Games That Make You Smarter

Monthly Archives: March 2016

Going through our archives, we came across this great post from September 9, 2014 “No Wonder Kids Hate Math” that we wanted to share in case you missed it the first time around. I’m working on a section of a game that teaches fractions. If a player misses the question about where […]

Throwback Thursday: No Wonder Kids Hate Math

March 31, 2016 in 7GenGames / AnnMaria / Throwback Thursday tagged Dr. AnnMaria De Mars / Math / Throwback Thursday by Erick Salomon

As a child, I was absolutely convinced we didn’t have enough vacation days. As a parent, I sometimes find myself asking, “Seriously, another day off?! Didn’t you just have a vacation day? What on earth am I going to do with you all?” (And my daughter’s private school touts having […]

Days Off of School Take on a Whole Other Meaning ...

March 30, 2016 in Parenting Like I Know What I'm Doing by Maria Burns Ortiz

We get a lot of really good ideas from our users, but there are some that are a few tacos short of a combination plate. Here, in no particular order, are the five craziest suggestions I have received. ============== Player: Why are the Indians shooting the deer? I’m vegetarian. I really […]

Top Five Crazy Game Suggestions

March 30, 2016 in AnnMaria / Education: Innovation and STEM / Educational Games by AnnMaria De Mars

barnyard scene — My mom used to say that any job was easy if you didn’t have to do it yourself. Mom was right, too. Just look at the number of people who have never stood in front of a class in their life but think teaching is easy. “If this whole doing […]

Any Job is Easy if You Don’t Have to Do ...

March 30, 2016 in AnnMaria / Education: Innovation and STEM / Educational Games by AnnMaria De Mars

Always remember, ladies and gentlemen, while Burroughs had all of its engineers at work inventing a better adding machine, Steve Wozniak was in his garage inventing the Apple computer. Dr. Hastings, a professor in my MBA program back in 1980 said that and I have never forgotten. Within the span […]

Apple didn’t invent a better adding machine

March 25, 2016 in AnnMaria / Education: Innovation and STEM / Educational Games by AnnMaria De Mars

I’m up in San Francisco for three days where I presented on educational games at the annual California Association of Bilingual Education conference – and left all three of my kids at home. It’s a change as I was really fortunate to be able to travel with my baby for […]

All By Myself: Reflections from the Road

March 25, 2016 in Parenting Like I Know What I'm Doing / Women in Tech by Maria Burns Ortiz

The California Association of Bilingual Education’s annual conference is the “must attend” event for anyone working in bilingual education in the state. Our CEO Maria Burns Ortiz and one of our teacher consultants Jovi Buendia are at CABE in San Francisco to present on educational games and ELL. If you’re […]

7 Generation Games at CABE 2016

March 24, 2016 in 7GenGames / Events by Maria Burns Ortiz

Going through our archives, we came across this great post from July 02, 2014 “Self-Employment and People with Disabilities” that we wanted to share in case you missed it the first time around. I’m looking forward to speaking at the Turtle Mountain Disabilities Conference and not just because they have one of the best […]

Throwback Thursday: Self-Employment and People with Disabilities

March 24, 2016 in 7GenGames / AnnMaria / Throwback Thursday tagged Disability / Dr. AnnMaria De Mars / Self Employment / Throwback Thursday by Erick Salomon

Eva, Maria and me — If you have not read Sojourner Truth’s inspiring speech, Aint I a Woman , you are missing out. You can click on this link right now to read it, and don’t skip scrolling down to hear Alice Walker read the speech. You’ll be glad you did. Now, sitting here in […]

Not Sure About Women in Tech Events

March 22, 2016 in AnnMaria / Women in Tech by AnnMaria De Mars

The annual school book fair was last week. After the opening day, my nearly-8-year-old informed me that she had scoped out the merchandise and had a sizable wish list. We are very pro-books in our house, so we gave her $20, which she said would be “a good start.” I […]

Taxes and Chocolate Calculators

March 21, 2016 in Parenting Like I Know What I'm Doing by Maria Burns Ortiz

The annual convergence of the video game industry known as GDC ends today, so I thought it was worth sharing what I took away from attending the event when I dropped in for the Expo. I went to GDC expecting to see a lot of cool games and ideas, which […]

GDC 2016: A Few Final Observations

March 18, 2016 in Start-up Diaries by Maria Burns Ortiz

To anyone questioning whether “this VR thing” is going to get bigger/stick around, all signs at the Game Developers Conference 2016 point to yes. Actually, given what I saw at GDC, it’s more of a YES! If the looming Oculus installation when you walked into the expo didn’t hammer that […]

GDC 2016: The Reality About Virtual Reality

March 17, 2016 in Start-up Diaries by Maria Burns Ortiz