
Young Zach (9) and his dad drove down
from Lynchburg to Blacksburg to take one of
LCBB’s first Arduino workshops in 2013.
Local Blacksburg tech leaders Rackspace and Tech Pad have been separately bringing quality STEM coding classes to Blacksburg and the New River Valley for a while now. My own company and Internet/cloud hoster Rackspace has been running monthly Let’s Code Blacksburg! (LCBB) programming & technology workshops since 2012. Local coworking space Tech Pad has been running nearly weekly programming series with their Blacksburg Coder DoJo group for over a year now, and other local tech experts from around town have been running the New River Valley 100 Girls of Code workshops since this past summer.
The leaders of these STEM coding groups like to occasionally meet to discuss and assist each other with various community opportunities, but recently we huddled around the idea of coordinating efforts around a single “Blacksburg Week of Code“. This focused, three day set of coding opportunities (from December 10-12th) is being offered in conjunction with the global “Computer Science Education Week” (December 7-13) efforts being evangelized by the Hour of Code STEM programming movement. The now global Hour of Code movement proclaims, “Every student should have the opportunity to learn computer science. It helps nurture problem-solving skills, logic and creativity. By starting early, students will have a foundation for success in any 21st-century career path.” Continue reading