The Texas Institute for Educational Robotics at Northwest Vista College received a $12,500 grant from the Google Computer Science for High School (CS4HS) program.
The grant will be used to conduct a five-day summer workshop institute for middle school teachers. La Prensa and Texas Public Radio did stories on NVC receiving the grant. Here's a link to the TPR story.
Under the direction of Andrew Schuetze, NVC will provide training to educators from San Antonio school districts by introducing gaming design principles using the free Kodu Game Lab Community. Kodu is designed primarily for ages 8 and older and allows users to create games on a PC or XBOX using a simple visual computer programming language.
Participants will include teachers from surrounding school districts, primarily those whose enrollment consists of high numbers of under-represented students. NVC Robotics and Game Development program faculty will serve as lead instructors.
Google's Education Group provides funding in the US, Canada, Europe, Middle East, Africa, China, New Zealand, and Australia. Last year, Google was instrumental in providing access, resources, financial assistance and innovative products to more than 15 million students and teachers in more than 140 communities worldwide.