Today I visited Virginia City Middle School who just started teaching programming courses with Karel the Robot in NCLab. For those who are not experts on the Wild West, Virginia City used to belong to the richest and most famous cities in the U.S. Silver from its mines was used to build San Francisco. The silver mines also took most of the forests that once surrounded Reno. Mark Twain started his writing career here, working for a local newspaper. Nowadays Virginia City is one of the most spectacular ghost towns of the West, located high in the mountains outside of Reno, with unmatched views and atmosphere.
Yes and the Middle School has the best coffee in the world. I wish our department at UNR had a coffee machine like that.
We worked with two classes of 7th graders. Awesome experience! Some of these kids got real talent. I was speechless when one of the students at the end of the class was somewhere near the middle of Yellow Belt Second Degree. Recall that the four Degrees of the Yellow Belt are the core of the course, material that everyone should pass. Some students will not get beyond it. Fortunately, we have three more Purple Belt Degrees and then two more Black Belt Degrees to keep gifted students challenged and busy! Here is a couple photos for illustration.
