August 2017 Learn More Links
Image by Pool Safety on Flickr
Links from the bottom of all the August 2017 articles, collected in one place for you to print, share, or bookmark.
Create a Basic Substitution Cipher Code
https://www.kidscodecs.com/create-basic-cipher/
Wikipedia – Substitution Cipher
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substitution_cipher
Practical Cryptography – Simple Substitution Cipher
http://practicalcryptography.com/ciphers/simple-substitution-cipher/
Substitution Ciphers
https://www.math.cornell.edu/~mec/2003-2004/cryptography/subs/substitution.html
Simple Substitution Cipher Encoder
http://substitution.webmasters.sk/simple-substitution-cipher.php
The Black Chamber – Learn about Codes and Codebreaking
http://www.simonsingh.net/The_Black_Chamber/index.html
Get Started with Scratch
https://www.kidscodecs.com/get-started-scratch/
Scratch Official Site
Scratch Starter Projects
https://scratch.mit.edu/starter_projects/
Scratch – Explore Projects
https://scratch.mit.edu/explore/projects/all/
Code Club – Scratch Projects
https://codeclubprojects.org/en-GB/scratch/
Make Your Scratch Code More Efficient With Custom Blocks
The Birthday Paradox
https://www.kidscodecs.com/birthday-paradox/
Wolfram Alpha: Birthday Paradox Calculator
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=birthday+problem+calculator
Understanding the Birthday Paradox
https://betterexplained.com/articles/understanding-the-birthday-paradox/
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bring-science-home-probability-birthday-paradox/
About Combinatorics
http://www.mathsisfun.com/combinatorics/combinations-permutations.html
Birthday Paradox/Problem
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_problem
On Sorting
https://www.kidscodecs.com/on-sorting/
Visual Algorithm Sorting
https://visualgo.net/en/sorting
Algorithm Visualizations: Comparison Sorting Algorithms
https://www.cs.usfca.edu/~galles/visualization/ComparisonSort.html
RosettaCode Sorting Algorithms
https://rosettacode.org/wiki/Category:Sorting_Algorithms
Geeks for Geeks: Sorting Algorithms
http://www.geeksforgeeks.org/sorting-algorithms/
Sorting Out the Basics Behind Sorting Algorithms
https://medium.com/basecs/sorting-out-the-basics-behind-sorting-algorithms-b0a032873add
Don’t Feed the Trolls
https://www.kidscodecs.com/dont-feed-trolls/
How Should My Kid Respond to Haters and Trolls Online?
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/cyberbullying/how-should-my-kid-respond-to-haters-and-trolls-online
What is the best way to stop internet trolls?
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160318-what-is-the-best-way-to-stop-internet-trolls
Cyberbullying Guidance and Practical PSHE Toolkit
http://www.childnet.com/our-projects/cyberbullying-guidance-and-practical-toolkit
Help Your Child be a Good Online Friend
http://www.childnet.com/blog/help-your-child-be-a-good-online-friend
How Trolls are Ruining the Internet
http://time.com/4457110/internet-trolls/
What is Trolling and How Does it Affect My Kids?
https://www.teensafe.com/blog/trolling-affect-kids/
What’s a micro:bit?
https://www.kidscodecs.com/get-started-microbit/
micro:bit Foundation
http://microbit.org
http://microbit.org/resellers/
micro:bit Resources Page
https://www.kidscodecs.com/resources/microbit/
Shadow Pictures
https://www.kidscodecs.com/shadow-pictures/
Drzach & Suchy
http://www.drzachsuchy.ch/schattenbilder
Who Knew Turtles Can Draw?
https://www.kidscodecs.com/turtles-can-draw/
A Simple Turtle Tutorial for Python
https://github.com/asweigart/simple-turtle-tutorial-for-python/blob/master/simple_turtle_tutorial.md
Easy Designs – Turtle Graphics Python
http://www.instructables.com/id/Easy-Designs-Turtle-Graphics-Python/
Notes on Using Python’s Turtle Built-In Commands
http://www.eg.bucknell.edu/~hyde/Python3/TurtleDirections.html
Getting Started with Minecraft
https://www.kidscodecs.com/get-started-minecraft/
Official Minecraft Website
https://minecraft.net/en-us/
http://www.minecraftmods.com/
Minecraft Wiki
http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Minecraft_Wiki
Minecraft Beginner’s Guide
https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Tutorials/Beginner%27s_guide
Minecraft Gameplay and Game Modes
