Drew helping a Cyber Legionnaire with a question
What makes foreign governments question their future security? What keeps the Kremlin's spymasters up at night? Why is China spending billions on new network firewalls? These governments, all guilty of meddling in American's cyber security, fear a small group of young, up and coming future programmers.They fear The Space Place at Renaissance Academy's Cyber Legionnaires.
Nestled snugly just to the west of Utah's Silicon Slopes sits Renaissance Academy. Renaissance is a public charter school that specializes in foreign languages and experiential education using the USS Voyager, the school's starship simulator. The Space Place offered the coding class for two years before Covid shut us down in 2019. Now we are back with the first class held last Saturday for students in grades 5 - 7.
Nestled snugly just to the west of Utah's Silicon Slopes sits Renaissance Academy. Renaissance is a public charter school that specializes in foreign languages and experiential education using the USS Voyager, the school's starship simulator. The Space Place offered the coding class for two years before Covid shut us down in 2019. Now we are back with the first class held last Saturday for students in grades 5 - 7.
These 28 Cyber Legionnaires meet in my classroom most Saturday mornings from 8:30 - 9:30 A.M. I supervise the Legionaries but the heavy lifting code coaching comes from my two gurus (the Google name for Google CS teaching assistants), Ammon and Drew. Together the three of us put the students through their paces as outlined in the Google CSFirst curriculum. Our young programming novices are learning SCRATCH. They're quick learners.
Ammon helping a young Legionnaire
The students are enthusiastic to learn as proven by their willingness to return to school at 8:30 A.M. on a Saturday morning for a 60 minute class. As the name of our group illustrates, our students know that the future depends on a computer literate population. Computer literacy should begin at an early age with age appropriate material. Google has generously supplied the curriculum. It is now up to schools to make these lessons available to students nationwide.
This year's first class of Cyber Legionnaires at The Space Place
From this class of Cyber Legionnaires will come tomorrow's programmers tasked with America's safety along with the development of applications, processes, and equipment to improve our quality of life. Our ultimate goal is to provide America's companies with an ample pool of qualified employees ready to tackle the programming needs of the future. The time to prepare for that future is now.
Mr. Williamson
The Voyager Club at Renaissance Academy's The Space Place: Using Space Exploration and Science Fiction to Teach Teamwork, Communication, and Problem Solving Skills
Three 6th Grade Voyager Cadets Working to Set a New Record in Cup Stacking
We sure have fun while learning at The Space Place, Renaissance Academy's space center. The school has 225 Young Astronauts (grades 3-5) and the Voyagers (grades 6-9) enrolled in the after school program. The cadets meet once per month to learn about space exploration, bond as a team with team building activities, and explore the vastness of space in our very own Starships, the Voyager and Nighthawk.
The cadets are involved in a cup stacking competition this month.
The 6th Grade Cobra Squadron Trying to Set a New Time Record
InfiniD Makes an Impression at the Future of Education Technology Conference in New Orleans
We were invited to showcase our technology (Infini-D Learning) in a pitch competition at the Future of Education Technology Conference (#FETC) in New Orleans.Guess what.We won!
Skyler Carr posted the photo and caption above on his Facebook page. I don't know much about the FETC, but based on its name, there would be no better fit than InfinD and the experiential learning practiced everyday in our Utah County space centers.
Congratuations to Skyler Carr, Brooks Heder, and the InfiniD family!
Space Center Legend Jon Parker Celebrates his 18th Anniversary at the Christa McAuliffe Space Center
A Younger Jon Parker (With a Reasonable Haircut) at the Controls
That's right space fans, our good friend and confidant, Jon Parker celebrated his 18th anniversary on Saturday. It was 18 years ago Jon arrived on our doorstep; a young new volunteer assigned, by mistake, to work an overnight camp. Not having a clue what to do, he somehow survived the ordeal and 18 years later is the CMSC's Assistant Director and good friend to all. Congratulations Jon!
Imaginarium Theater
The Best Videos From Around the World Edited for a Gentler Audience
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