TechPrep is a Facebook-led initiative, supported by McKinsey & Company, to promote computer science and programming as a career option and to provide resources to get started.
Visual and Text-based Programing for Science Classrooms
This looks really great!
ViMAP is an open-source programming language and modeling environment designed for the K12 science classroom. When students use ViMAP, they can learn science by using visual programming to build models and simulations.
In close collaboration with elementary and middle school teachers, we have designed ViMAP and the lesson guides so that learning programming and science can happen hand-in-hand.
Also, unlike most other programming languages, ViMAP allows children to create their own programming commands! Students can also design their own ViMAP programming commands using text-based programming!
Robot Birds Teach Kids To Program In ‘Secret Coders’
http://www.npr.org/2015/10/07/446385092/robot-birds-teach-kids-to-program-in-secret-coders
A comic books that teaches the basics of coding!
Learning with Robots Website
http://learningwithrobots.weebly.com/
A good resource for doing robotics activities. I especially like this page:
http://learningwithrobots.weebly.com/think-tank.html
Kids, Code, and Computer Science Magazine
Here is a great new magazine.
“Kids, Code, and Computer Science magazine is a bi-monthly online and print magazine about learning to code, computer science, and how we use technology in our daily lives. The magazine includes hard to find information, for example, a list of 40+ programming languages for education, coding schools, summer tech camps, and more”
SCRATCH YOUR ITCH FOR 3D MODELING WITH BEETLEBLOCKS
http://hackaday.com/2015/10/10/scratch-your-itch-for-3d-modeling-with-beetleblocks/
If you want to create a 3D model, you’ll probably either use a graphical CAD tool or a programming-based tool (like OpenSCAD). Although BeetleBlocks is graphical, it is more akin to OpenSCAD than a graphical CAD program. That’s because BeetleBlocks is–more or less–Scratch for 3D modeling.
Scratch is the graphical block-structured language developed by MIT for teaching kids to program. You may have seen Lego robots programmed with similar blocks as well as Android App Inventor. In this incarnation, the blocks control a virtual robot (the beetle) that can extrude a tube behind it as it moves. The beetle is reminiscent of the Logo turtle except the beetle moves in three dimensions. The system is actually closer to Snap, which is a reimplementation of Scratch that allows custom blocks.
Outside-the-Box Robotics Activities
http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2015/10/08/outside-the-box-robotics-activities/
“a list of some fun, easy-to-implement or inexpensive project ideas for both inside and outside the classroom”
RoboLeague Documentary”
This was a really nice documentary about FIRST robotics.
http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/roboleague2015
“RoboLeague, a documentary airing on AT&T U-Verse Buzz Ch. 1000, follows five FIRST Robotics Competition teams as they strive for glory at the 2015 FIRST Championship! “
Mary Rose Cook: A programming language for children
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDZ5Ku6whi0
“A child starts learning to read and write at age 5. Why can’t they start learning to program then, too? I am making Isla, a first programming language for young children. The accompanying environment is called Storytime and lets a child use Isla to write text adventures.”
Basics of the Internet videos
Here is a very good series of videos explaining basics of the Internet
Ideas for Teaching Computer Technology to Kids 