In this talk Tony Hey, Vice President of Microsoft Research, will explore the origins of computers and of ‘computational thinking’. The story begins with the key contributions of Alan Turing and John von Neumann and the twin concepts of universality and hierarchical abstraction. As an illustration of the importance of abstraction, the ‘File clerk’ model of Nobel prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman computing will be described. Our examination of computer hardware takes us from logic gates to the microprocessor and Moore’s Law. On the software side, our discussion of algorithms begins with Euclid’s algorithm for the Greatest Common Divisor and ends with a description of PageRank, the ‘billion dollar’ algorithm that launched the search giant Google. An account of the origins of the personal computer, the Internet and Web then brings us up to the present. We end the talk with a look to the future with the rise of AI and Machine Learning and Butler Lampson’s ‘Third Age of Computing’. - See more at: http://www.festivalofideas.cam.ac.uk/events/computing-universe-origins-computational-thinking#sthash.ErQvP1BH.dpuf

The computing universe: origins of computational thinking

In this short podcast I discuss a lesson on algorithmic thinking that I taught to three classes of middle schoolers last week.

Algorithmic Thinking Lesson

Ian Phillips talks with Journeys in Podcasting about computational thinking as a base of problem solving skills that potentially permeate across disciplines of study and prepare students for an uncertain, ambiguous future.

Ian Phillips on Computational Thinking

Ally Watson co-founded Code like a Girl after experiencing first-hand the barriers women have in the male-dominated computer science and developer industry. Code like a Girl aims to change the playing field, with a strong focus on mentoring girls in coding and computational thinking in a creative environment that sparks a love of logic and leadership.  

“We tell them, this what a programmer is, this is what it looks like and this is my story. So, these girls a heading home and getting inspired by the women who facilitate these sessions and they’re saying …Mum, Dad, I want to be a coder when I grow up!” 

After chatting with Ally Watson, we also look at ways you can teach about robotics without having a robot or a computer plus we revisit a grab from a past episode in which Neil Bramsen talks about his approach for teaching primary students about logical reasoning.

Hosted by Ben Newsome from Fizzics Education  

Top 3 learnings

Get involved! Coding is about getting your mind wrapped around creatively solving a logic challenge. There are plenty of opportunities to join a coding group, you just have to join the fun. 

It’s the story that matters. It’s just as important for kids to know why coding is important as it is to know how to program a given task. 

Coding is part of our future. Even if you know that you may not become a software developer, it is just as important to learn how these machines function as they are becoming more and more prevalent in today’s society.

Contact details for Ally Watson  
https://codelikeagirl.org
https://twitter.com/codelikeagirlAU

Education tip: 
Teach coding without a robot or computer 
https://goo.gl/aHmWPd   

Contact Fizzics Education

Web: http://www.fizzicseducation.com.au/ 
Phone: +612 9674 2191

STEM Teaching support resources 

NEW Primary STEM teaching book!  http://www.fizzicseducation.com.au/be+amazing+book.html 

>100 Free Science Experiments  http://www.fizzicseducation.com.au/Free+experiments.html 

>100 Free Science Ideas and Tips http://www.fizzicseducation.com.au/Blog.html

Know an educator who'd love this episode? Share it!If something grabbed your attention in this STEM podcast please leave your thoughts below.

Ep. 26 Code like a Girl

Ally Watson co-founded Code like a Girl after experiencing first-hand the barriers women have in the male-dominated computer science and developer industry. Code like a Girl aims to change the playing field, with a strong focus on mentoring girls in coding and computational thinking in a creative environment that sparks a love of logic and leadership.“We tell them, this what a programmer is, this is what it looks like and this is my story. So, these girls are heading home and getting inspired by the women who facilitate these sessions and they’re saying …Mum, Dad, I want to be a coder when I grow up!”
Top 3 learnings

Get involved! Coding is about getting your mind wrapped around creatively solving a logic challenge. There are plenty of opportunities to join a coding group, you just have to join the fun. 
It’s the story that matters. It’s just as important for kids to know why coding is important as it is to know how to program a given task. 
Coding is part of our future. Even if you know that you may not become a software developer, it is just as important to learn how these machines function as they are becoming more and more prevalent in today’s society.

About the FizzicsEd Podcast
With interviews with leading science educators and STEM thought leaders, this science education podcast is about highlighting different ways of teaching kids within and beyond the classroom. It's not just about educational practice & pedagogy, it's about inspiring new ideas & challenging conventions of how students can learn about their world! 
Know an educator who'd love this STEM podcast episode? 
Share it!

Ep.37 Code like a Girl revisited

Dr Linda McIver started out as an Academic with a PhD in Computer Science Education. When it became apparent that High School teaching was a lot more fun, Linda began a highly successful career at John Monash Science School, where she built innovative courses in Computational and Data Science for year 10 and year 11 students.
 
Nominated one of the inaugural Superstars of STEM in 2017, Linda is passionate about creating authentic project experiences to motivate all students to become technologically and data literate.Hosted by Ben Newsome from Fizzics Education.About the Australian Data Science Education Institute
ADSEI’s mission is to empower teachers and students to understand, use, and communicate data in every context – as part of science, maths, and technology, but also geography, history, politics, and even English. Data runs our lives, and it is a powerful means of understanding our world.
 
What’s the gender balance like in the novels studied at year 12, or in reporting of science? How does Google figure out what news to show you? How does Facebook work out who you might want to connect with? What’s the traffic like on the way to the airport? These are all data stories.
 
How do we find the answers? How do we communicate them effectively? How do we evaluate the data stories other people tell us to be sure that it’s both accurate and valid?
 
We need to embed these skills in the way we teach our kids. ADSEI empowers teachers to do that by supplying resources, training, and real datasets, and by connecting them with other teachers, academics, and data science professionals to give kids authentic opportunities to engage with data science.

More information

https://adsei.org/

About the FizzicsEd Podcast
With interviews with leading science educators and STEM thought leaders, this science education podcast is about highlighting different ways of teaching kids within and beyond the classroom. It's not just about educational practice & pedagogy, it's about inspiring new ideas & challenging conventions of how students can learn about their world!
https://www.fizzicseducation.com.au/

Know an educator who'd love this STEM podcast episode? 
Share it!The FizzicsEd podcast is a member of the Australian Educators Online Network (AEON )http://www.aeon.net.au/

Ep.50 Why data science is essential

Fizzics Education exists to deliver engaging science to any audience, anywhere!

We've been a leading Australian provider of interactive science workshops and shows since 2004, delivering inspiring science programs to approximately 300,000 children each year via incursion and video conference across 400 schools and public spaces throughout Australia and around the world. Our science presentations are run in schools and in non-traditional environments such as movie cinemas, shopping centers, libraries, juvenile justice centers, hospitals, park lands, sports stadiums, retirement homes, university theaters and any other facility able to accommodate large or small groups of people.

Popular tracks tagged #computational thinking