https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Gameplay
Minecraft Tutorials
https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Tutorials
The Parents’ Guide to Minecraft
https://www.howtogeek.com/210923/the-parents-guide-to-minecraft/
Share your ‘Minecraft’ creations in 3D
https://www.engadget.com/2017/07/31/minecraft-3d-sharing-and-better-together-beta/
Chain of Command, Chain of Language
https://www.kidscodecs.com/markov-create-random-stories/
Github Text Generation Repository/Sample Code
https://github.com/clarissalittler/text-generation
Natural Language Generation
The general process of trying to create text that looks like it was written by a person is called natural language generation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_language_generation
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg has a massive number of old books available as plain text files suitable for setting up your Markov chain
http://www.gutenberg.org/
Markov Chains Explained Visually
http://setosa.io/ev/markov-chains/
Markov and You
https://blog.codinghorror.com/markov-and-you/
Designing a Programming Language, Part II
https://www.kidscodecs.com/designing-programming-language-part-ii/
Pangolin Code Repository
https://github.com/clarissalittler/creating-languages
Lambda Calculus
http://www.cs.unc.edu/~stotts/723/Lambda/overview.html
Fortran Reference
A reference on Fortran 77, a version of Fortran that has call-by-reference functions and is a good glimpse into what older languages looked like
http://web.stanford.edu/class/me200c/tutorial_77/
Forth
PangolinV1 is meant to look like a simple, modern, language. Forth is an example of just how different a programming language can look while still being Turing complete
http://thinking-forth.sourceforge.net/
Pharo
Another very different kind of programming language is Pharo, which has a common ancestor with Scratch!
http://pharo.org/
How To Create a Programming Language
https://www.kidscodecs.com/build-a-programming-language-1/
https://www.kidscodecs.com/designing-programming-language-part-ii/
Your First Sewing Machine
https://www.kidscodecs.com/first-sewing-machine/
Idea Room
http://www.theidearoom.net/simple-sewing-projects-kids/
Crazy Little Projects
http://crazylittleprojects.com/2014/01/25-beginnger-sewing-projects.html
So Sew Easy
http://so-sew-easy.com/fun-easy-sewing-projects-kids/
The Best Sewing Machine for Beginners
http://www.shelikestosew.com/best-sewing-machines-beginners/
Best Sewing Machines for Beginners
http://www.mysewingadventure.com/sewing-for-beginners/
Buying a Sewing Machine for Beginners
Also In The August 2017 Issue

A substitution cipher is an easy way to begin learning about how to use and make secret codes.

What are the odds two people in your classroom share a birthday? Much higher than you think!

Scratch is a fun block-based programming language that's easy to learn once you understand the basics.

The micro:bit is a not too expensive board that lets you easily build projects to learn about computing.

Meet Thomas, a turtle who can help you draw stars with Python (not the snake!).

The humble sewing machine can be a great first step to fun maker projects. Here's how to get started!

There's lots you can do make your online experiences enjoyable AND safe.

Minecraft is a fun game to play and a way to learn about games and programming. But first you have to learn the basics.

Have you ever put books in alphabetical order? What do you think the best method of alphabetizing would be?

With an EV3 robotics set, you can build all kinds of robots!

Some ideas how to engage young women in computing and STEAM based on recent research.

These three dimensional objects are 3D printed and cast images when light shines through them.

How do computers predict what text you want to write next? Here's how to create predictive stories.

This tutorial shows how to create a chat bot that plays hangman.

In this installment, learn about how programming languages are designed.

Links from the bottom of all the August 2017 articles, collected in one place for you to print, share, or bookmark.

Interesting stories about computer science, software programming, and technology for February 2017.