Computer science was one of the many fields that I briefly considered majoring in while in college. I LOVED my freshman computer science class. From the very first time I made the computer spit out “Hello world”, I was hooked. The projects were so fun. I’d only been programming for about a month when we started writing our own simple computer games and making useful programs like a searchable address book. I honestly don’t remember why I didn’t choose computer science as my major. I had too many interests.
Anyway, it didn’t matter. The scientific world is so multidisciplinary that I ended up getting my PhD in mechanical engineering by using computer science to write a plasma physics code. After graduation, even though I didn’t major in computer science, I was a research scientist writing and running computer simulations of physics devices for aerospace applications.
In addition to software development, I’ve always had an interest in hardware as well. My husband and I have built several computers over the past 15 years, carefully selecting the components to fit our cost and performance needs. At this point in time, laptops are so powerful and inexpensive that it doesn’t really make sense to build a computer from the ground up, but it was fun while it lasted.
Here are the computer science and engineering projects on this site:
If your child has a serious interest in computer science, you might also be interested in some of the recommended products below. Click each picture for my full, detailed review:
Robot Turtles by Think Fun (~$20) — Full Review — Amazon Affiliate Link
Code Your Own Games! by Max Wainewright (~$15) — Full Review — Amazon Affiliate Link
Click here for more Technology and Engineering activities for kids.
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