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"I'm so honored to be a part of the 28 Days of Hands-On STEM Activities series hosted by Left Brain Craft Brain this year. The free, printable "Coding a LEGO Maze" activity that I've created as part of this series can grow with kids. Children as young as 5 or 6 can attempt the easiest challenges, while the concepts introduced in the harder challenges are covered in any introduction to programming class. There are so many baby steps involved in learning how to think like a programmer. Throughout the past several years, I've programmed in at least 6 different computer languages (C, C++, Java, Fortran, Matlab, and Python). For a beginner, what's important is not the specifics of a language (called the syntax). Rather it's better to understand the commonalities between languages which are the building blocks of any programming language. These LEGO mazes, which can be solved with "code" using paper rather than a computer, illustrate 4 levels of difficulty and include a variety of programming concepts. While these Levels will be described in more detail below, here is a quick overview:"

"Looking for some fun and engaging ways to have kindergarten kids participate in problem solving (and creating), I turned to my trusty friend, Lego. Like many division one teachers, I use Lego often because it has so many applications. But as the 2014-15 school year came to a close, I was looking for a challenge. So, what I did was created a maze with Lego that a marble would travel to and showed this to the kids. I then challenged the kids to make a maze that would fit the marble (there had to be three empty spaces for width at all times)."

"Marble Math is a fun mathematics game for kids to play on their iPads. The game has students practice basic multiplication problems through a maze layout. Students are given multiplication problems to solve by rolling their marbles through mazes that contain the correct answers. "

"Mention robots to many English teachers and they'll immediately point down the hall to the science classroom or to the makerspace, if they have one. At many schools, if there's a robot at all, it's located in a science or math classroom or is being built by an after-school robotics club. It's not usually a fixture in English classrooms. But as teachers continue to work at finding new entry points to old material for their students, robots are proving to be a great interdisciplinary tool that builds collaboration and literacy skills. "For someone like me who teaches literature by lots of dead white guys, teaching programming adds relevance to my class," said Jessica Herring, a high school English teacher at Benton High School in Arkansas. Herring first experimented using Sphero, essentially a programmable ball, when her American literature class was studying the writing of early settlers. Herring pushed the desks back and drew a maze on the floor with tape representing the journey from Europe to the New World. Her students used class iPads and an introductory manually guided app to steer their Spheros through the maze. Herring, like many English teachers, was skeptical about how the Sphero robot could be a useful teaching tool in her classroom. She thought that type of technology would distract students from the core skills of reading, writing and analyzing literature. But she decided to try it after hearing about the success of another English teacher across the country."

"We live in an era where robotics and artificial intelligence will replace many of our current jobs. Global connectivity will continue to allow companies to outsource labor to other countries. Our students will likely change jobs every five to seven years. The corporate ladder is gone and in its place, is a complex maze. They will inhabit a world of constant change. But how do we help students navigate that maze? We often hear that our current students will work in jobs that don't exist right now. But here's another reality: our current students will be the ones who create those jobs. Not every student will create the next Google or Pixar or Lyft. Some students will be engineers or artists or accountants. Some will work in technology, others in traditional corporate spaces and still others in social or civic spaces. Some of them will work in high-skilled manufacturing. But no matter how diverse their industries will be, our students will all someday face a common reality. They will need to be self-starters and self-managers. This is why metacognition is so vital. Metacognition happens when students analyze tasks, set goals, implement strategies and reflect on what we're learning."

Lead the ladybug through the maze using direction tools

"I'm sure that if you've seen my blog before you've seen that I have a bit of an obsession with cardboard. We seem to have a constant stream of Amazon or Wish parcels arriving at our house (nothing to do with me I'm sure), and with them comes lovely lovely cardboard! It never gets thrown as either the 7yo or myself save it for a weekend build. Some times this can be completely low tech, others we hack it up a bit! For this project we used a Microbit."

"We were in the midst of moving the oversized red bird around the maze to capture the evil green pig, using block-style programming codes up on the interactive board, when one of my sixth grade students raised her hand and asked the inevitable question: "Mr. H, why are we learning about computer programming in writing class? Why do we need to know this?""

In the sprawling universe of Hollywood, where countless stars vie for attention, Austin Robert Butler stands out like a luminous beacon. His ascent in the entertainment world isn't just a tale of luck or being at the right place at the right time; it's a narrative of relentless dedication, adaptability in roles, and an innate talent that refuses to be overshadowed. From his early days of navigating the complex maze of showbiz to becoming one of its most recognized faces, Butler's journey is a masterclass in ambition fueled by sheer passion. His ability to seamlessly transition between roles, coupled with a work ethic that's second to none, showcases the makings of a true artist.