One of the great things to come out of #STEMchat was a friendship with Amy Kraft. She's a game designer, writer, and producer, and co-founder of the Monkey Bar Collective, which you'll read about below. She's also mom to two cool kids and a champion of diversity in apps. Meet Amy Kraft You've worked in children's media for a long time. Did you start on the programming end? I started as an artist, actually. I moved to New York as a photographer ... [ Read More ]
How to Host a Teen Appathon or Hackathon
People + technology can solve any problem. There's no reason those people can't be teens, is there? In fact, digital natives are especially well-suited to use technology to create innovative solutions. We recently brought together a group of high school students, mostly from the Niles Township Schools, with a smattering from Lane Tech High School and others from as far away as Vernon Hills to do just that. After learning about key community ... [ Read More ]
colAR Mix App for 3D Coloring Fun
Okay, so it's not the most sophisticated augmented reality experience available, but the colAR Mix App is free to download. The app is available for Apple and Android systems. ColAR Mix App comes with free and paid options for kids of all ages to color and view their drawings in 3D. I say kids of all ages in case you haven't heard that adult coloring books are all the rage these days. First you download the app on your phone, then you print ... [ Read More ]
How To Raise a Young Scientist: April #STEMchat Summary, Part I
The April 2014 #STEMchat Sponsor There's still nearly a week left to enter the 2014 Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge and if you're looking for last minute ideas or tips to inspire your child to be named America's Top Young Scientist, keep reading! This was one of our liveliest #STEMchats ever with 175 participants. Of course we had a wonderful group of panelists to keep the discussion moving ahead and a fabulous ... [ Read More ]
Top Resources for Tweens and Engineering: #STEMchat Summary
We had a great time at the Tweens and Engineering #STEMchat. In fact, the chat was so lively it trended on Twitter! And as you will see below everyone shared so many great links and ideas. Many thanks to our sponsor and source of many excellent resources for emerging tween engineers, Design Squad. Thanks also to panelists Beth Blecherman, Amy Kraft, and Christy Matte. Kudos also to Jen Merrill bringing a sense of order from a rambling ... [ Read More ]