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About beanz Magazine

Our Mission

Every issue we donate several hundred copies to MagLiteracy.org for distribution to kids who show up in homeless shelters, food banks, and battered women shelters. While we have published since August 2013, only recently have we realized operating as a nonprofit could help us expand our charity work to reach more kids in more places.

Our 501(c)(3) nonprofit status makes it possible to expand our efforts to reach kids ages 8-12+ in many different locations. We also want to add a full time editor to corral our writers for each issue. And we’d love to expand the number of pages we print in every issue.

But most of all, we want to help kids have fun with technology. We want to inspire them to grow up using technology to do good things in their communities. We’d like to reach kids everywhere who are interested to learn about how to use technology.

Our Community

We’re a small community of teachers, technologists, and writers who love the challenge of exploring technology in ways kids and non-technical adults enjoy and understand. We try to make computing and engineering accessible, friendly, and fun. Scroll down the home page to learn about the members of our community.

Why beanz?

Kids and adults are surrounded by technology in our daily lives. Understanding technology helps us understand and make good use of technology instead of being overwhelmed or controlled by it. beanz is a fun thoughtful way to expose children and their adults to STEAM concepts, programming, and issues around technology use.

We also believe kids should see people who look like them using technology to explore their worlds, solve problems, and create opportunities in their communities. And it’s equally important for all kids to see how many wonderful communities there are in the world and how they use technology in the same or different ways.

About the Magazine

beanz magazine is a bi-monthly online and print magazine about learning to code, computer science, and how we use technology in our daily lives. The magazine includes hard to find information, for example, a list of 20+ programming languages for education, as well as coding schools, summer tech camps, and more.

While the magazine is written to help kids ages 8-12+ learn about programming and computer science, many readers and subscribers are parents, relatives, teachers, and librarians who use the articles to learn alongside kids in their lives. The magazine strives to provide easy to understand how-to information, with a bit of quirky fun.

The magazine is published in print and online six times a year, on the first day of February, April, June, August, October, and December.

Subscribers support the magazine. There is no advertising to distract readers. We welcome donations and we are applying for grants to help us pursue our mission to reach more kids in more places.

The magazine also has won several awards.

Editorial Focus

With every issue, the magazine explores these topics:

  • Basics of programming and where to learn more
  • Problem solving and collaboration
  • Mathematical foundations of computing and computer science
  • Computational thinking
  • Recognizing and selecting computer devices
  • Community, global, and ethical impacts of technology

These topics are distilled from the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) curriculum guidelines for teaching computer science and computing. A number of our how-to articles in the magazine were approved by the CSTA as meeting their standards.

For readers who find coding fun, learning a programming language is only a start. They also need to learn how to debug code, choose technology, define and solve problems, and many other skills and concepts. beanz magazine provides a high level view of what new coders need to know to become great coders. With links to learn more.

For readers bored or turned off by coding, the magazine can help them dive into computer science concepts, problems, and challenges in a friendly way. We also include electronics projects and 3D projects with the free SketchUp and OpenSCAD software tools. Readers also can learn the limits of technology, as well as what makes technology so amazing.

Reader questions and ideas are encouraged and help develop story ideas. Please use the Contact page to reach us.