Gamers Camp Friday

Friday

The campers completed their touches on their school this morning.  They were very proud of their work but in true Minecraft fashion were also very excited to blow it up.  Before they destroyed their work they made sure to take plenty of pictures which will be included in another post.

If your camper is interested in continuing to learn about coding below are some resources they were introduced to this week in camp.  Please note that Scratch and Stencyl are used by adults and kids, and you should monitor your child's activity on these sites.  Tynker is designed primarily as a kid site.

Scratch                 www.scratch.mit.edu   (Free)

Stencyl                 www.stencyl.com/pricing/   (Free and Paid Options)

Tynker                  www.tynker.com/parents/  (Free and  Paid Options)  

Today we also watched a video on the future of video games.  It is an exciting future that if your camper continues to learn to code their own games they might just have a hand in crafting.

Gamers Camp Thursday

Thursday

Work continued today on the campers Minecraft school.  They decided that the school would be a boarding high school.  They built houses for the students and furnished the classrooms with lights, books and tables.  They included a Chemistry lab and even built a piston elevator. 

Today campers were also introduced to Stencyl.  It is another game creation software.  The advantage of Stencyl is that games can be written and used on multiple platforms.  Campers discussed what are platforms and what are operating systems.  We also took a poll of their favorites.

Gamers Camp Wednesday

Wednesday

Today the campers started building their Minecraft school.  They had to work cooperatively in the same world building the same structure.  At first they struggled to collaborate on the project.  However after creating a chat forum,  they were able to discuss and set ground rules.  It was an opportunity to discuss respect and digital citizenship. 




Their school includes a cafeteria, bathrooms (with "working" toilets), classrooms, a playground and an aquarium.  They used their measurement of the rooms in Holy Child Academy as a basis to know the relative size of their rooms in Minecraft.

Campers were also introduced to KoDu (https://www.kodugamelab.com/).  Kodu is a visual programming language used to create games for Windows.  It uses Xbox 360 controllers to link visual blocks with the code library.  Tom showed the campers the game he had previously created in school and they were able to explore the program.

Gamers Camp Tuesday

Tuesday

After exploring the history of video games yesterday, we focused today on the history of Minecraft.  The campers were surprised to see all the changes that have happened to Minecraft since it launched in 2009.  We spent the rest of the morning working with Minecraft.  Campers used Tynker to create a digital version of their modified Minecraft skin.  They were then given time to explore the Minecraft Education Worlds and the keyboard commands.

After lunch we discussed Open Source code and the role of modifications in video game development.  Campers saw a video on an Open Source game similar to Minecraft called Terasology.  They compared the similarities and noted the advantages and disadvantages to both games.  They also explored how modifications happen to many things by comparing Zometools and Legos.

Gamers Camp Begins

Gamers Camp 

June 25 - 29, 2018

Grades 1 - 6

This week we will be exploring the world of video games.  No exploration would be complete with first looking at the origins of video games.  The campers watched a video about the history of video games and the first home computers. 

Campers passed around a Sinclair ZX81 (my fist computer). They noted the differences between it and today's home computers.  Campers also played versions of older video games online (www.freepong.org).  We discussed the changes in graphics and the fact that Minecraft's graphics are reminiscent of those older programs.  This was our launchpad to the Minecraft project for the week.

This week campers will be working together to create their ideal school in Minecraft.  To start their project they designed skins for their students.  They also learned about area and perimeter as we measured rooms in the building (like the gym) that they thought would be important to include in their Minecraft school.






In the afternoon, campers worked on coding a video game in Scratch.  Scratch is a free coding website designed by MIT.  The link is www.scratch.mit.edu. 

Here are the links to some of their games:
Three Point Shot         https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/230521381/#editor
Ring the Bell               https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/230523829/#editor
Tag                              https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/230521651/#editor

Lego Camp Guest Bloggers - The Campers

The campers enjoyed using the cameras last week to take pictures of their friends and projects.

Here are some of their pictures.