Learning code sets them steps ahead of their peers
  • Youth like computer science they just don’t know it 🙂

This coding phenomenon is swiftly picking up speed as the new go to skill set. How is this mundane computer skill so cool all of a sudden you ask?  Well here are a few reasons why: Facebook, World of Warcraft, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram. All of these digital hubs run on CODE! Once you spill the beans on that youth definitely want to know more  because then it becomes more relatable and less abstract.

What else should one know about the infamous code?! Currently there’s much support  and push within the education arena for exposing minorities, youth and women to learn how to code. Here are some awesome organizations already dedicated to doing so:

Black Girls Code

Silicon Harlem

Microsoft YouthSpark

Girl Develop It

LEARN HOW TO CODE

If you’re looking to learn more about the power of code then check out this cool video form Code.org. Watch it! Share it! Like it! Learn it!:

If you want to learn to code yourself or are interested in getting someone else hip to this new digital trend then click the link to Codeacademy.com to learns for FREE 🙂

Stay Tuned!

What is a Makerspace?

Posted on by BMCP

What is a “Makerspace” you ask?

“A Makerspace is a learning environment rich with possibilities. As new hardware and software tools for making, digital design, and fabrication are emerging, we’re working together — with teachers and community leaders — to place those tools into the hands of a wider audience.” (Makerspace.com)

Why should you know about them?

They are great creative spaces where youth can engage in hands on activities and bring their imagination to life. Makerspaces give youth a chance to step away from the “screens” (i.e. computer, phone, tablet etc.) so that they can BUILD 🙂

This movement is so popular that the White House dedicated a day spreading awareness about it. Take a look at the inagural Maker Faire at in D.C.:

Where can you find a Makerspace in the Triangle?

NCSU Hunt Library 

BetaVersity

SplatSpace

How can you create your own Makerspace?

Get some ideas from the Maker Club Playbook created by the Young Makers program.

Now get to making 🙂

Stay Tuned!