On Thursday, March 30th over 60 future programmers visited the Collaborate & Code tables at Barnes & Noble inside Cherryvale Mall. Seven RVC students were present to teach future programmers about line coding and blocky coding with the robot named OzoBot (see photos below). In addition, DESTIR roamed the aisles of Barnes and Noble stirring up some interesting conversations about the future of robotics and the role programmers will have in writing code to control those robots.

Thanks to all RVC CIS students who volunteered for this event! Barnes & Noble has already invited us back for the fall Mini Maker Faire! - Prof Konkol

We had a sold out group again for yesterday's "Learn Coding with Robots" workshop. Over 35 people showed up for two hours to learn how to code using Ozobot, the one cubic inch robot. For the line code activity attendees paired up into groups of 2-3 and had fun learning how to draw code for the Ozobot to follow. We ended the workshop using OzoBlockly which allows attendees to create a series of commands the send to the Ozobot by begin placed on the Computer Monitor and receiving the commands via light nodes.

Next "Learn Coding with Robots" is on Saturday, April 29th from 10am-Noon
Click here to register or share with your friends, family and social media

Photos & Video of Workshop

Rock Valley College CIS (Computers & Information Systems) is partnering up with Barnes & Noble CherryVale Mall for a "Collaborate & Code"  to celebrate arts, crafts, engineering, science projects and the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mindset.

Join the fun on Thursday, March 30, 2017 from 6:00-9:00 p.m. at Barnes & Noble in CherryVale Mall, 7200 Harrison Ave, Rockford, IL 61112.

If you’re a tech enthusiast, crafter, educator, tinkerer, hobbyist, engineer, science club member, author, artist, student, entrepreneur, or maker of any kind—join the Barnes & Noble "Collaborate & Code"! Learn from each other, hear from the experts, and work on projects. 

Chuck Konkol, Rock Valley College CIS (Computers & Information Systems) Faculty, will lead sessions in coding with robots, the minute of code, and telepresence with "DESTIR the Robot"! Featuring: LittleBits, Lego, Magformers, Ozobots, DESTIR, KUBI, and more!

Event is free and open to the public.

For more information on "Collaborate & Code" 2017 please contact Chuck Konkol at (815) 921-3164 or c.konkol@rockvalleycollege.edu.
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Twelve community members showed up to code for an hour. Each attendee completed 14 levels of drag and drop coding. The game created was a Star Wars Game using BB-8. In addition, each completed level showed the Javascript code that would have been used to create game. 

Click or tap image of game to play now!