Thanks to Emily Breakfield for inviting me to talk to the Willowbrook Middle School in South Beloit about the "Hour of Code". Emily is technology teacher at Willowbrook Middle School. You can visit her webpage here.

It is of vital importance that students in K-12 are introduced to Computer Science and coding. By the year 2020 the USA will have 1.4 million new computing jobs. However, at the current rate, we will only have 400,000 students graduate with Computer Science degrees. Rock Valley College is trying to change that by offering monthly, FREE "Hour of Code" workshops, open to the public. Since December 2015, we have had 425 people complete the "Hour of Code" challenge. The age range of those that have completed have been 5 - 87 years old. 

Again, hats of to Willowbrook Middle School! I hope your "Hour of Code" event goes well!

Here is the link to the presentation I gave to Willowbrook Middle School
​Report: Support for Computer Science in Wisconsin.

Happy Coding,
​Professor Chuck Konkol

Photos from event:
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Jobs Available for Coders

•         Information Technology (IT) worker
•         Data Analysts
•         Artists and designers
•         Engineers
•         Scientists
•         Finance
•         Manufacturing
•         Health Care

Skills needed for Coders

•         SQL - Databases
•         Java -General purpose programming
•         Javascript -Web development
•         Linux - Computer system operations
•         XML - General purpose programming
•         C++ -General purpose programming, especially in engineering
•         C# -General purpose programming
•         Python -General purpose programming
•         .NET -General purpose programming

We had 96 folks show up to take the #RVCHourofCode" challenge! Four one hour sessions started at 9am on Saturday, December 3rd and ended at 1pm!