By
On

On February 18, 2021, shortly before 10 pm Italian time, Perseverance – the rover of the Nasa Mars 2020 mission – landed successfully on the surface of Mars. While humankind waited, breathless, imagining the ground of the red Planet quickly approaching the rover, something looked upwards, towards the sky covered by the large parachute. At first, nobody noticed, engrossed by the sand lifting up all around the rover, the stones, the pictures which Perseverance immediately gave us. However, within a few hours, someone went to review the images, and looking at the openLEGGI TUTTO

By
On

On November 16, 1974, from the radiotelescope of Arecibo, a peculiar radio message was sent out into space, towards the Hercules Globular Cluster, 25 thousand year-lights away from the Earth. The message was composed of 1679 binary digits (zero and one), one after the other. Why 1679? This number is the product of two prime numbers: 23 and 73. In this way, supposing that anyone receving it decides to order it in a quadrilateral, he/she will only be able to do this by ordering it in 23 lines and 73 columns, or 73 lines and 23LEGGI TUTTO

By
On

With this simple code realized with Scratch, you will be able to view (and hear) a message in binary code, as the one sent from Arecibo on 16 November 1974 and described in this activity. Let us see how to realize it, step by step. First of all, from the interface of Scratch, draw a new sprite (better square and small): this will be your bit. Give it the colour you prefer: the main thing is that it may be seen against the background that you will choose. In our project (which we invite you toLEGGI TUTTO

By
On

In order to make the mBot stop when he finds an obstacle, we use the ultrasound sensor, placed in the eyes of the robot: one eye is the ultrasound transmitter (indicated by the letter T), whereas the other one is the receiver (indicated with the letter R). The ultrasound sensor allows us to let mBot know the distance of the object in front of him, without touching it. The transmitter emits an ultrasound signal, which is reflected by the object and goes back to the receiver. By measuring the intervalLEGGI TUTTO

By
On

In order to steer mBot, first of all we must teach him to stop, otherwise as soon as he starts moving, we lose control. We simply tell him that, when we press the spacebar (for example) he must go forward at zero speed. Then we make sure that, when this happens, all the lights are off. At this point, by always using the command when you press that button we tell him how to move, according to the key pressed: up arrow to go forward,down arrow to go back, rightLEGGI TUTTO

By
On

In the occasion of events, at school or during summer camps, we introduce some concepts of educational robotics by using a small educational robot, which can be found in shops  – mBot – and can be programmed by using mBlock (based upon Scratch, plus a library which allows us to act upon the robot). An assembly kit is provided, and it takes about half an hour to put it together. As a general rule, junior secondary school pupils manage to assemble it on their own, from the mechanical components to the elettronic boardLEGGI TUTTO

By
On

On clear nights with the new Moon, with the naked eye you can admire up to 3000 stars. The Ancients, in order to orient themselves in that myriad of bright dots, ideally connected the stars with imaginary lines, thus forming groups and giving life to fantasy characters and objects, around which they embroiered storied which were handed down from generation to generation. The sky areas identified by these star groupings are called constellations, which still help us understand the night sky, find interesting objects, and orient ourselves in space andLEGGI TUTTO

By
On

With this making lab, you will discover some aspects of light, while building a real scientific instrument – namely, a spectroscope. This is a basic astronomical tool, which allows us to study the chemical composition and the physical state of the celestial objects we observe. Obviously, the spectroscope you will build is not exactly like those used by astronomers in order to observe the stars, but it does work well, and will enable you to break down the light of surrounding sources into a rainbow of colours. You will discoverLEGGI TUTTO

By
On

With this activity, you will find out what is your weight on the various planets of the Solar System. You will do this by coding with a real programming language: Scratch. In the end, you can share your program so that anyone can use it, even older people, who will have fun discovering how much comforting it could be to weigh themselves on Mars, rather than on Jupiter 😛 Let’s start by downloading the pictures of the planets, which will become our sprites: an image for each planet. In orderLEGGI TUTTO

By
On

With this simple activity, you will be able to make an astronomical documentary, and then share it with anyone you want! You will learn a lot about Astronomy, and you will write a code (yes! like a coder) using an actual programming language: Scratch. In the end, you will be able to show your astro-documentary to friends, family and teachers, and you will realize that it is very useful to share what you have learnt about the marvels of the Universe. Let’s start! First of all, install – either on yourLEGGI TUTTO