About the Authors
Camille McCue earned her PhD in Curriculum and Instruction at UNLV, investigating how youth learn math through designing and coding video games. She began her career at IBM before serving as the Educational Television Anchor-Producer for NASA HQ, connecting kids with STEM experts, from orbiting ISS astronauts to Antarctic researchers. Camille then led the Ready to Learn initiative for Vegas PBS, as well as served as Founding Director for Dawson College Bound. For the past several years, she has developed and taught engineering, enriched math, and computer science courses to youth of all ages in independent schools. Camille currently serves as Director of Curriculum Innovations for the Adelson Educational Campus in Las Vegas, where she directed the creation of a multimillion dollar Startup Incubator (startupincubator.site) and implements innovative instructional initiatives. She teaches Systems Modeling and AP Computer Science, and presents and publishes extensively, including writing nine technology books for John Wiley & Sons. Camille was recently awarded the Tech Exec Lifetime Achievement award from VEGAS, Inc. and Cox Business. During the summer she serves as the Curriculum Director for Spark Skill (sparkskill.com), an education startup providing cutting-edge STEM summer camps in programming, 3D printing, drone development, animation, cybersecurity, and IoT prototyping for tweens and teens. Camille is an active voice for evolution of the education system, blogging about this critical theme at camillemccue.com.
Sarah Guthals received her PhD from UCSD in Computer Science specializing in CS Education in 2014. During graduate school she built the beta version of CodeSpells, a 3D immersive video game designed to teach children to code through playing a wizard and writing “spells.” She went on to co-found ThoughtSTEM, a company that builds software (for example, LearnToMod), curriculum, and pedagogies for teaching children to code and empowering K-12 teachers to teach their students. She has written four books around Minecraft, one on mobile app development, and one on making digital games, launched a Coursera and EdX course for teachers interested in teaching coding, was recently named Forbes 30 under 30 in Science and UCSD’s 40 under 40 Alumni, and founded We Can — a company dedicated to encouraging ALL kids to do anything. She is currently a lecturer at UCSD for the department of Computer Science and the department of Educational Studies and is an Engineering Manager at a tech company. Her passion is making coding accessible to everyone, with the goal of making it a basic literacy.
Dedications
Camille: I dedicate this book to the many, many teachers and mentors who have taught me, inspired me, challenged me, and pushed me to “lean in” throughout my life. My parents, Beverly and Eric; my exceptional teachers; my husband, Michael, and our children, Ian and Carson (who keep me on my toes in tech!); and my colleagues and students who have all been the engines that keep me fired up.
Sarah: I would like to dedicate this book to my close friends and family members who have supported me, not only in writing this book, but in becoming who I am today. I’d like to specifically dedicate this book to my husband Adrian who has always helped me to see that, with passion and dedication, I can really do anything I want. And finally to my daughter Ayla who gives me the drive to keep pushing forward!
Authors’ Acknowledgments
Camille: What would we do without Dummies?! First, I’d like to acknowledge the Wiley team — especially my longtime friend, Acquisitions Editor, Steve Hayes; and our Project Editor, Rebecca Senninger, for their work in developing this book for parents and teachers as we promote STEM education around the world. And second, I’d like to thank Sarah Guthals for her expertise, educational savvy, and can-do mindset in co-authoring this book. We did it!
Sarah: I would like to acknowledge all the hard work that went into making Scratch, Java, JavaScript, Python, micro:bit, Android, App Inventor, and every programming language, coding application, and effort to improve the field of computer science — without these, coding would be so much harder. I would also like to acknowledge the teachers and parents around the world who have recognized the importance of coding in learning so many valuable lessons to our next generation of makers. Finally, I would like to acknowledge Camille for inviting me to co-author this book with her, and Steve and Rebecca and the folks at Wiley for making it a great experience as always!
Publisher’s Acknowledgments
Executive Editor: Steven Hayes
Project Editor: Rebecca Senninger
Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case
Production Editor: Tamilmani Varadharaj
Front Cover Image: © FatCamera/iStock Photo