Games That Make You Smarter

Yearly Archives: 2017

When people at cocktail parties ask what I do for a living I often tell them I teach statistics to adults who don’t want to learn statistics and make math games for kids who don’t want to learn math. (Yes, I get invited to cocktail parties. I have friends!) Generally, the […]

Thoughts on Teaching: 100 word challenge for math and statistics

September 15, 2017 in AnnMaria / Education: Innovation and STEM / Math by AnnMaria De Mars

Games we made — If you didn’t know, now you know, the South Dakota Indian Education Summit is in Pierre, South Dakota (what state were you expecting?) September 24-26 , 2017. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a big fan of smaller, education conferences. There are four general reasons why these are a good use […]

Six reasons to go to the South Dakota Indian Education ...

September 14, 2017 in AnnMaria / Cultural content / Education: Innovation and STEM by AnnMaria De Mars

Going through our archives, we came across this great post by Dr. AnnMaria De Mars from September 28, 2016 “What do you get for a 972% increase in hotel cost?” that we wanted to share in case you missed it the first time around. I’ve decided on my new career after […]

Throwback Thursday: What do you get for a 972% increase ...

September 14, 2017 in AnnMaria / Throwback Thursday tagged AnnMaria / Throwback Thursday by Diana Sanchez

jungle scene — Thanks to our wonderful Kickstarter backers, I am in the middle of adding an Easter egg to Aztech Games. It’s a simple “find the hidden objects” type of game where you have a minute to find everything. Here is the problem: I want the images to be layered. As you […]

Tech Tip: Clicking through a layer

September 12, 2017 in Start-up Diaries / Tech Tips by AnnMaria De Mars

bike — Where do you get your ideas? This has to be one of the most common questions I get about game development and it’s interesting because I think design ideas are EVERYWHERE! Bad design gives me ideas how not to make things. Good design (more about that next post) gives me […]

Design ideas are everywhere: part 1

September 12, 2017 in AnnMaria / Education: Innovation and STEM by AnnMaria De Mars

road in North Dakota — Have you ever tried a bike-sharing app? Maybe if you live out in the country, it’s not a thing, but here in Santa Monica, you can’t go far without seeing the lime green bicycles from our local bike sharing company. The idea is simple. Get an app on your phone, […]

What bike-sharing can teach you about educational technology

September 11, 2017 in AnnMaria / Educational Games by AnnMaria De Mars

It’s Friday and that means that it’s time for another dose of the Freebie Friday! Today’s freebie is associated with our game Spirit Lake and it’s an authentic and copyright-free Native American photo. Our freebie is a historical photo of the census being taken at the Standing Rock Agency. In the […]

Freebie Friday – Taking the Census at Standing Rock Agency ...

September 8, 2017 in 7GenGames / Cultural content / Freebie Friday tagged 7 Generation Games / Freebie Friday / Native American Resources by Diana Sanchez

Going through our archives, we came across this great post by Dr. AnnMaria De Mars from September 20, 2016 “What I learned about management from judo” that we wanted to share in case you missed it the first time around. You may not know, if you only read this blog for […]

Throwback Thursday: What I learned about management from judo

September 7, 2017 in 7GenGames / AnnMaria / Throwback Thursday tagged AnnMaria / Throwback Thursday by Diana Sanchez

juice — I read this week that Juicero is going out of business. If you are not one of the cool kids you might not be aware that this is the company that made a $700 juicer, later reduced to the bargain price of $400. In this case, you might be interested […]

Seriously, is this what you want to do with your ...

September 5, 2017 in AnnMaria / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars

pineapple — We had Dean Dauphinais, Jr. on the More Than Ordinary podcast this week talking about the charity he co-founded, All Star Vets. One of his motivations he mentioned was that veterans are often people who entered the service at a young age, as teenagers, and they were “part of a […]

Why my tribe needs you and a virtual pineapple

September 3, 2017 in AnnMaria / Educational Games by AnnMaria De Mars

Ronda and her gardening skills — We have done 3 Kickstarter campaigns and there are three questions I get every time. Well, four, if you count, “What’s a Kickstarter campaign?” Why don’t you just get your daughter to pay for everything? Why does it matter if I back you or not? Do you think you really […]

The 3 Questions I Get Every Time

September 2, 2017 in AnnMaria by AnnMaria De Mars

Hello everyone, it’s time for another Freebie Friday! Today’s freebie is from our game Fish Lake. The freebie is a culture video on how the Ojibwe fished. The video goes over the different ways that the Ojibwe fished, such as using spears. You can view the video below: There’s more […]

Freebie Friday: There’s more than one way to fish

September 1, 2017 in 7GenGames / Educational Resources / Freebie Friday tagged 7 Generation Games / Educational Resources / Freebie Friday by Diana Sanchez