Episode 72: Catching Up

Teaching Python

It's been a few weeks since we recorded, so this week's episode is all about catching up on listener questions and mail.

Highlights include:

• the new AWS machine learning course we're taking,
• whether we'd rather be teachers or coders
• the new Adafruit hardware we're trying
• the Deep Composer keyboard
• equity and equitable opportunity in and out of the classroom

You can also check out the recording of the livestream on our YouTube Channel

Support Teaching Python

Links:

• Doll-E 1.0 - Kindle edition by McCloskey, Shanda. Children Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com. — A STEM-friendly tale of a girl and the doll she upgrades to be her new friend, for fans of The Most Magnificent Thing and Rosie Revere, Engineer.
• T-Bone the Drone - Kindle edition by McCloskey, Shanda. Children Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com. — A new tech toy brings epic trials and triumphs in this playtime adventure for fans of The Most Magnificent Thing and Iggy Peck, Architect.
• Data.WA | State of Washington Open Data Platform | Data.WA | State of Washington — Welcome to Data.WA.gov - the general purpose open data portal for the State of Washington.
• Learn computer programming | Online courses from JetBrains Academy — Try a holistic approach to learning in which you study the theory and immediately put it into practice by building working applications. Dive into Java, Python, and other programming languages in a project-based learning environment that is integrated with JetBrains IDEs.
• AWS Machine Learning Foundations Course | Udacity Free Courses — Study machine learning techniques and algorithms, programming best practices, python coding, and Amazon AI Services and Amazon AI Devices, including Amazon SageMaker and Amazon DeepComposer. The foundations course is intended to help developers of all skill levels get started with machine learning.
• Amazon.com: AWS DeepComposer – a machine learning-enabled musical keyboard for developers: Amazon Devices — AWS DeepComposer gives developers a creative way to get started with machine learning. Get hands-on, literally, with a musical keyboard and the latest machine learning techniques, designed to expand your ML skills.
• Computer Chronicles Revisited, Part 16 — The Apple Logo Programming Language - S.M. Oliva — Today, Python is probably the most popular computer programming language taught in elementary and secondary schools. (There’s even a terrific podcast, Teaching Python, on this subject.) But back in the 1980s, BASIC was the language of choice for many introductory computer classrooms. Specifically, versions of Microsoft BASIC came with many popular 8-bit microcomputers, including the Apple II and Commodore 64, which were also commonly used in schools at the time.
• Amazon.com: A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence eBook: Hawkins, Jeff, Dawkins, Richard: Kindle Store — For all of neuroscience's advances, we've made little progress on its biggest question: How do simple cells in the brain create intelligence? Jeff Hawkins and his team discovered that the brain uses maplike structures to build a model of the world-not just one model, but hundreds of thousands of models of everything we know. This discovery allows Hawkins to answer important questions about how we perceive the world, why we have a sense of self, and the origin of high-level thought. A Thousand Brains heralds a revolution in the understanding of intelligence. It is a big-think book, in every sense of the word.
• GitHub Copilot · Your AI pair programmer — Trained on billions of lines of public code, GitHub Copilot puts the knowledge you need at your fingertips, saving you time and helping you stay focused.
• PyBites Platform | Real World Python Exercises — Solve Real World Problems Using Python Overwhelmed by tutorials? Stop consuming books and courses! The only way to really learn to code is to write a lot of relevant code. Our platform makes you a confident programmer fast.
• Real-World Python: A Hacker's Guide to Solving Problems with Code: Vaughan, Lee: 9781718500624: Amazon.com: Books — Through a series of hands-on projects, you'll investigate and solve real-world problems using sophisticated computer vision, machine learning, data analysis, and language processing tools. You'll be introduced to important modules like OpenCV, NumPy, Pandas, NLTK, Bokeh, Beautiful Soup, Requests, HoloViews, Tkinter, turtle, matplotlib, and more. You'll create complete, working programs and think through intriguing projects that show you how to:
• Adafruit IO Wippersnapper DevLog #1: What IS Wippersnapper? #AdafruitIO​​ #Adafruit​ #IoT @adafruit @adafruitio « Adafruit Industries – Makers, hackers, artists, designers and engineers! — Adafruit IO Wippersnapper is a new way to create robust Internet of Things Projects without writing code. Wippersnapper is in early development and it’s not out yet.
• Adafruit FunHouse - WiFi Home Automation Development Board : ID 4985 : $34.95 : Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kits — Home is where the heart is...it's also where we keep all our electronic bits. So why not wire it up with sensors and actuators to turn our house into an electronic wonderland. Whether it's tracking the environmental temperature and humidity in your laundry room, or notifying you when someone is detected in the kitchen, to sensing when a window was left open, or logging when your cat leaves through the pet door, this board is designed to make it way easy to make WiFi-connected home automation projects.
• Adafruit Feather nRF52840 Sense : ID 4516 : $32.50 : Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kits — The Adafruit Feather Bluefruit Sense takes our popular Feather nRF52840 Express and adds a smorgasbord of sensors to make a great wireless sensor platform. This Feather microcontroller comes with Bluetooth Low Energy and native USB support featuring the nRF52840! This Feather is an 'all-in-one' Arduino-compatible + Bluetooth Low Energy with built in USB plus battery charging. With native USB it works great with CircuitPython, too.
• EngiNerds (MAX) - Kindle edition by Lerner, Jarrett. Children Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com. — Ken is an EngiNerd: one of a super-smart group of friends—all nerds—who have been close since kindergarten.
• Amazon.com: POWER A Nano Enhanced Wireless Controller for Nintendo Switch - Grey-Neon, Works with Nintendo Switch Lite, Bluetooth Controller, Gamepad, Compact, Smaller, Rechargeable, Portable - Nintendo Switch: Video Games — Wireless Controller with Bluetooth 5.0 Technology + compact ergonomic shell with standard sized Buttons & controls Features motion controls and mappable advanced gaming Buttons + LEDs for player number, button mapping, and low battery warning