Kids Code & Computer Science

Binary numbers, based on 1s and 0s, reflect the practical essence of computer hardware: electricity is either on or off. Learn how to write in binary numbers, and the (not so secret) code to transform English language letters into binary numbers and back again.

Simon recently wrote a short ebook, A children's guide to Python programming, to teach kids ages 5-8 computer programming with Python..

Named after Monty Python, this language is designed to be simple yet powerful, easy to code with lots of features.

In most or all software programming languages, variables work like containers to hold numbers, phrases, or other important stuff used in several places in your code. Here's how they work in several common languages.

Some numbers simply have a positive attitude. They're fun to play with.

Girls Who Code, CoderDojo, and other local groups are great places to learn how to program, meet people, and help others learn.

Building your own computer is a great way to not only save money, and get more processing power, but also to learn about the less obvious parts of software programming.

Interesting stories about computer science, software programming, and technology for the month of August 2013.

There are plenty of places online to learn one or more software programming languages. Here's a short list with some guidelines to evaluate all your options.

Links from the bottom of all the September 2013 articles, collected in one place for you to print, share, or bookmark.

His work ties together two topics for this issue of the magazine: binary numbers and circuit design. Without Shannon, computers and computer science could have been very different.