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This Week’s Spotlight and Project-Inspiration Theme: World Bicycle Day!
This week’s focus is World Bicycle Day
The bicycle is a crucially important invention, providing greater access to cheaper means of transportation for countless people around the world. It is often looked at as having a strong connection between human and a machine, as it can be considered a machine that makes travel and exercise easier for humans. The bicycle helps humans be able to do something better than on their own.
Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, once compared the computer to the bicycle in an interesting metaphor:
“I think one of the things that really separates us from the high primates is that we’re tool builders. I read a study that measured the efficiency of locomotion for various species on the planet. The condor used the least energy to move a kilometer. And, humans came in with a rather unimpressive showing, about a third of the way down the list. It was not too proud a showing for the crown of creation. So, that didn’t look so good. But, then somebody at Scientific American had the insight to test the efficiency of locomotion for a man on a bicycle. And, a man on a bicycle, a human on a bicycle, blew the condor away, completely off the top of the charts.
And that’s what a computer is to me. What a computer is to me is it’s the most remarkable tool that we’ve ever come up with, and it’s the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.”
- Steve Jobs
Computers not only help make things easier for humans, but also open the door to new possibilities as well. Everything from watches that monitor our health to self-driving vehicles to fun entertainment devices are made possible by the continually evolving technology of computers.
So this World Bicycle Day, we encourage you to get out and ride your bicycle and enjoy some exercise and fresh air! You can even read up on World Bicycle Day with this United Nations post about what the day celebrates. As you are riding, maybe you’ll even want to use a bicycle computer which can be used for tracking distances, speeds, heart rates, and even to give directions!
As you are exploring and practicing your own coding skills this week, can you make a project that celebrates the bicycle? Maybe you could make a fitness tracking app for bicyclists using Thunkable? Or maybe you want to make a cycling safety device using a micro:bit? Whatever you choose to make, be sure to share it!
Share Your CS to Go Projects!
How to Share: We invite CS to Go with Code Savvy participants to consider sharing your projects publicly with the Code Savvy and greater #MNCodes community via video with Flipgrid. We can’t wait to see what you create! Please be sure to follow online safety guidelines and get adult permission before sharing. You can find our Privacy Policy here.