Acknowledgments

Many people, many of them involuntarily, have contributed to bringing this book to life. I would like to name them, in no particular order, while trying not to forget anyone.

First and foremost, to my wife Liliana (a.k.a Lilo), because she is a great fighter and has always been by my side unconditionally, no matter how difficult the times were. She is present in the dedications as part of the inspiration, but it would be unfair to omit her in this space.

Secondly, but more fundamentally, as this book would not have been possible without their support, thanks to MIT Scheller Teacher Program, in the person of Daniel J. Wendel, Lead Software Developer at MIT STEP, who always helped me during my trips to MIT (since 2010) and patiently and dedicatedly answered my questions and doubts over these fourteen years of working together, since I first attended to Imagination Toolboox at MIT. Additionally, Daniel helped make the translations of StarLogo (TNG and NOVA) into Spanish possible. Finally, Daniel also managed the funding to bring this book to life.

Most of the inspiration I needed to write this book is thanks to Mitchel Resnick, creator of StarLogo and Scratch; Eric Klopfer, Director of the Scheller Teacher Education Program at MIT, and Vanessa Colella, authors of the book that inspired mine. Mitch and Eric are also the authors of numerous articles that are essential references for me. In their work, I also owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Seymour Papert, a great inspiration and the father of technology in education.

To the School of Education of Universidad de San Andrés, in the persons of especially Mariu Podestá but also Melina Furman (r.i.p), Jason Beech, Ángela Aisenstein and Alejandro Artopoulos, who always trusted my work and supported me in multiple initiatives that contributed to my development as an educator and specifically to my expertise as a teacher and computational modeler. Without those opportunities, this book might never have been written.

Finally, a giant thanks to all the teachers who attended Imagination Toolbox workshop and Modeling4All Project who considered StarLogo NOVA a valuable tool, because their belief gives this book its meaning.