USDA has so many free resources for teaching science, reading and art that we had to write several posts. What do you do, though, when material uses outdated terms like, "the Indians" ? We use it as a teachable moment.
AnnMaria De Mars
Time Spent Learning Your Culture is of the Essence Several years ago, Dr. Erich Longie and I participated in an analysis of the National Indian Education Study database where we found that the more native youth learned their culture and language in school, the worse their math scores. This finding […]
Include Native American Culture in Your Math Class
1 When we started 7 Generation Games, our lead cultural consultant, Dr. Erich Longie, told me that the solution was to include Native American culture as part of math, and vice versa. As he said to a student, “Of course our ancestors used math! We were a nomadic people! Do you […]
Where does Native American Culture fit? Everywhere!
I was super-excited to have had the chance to speak at Minot State University on how we use Native American culture to teach math. In analyzing our data, one key issue we found was PERSEVERANCE. That is, students simply give up when it gets the least bit hard. It wasn’t […]
Using Native American Culture to Teach Math
It's not us, it's you. What's up with that?
Sound isn’t Playing in My Game
Many times, a student understands two-digit multiplication or division with remainders but still has difficulty solving a problem. Students need to be taught problem-solving strategies We all know how it important it is to keep students engaged and that’s why we have lots of free teacher resources for you, including […]
How to solve a problem: In Spanish and English
1 In my last post, I got most of the Killer Robots game laid out. I did the following: Decided on a story line Got the artwork Created the first screen, the classroom Wrote a function to get the robots to move and another function to get the robots to turn […]
Game design steps with killer robots
There is more than game design than meets the eye. I'm getting ready to teach a class for high school students next week and here are a few of the steps for a game that only takes 2 minutes.
Game design step by step
Why should we memorize math? I’m astounded that some people consider memorization a universal evil because “We have the internet.” Multiplication tables are searchable in my notes or my device, but are in frequent use. Optimizing learning by memorizing the basics is time and energy well-spent for the long haul. […]
The Case for Memorization
How do students use Chromebooks when they don't have Internet? We've made educational math apps that run offline
Online Learning Without Internet
From March 16 through July 22, we made our games free for everyone, here’s why and how When schools started shutting down in March, we realized four things You could be the world’s greatest teacher and you still weren’t going to be prepared to have your class go online with […]
What happened when we gave away our games for free
So, we’ve covered design, art, sound, coding, and management. What could possibly be left? “Games are never finished, they’re just abandoned.” One of the most accomplished game developers I ever met told me that. What he meant was that there is always some way you could make your game better. […]