Games That Make You Smarter

AnnMaria De Mars

Dr. Longie — Dr. Erich Longie, our lead cultural consultant, testified in Grand Forks, North Dakota, this week on the issue of allowing Native American children to wear an eagle feather or bead their caps at graduation. His testimony is reproduced below. First of all, I want to thank Native American Parent Committee for […]

American Indian Education and its Effect on Indian Culture

January 18, 2015 in 7GenGames by AnnMaria De Mars

Going through our archives, we came across this great post from October 9, 2014 on “Repetition is the Recipe to Success ” that we wanted to share with you in case you missed it the first time around. I find it weird when I make people nervous. I’ve had people shake and stutter so […]

Throwback Thursday: Repetition is the Recipe to Success

January 15, 2015 in AnnMaria / Throwback Thursday tagged Dr. AnnMaria De Mars / Success / Working Hard by AnnMaria De Mars

The children are heading back to school, you’re thinking about putting away the decorations, swearing you really will send out Christmas cards next year. To finish off the season, here is our annual holiday letter, sent when we all have a moment to get a cup of coffee and catch […]

A Christmas Letter from 7 Generation Games

January 14, 2015 in 7GenGames / AnnMaria / Educational Games / Game Progress / Math / Start-up Diaries / Women in Tech tagged Game Improvements / Spirit Lake by AnnMaria De Mars

Jenn and Ronda — I love Ronda Rousey as much as the next person does. In fact, I love her probably a thousand times more than the next person does because I am her mom. I couldn’t be happier that she has won three world titles in two different sports. That’s wonderful. That being […]

Education is More Important than World Titles

January 13, 2015 in AnnMaria / Educational Games / Math by AnnMaria De Mars

Going through our archives, we came across this great post from July 15, 2012 on “Tinkerbell visits The Julia Group” that we wanted to share with you in case you missed it the first time around. My father passed away about 18 months ago. We hadn’t spoken much of the past […]

Throwback Thursday: The Comfort of the Lives We Have Made

January 8, 2015 in AnnMaria / Throwback Thursday tagged Dr. AnnMaria De Mars / Throwback Thursday by AnnMaria De Mars

teachers — Steve Blank talks about the mistake that led him to lose $35 million – not having gamers as co-founders in a gaming company. HE emphasizes the importance of having the right people on your team, including the ones who truly understand the product that you are building. He says, “To […]

Why Ed Tech Companies NEED Teachers

January 7, 2015 in AnnMaria / Educational Games by AnnMaria De Mars

Math Example — What do number sense and professional or Olympic athletes have in common? If you watch a truly gifted athlete you will see that they seem to have a sixth sense about their sport. They see things other people don’t. Wayne Gretzky was such a great hockey player because while others […]

Number Sense and Elite Athletes

January 6, 2015 in AnnMaria / Educational Games / Math by AnnMaria De Mars

book — 2015 is going to be a great year, I can feel it. One post isn’t going to be enough to get in all of my resolutions for the new year. Staff at the Ferguson Library tweeted the question, “What are your literary resolutions?” My literary resolution is to read a programming […]

My Literary Resolutions

December 31, 2014 in AnnMaria by AnnMaria De Mars

Girl about to set off on path — Five hundred years ago, the Ojibwe people picked up everything they owned and walked half-way across the continent. No one really knows why. There is no written history of this event. I remember the precise moment I first heard about it. I was talking to Debbie Gourneau, from Turtle Mountain, […]

It starts with a good story ….

December 29, 2014 in AnnMaria / Educational Games / Game Progress by AnnMaria De Mars

coding — In my early twenties, I was working at Fortune 50 company and happened to be on the same flight with one of the senior vice-presidents. They had over-booked first class, so he got bumped and ended up sitting next to me. Never one to miss an opportunity, I asked him […]

My Every Day of Code

December 18, 2014 in AnnMaria / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars

I’m a fan of the “hour of code” that many schools are doing. I’m trying very hard to limit my day to an hour of non-code. Today isn’t working out as well. I may have three hours of non-code, between opening the bank account and two meetings today. Maria explains […]

We’re a real grown-up company now

December 17, 2014 in 7GenGames by AnnMaria De Mars

woods — If you have never experienced the pleasure of having an idea that won’t leave you alone turn into reality, well, you have my sympathy. Today was the first day of working on our newest game. It’s so new it doesn’t have a name yet. We are going with a working […]

Every project has a first minute

December 17, 2014 in AnnMaria / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars