When did you first conceive of the idea for this book?

This book is one in a series by ISTE dealing with hot topics in computer science, the first two being No Fear Coding by Heidi Williams and Creative Coding by Josh Caldwell. Being that coding had already been covered in the series in late 2018, the editors at ISTE wanted to progress with a book dedicated to coding and programming but in the context of robotics. As our work progressed, I made it a point to weave computational thinking into a lot of what is presented in the book — and that too made it to the title.

What was the initial impetus or idea for the book?

I believe the initial impetus for Rev Up Robotics was the ISTE audience requesting a how-to robotics book that provides specific but actionable advice for seamless integration across the curriculum. Also, the editors at ISTE are progressive, and they wanted to create an evergreen educational robotics resource in tandem with computational thinking for the content areas that is easily adaptable for electives.

Why do you think this book is important, especially now in our country?

The book is important because of the current movement throughout the United States to include both computational thinking and computer science in education reform. All of our states have now adopted at least one of nine policies for computer science implementation, so there is an ever-growing need to develop educational resources and provide training that helps both educators and schools make this transition in classrooms. Moreover, jobs in robotics and computation are a present reality. Think of robotics engineers, software developers, technicians, operators, and more. I wrote Rev Up Robotics to help K-8 teachers in any content area get started, level-up their practice, and get their students where they need to be so they are prepared for these jobs.

Who is your primary audience for this book?

Primarily the book’s targeted audience is any content-area or elective K-8 teacher. Because it is already established that computer science and robotics are everywhere in modern societies, Rev Up Robotics is geared towards any educator interested in learning more about the topics and how to begin integrating them into their existing curriculum. Moreover, computational thinking is weaved into every lesson in the book, and the aim here is to allow teachers to remain content area teachers, while providing the know-how for teaching relevant real world problem-solving skills. One key feature of the book is that it meets all readers where they are and provides actionable steps that they can replicate while still teaching the academic standards in the CCSS, NGSS, and the National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies. Rev Up Robotics, therefore, eliminates a lot of the guesswork for teachers as to where robotics, computer science, and computational thinking should live in their curriculum.