Video Games and Violence

Frequently, when there are violent acts like the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, people like to blame the violence on violent video games. Do you think violent video games affect people and make them want to commit crimes like the shooting in Sandy Hook and at the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado? This article was written by someone who was a victim of gun violence and is also a video game developer. What is she saying? Do you agree with her? Why or why not?

What Most Schools Don't Teach

This video explains why it is important to learn coding in school. Do you agree or disagree? Why or why not?

First Game Idea

This week you have been researching various nonprofit organizations in Austin. Of the organizations you researched, which would you like to work with most? Why? What are some game ideas that you have for this organization? Please include a link to your top organization in your post.

Austin Nonprofits

These are some organizations that I am interested in learning more about.

The Yellow Bike Project 
The Austin Yellow Bike Project (YBP) 501c(3) is an all-volunteer initiative to put bicycles on the streets of Austin and Central Texas by operating community bike shops, teaching bike mechanics and maintenance, and acting as a local bike advocacy group.

Texas River School
Texas River School uses our Rivers as classrooms to teach and reinforce traditional academic subjects; introduce important personal growth initiatives such as leadership, self discipline and civic responsibility; and foster a life long connection to and affection for Texas waterways.

Latinitas
Latinitas is a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering young Latinas through media and technology. Latinitas Magazine is the first digital magazine made for and by Latina youth. Since 2002, we have offered media enrichment programs aimed at empowering girls to express themselves and gain confidence to succeed.

Sustainable Food Center

http://boneshaker.org/

Best Hidden Object Game - 1st Period

Click here http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DR5NS8Y to vote for the best hidden object game in 1st period.

Children's Promise Survey

Click on the link below to take the survey.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FSCS-Student_year2_post2

Play to Learn Part 1

I learned...

Google Glasses

Watch the following videos about Google glasses. What do you think some of the advantages of Google glasses will be? What could be some of the problems with these glasses?

Back to School

Welcome back Tigers! How are you feeling so far this year? What positive things have you experienced? What are some of the challenges you have faced? Please be honest.

Dead Zones

Grand Challenges for Engineering

Here is a link to all the Grand Challenges for Engineering and the video contest finalists.

The Girl Who Silenced the World for Five Minutes

Here is her biography from Wikipedia.

Provide Access to Clean Water

One of the grand engineering challenges that we need to solve is providing access to clean water. Here is a link to an article explaining the challenge. Here is a video of one man's solution to the problem. He created a water filter in a bottle called the Lifesaver Bottle.

First Day of Step Up!

Yesterday was my first day teaching Globaloria in the Step Up! summer camp. It had been really great so far. I have a small group of students, just 8 kids and they are all boys! They are all really smart and good with computers so I am really looking forward to working with them this summer. There is a pretty wide age range. Some of the kids are just going into fifth grade and one is going into ninth grade and there is every grade level in between. We are having class in the Silicon Labs building downtown and it is a little creepy because there is no one else here.  Sometimes if feels like we are in a movie in this fancy building with no people. May this is the zombie apocalypse and we are missing it because we are too busy creating video games. When I got here, I wasn't sure where to go or what to do, but I was really glad my friend Charlie was here to help out. Once we got our computers, figured out how to get online, and started playing in Flash, things got much better.

Yesterday we got to know each other a little, got our wiki accounts, created an avatar in Flash, uploaded our avatars to the wiki, and played a few games. What is a game making class without playing games too, right?

So far today we have done some more exploring on the wiki, personalized our own wiki pages by adding photos, videos, text colors, and background colors, and now we are working on blogs (which is one of my favorite things about Globaloria!) The next thing we are going to do is learn how to personalize our blogs (also one of my favorite things about Globaloria.)

Spirit of the Marathon

This week we watched Spirit of the Marathon. It was a documentary that followed six people as they trained for and ran the 2005 Chicago Marathon. Write a post reflecting on the movie and what you learned from watching it. Here are some questions to think about as you write. Please write your response in paragraph form (NOT in a list!) 


What is a marathon? Why do you think so many people choose to do marathons? Of the six people featured in the film, which story did you find most interesting and why? (The people were Deena Kastor, who had won the bronze medal in the women's marathon in the 2004 Olympics, Daniel Njenga, the runner from Kenya, Ryan Bradley who wanted to qualify for the Boston marathon but injured his knee and was unable to run so instead cheered on his wife, Lori O'Connor who was running to raise money for a charity, Leah Caille who was a single mother and had recently been divorced, and Jerry Meyers who was the 70 year old man running with his daughter.) 


The people in the film were motivated by things inside them, not by money or fame. What kinds of goals do you want to accomplish just for yourself? What are you going to do to accomplish those goals? There is a famous phrase, "It's a marathon, not a sprint?" Please explain what you think this means and how you might be able to use that idea.

My Game

Please explain your final game in detail then describe three things you really like about it and three things you could have done differently to make it better. Please do not list things but write a well thought out paragraph.


When you finish, choose two blogs from yesterday. Play their game and leave a comment for them with one thing you liked about their game and one thing they could change to make it better.

Final Game Reflection

This year you have learned a lot while working on your game. Please write a post describing what you have learned in Globaloria throughout the year. What new or interesting things have you learned how to do in Flash? What things have you gotten better at this year? Are you better at solving problems on your own than you were last year or before you were in Globaloria? What have you learned about the topic or topics that your researched for your game? What have you learned about yourself this year (for example, do you work better in a team or by yourself, do you like to solve problems yourself or do you feel like you still need a lot of help, are you more confident about what you can do with computers?) What was valuable about what you learned in Globaloria this year? What was the most challenging part of Globaloria this year?


At the bottom of your post, please embed your final game so we can play it and leave comments.

Somali Boys Play Video Games

Read this article and write a response to it in your own blog. What do you think?

New rage keeps Somali boys off street: video games

Food, Inc.

Here are some questions to help guide your thinking about Food, Inc.

What did you learn about how chickens are treated? What did you learn about how chicken farmers are treated? Why do you think they are treated that way? What can we do about it?

What did you learn about how cows are treated and fed? Why do you think this is? What can we do about it?

Some of the food we eat every day is unhealthy and causes diabetes. Why do you think the rate of diabetes is higher for minorities?

Who are the people that work in meat packing plants and how are they treated? Why do you think this is?

Explain as best as you can in your own words what the Monsanto Corporation has done with soybeans and how that affects farmers. Why is this important to you?

What is one way you can take an idea from this film and make it into a video game? Who would be your hero? Who or what would be your enemy or obstacle? What would be your goal? What would you have to collect to earn points?

Goals

Please explain why you decided to come to East Austin College Prep. What are your goals? What kind of career do you want to have? What do you imagine yourself doing in the future? What makes EACPA different from other schools? Why do you think we have a dress code? Why do you think we have a longer school day? Why do you think we have Globaloria? Do you think having a class like Globaloria is important? Why or why not? Please explain your answers. This post should be at least 3 paragraphs and should take the whole period.