Game Development and End of Year Schedule

With this being Westtest week, we had 1/2 hours classes Monday through Thursday.Next week we have awards assembly and yearbook signing, which will shorten our class time also. The following week we will have the talent show and swimming pool parties, which will definitely shorten our classes. I'm concerned how much work each of you are going to get done. Each day I encourage you to keep working and to get your team wikis completed, to keep blogging and to keep your learning logs up-to-date. Remember you have to create as much as possible of your game and you have to upload it before the end of school. Our last actual class day will be June 1st. You will be swimming on the 2nd, so you won't have class that day. You will have class on June 3rd, which is the day of the spring dance, and June 6th, which is the last day of school. Therefore, we have seven actual working class days left, with two of those class days shortened due to activities. Please work as hard as you can to get as much done as possible. Good luck. I know you can do it. Just stay focused seven more days!!

Ford, Ohio State Working On Dandelions As Rubber Source.

Fred Meier writes in  USA Today:


Talk about a sustainable resource! Ford and Ohio St. researchers are working on dandelion roots as a potential source of rubber.

Apparently the milky-white goo that seeps from dandelion roots can be used to make a rubber that Ford says could eventually be used in the plastics in cup holders, floor mats and interior trim.

Ford notes that this is just part of investment in sustainable materials including soy foam seat cushions and wheat straw-filled plastic for interior trim -- with the advantage that dandelion roots aren't a food crop (for most humans, anyway) and they grow like, well, a weed.

What is FIRST®LEGO® League?

FIRST^®LEGO^® League introduces younger students (Grades 4-8, Ages 9-14) to real-world engineering challenges by building LEGO-based robots to complete tasks on a thematic playing surface. FLL teams, guided by their imaginations and adult coaches, discover exciting career possibilities and, through the proce

Elementary and middle-school students get to:

  Design, build, test and program robots using LEGO MINDSTORMS® technology
  Apply real-world math and science concepts
  Research challenges facing today’s scientists
  Learn critical thinking, team-building and presentation skills
  Participate in tournaments and celebrations

What FLL teams accomplish is nothing short of amazing. It’s fun. It’s exciting. And the skills they learn will last a lifetime.

WESTEST 2 - May 16 - 19

On May 16-19, SCMS students will take the WESTEST 2. The WV Department of Education states: The WESTEST 2 is a custom-designed assessment for West Virginia students. The individual content assessments measure a student’s levels of performance on clearly defined standards and objectives and skills. Student scores are based on test questions that have been developed and aligned to the West Virginia 21st Century CSOs. WESTEST 2 Online Writing is a part of the reading/language arts portion of WESTEST 

The assessment results provide information about a student’s academic strengths, as well as areas that need improvement. Results of the tests will be used by educators to improve student learning and performance.

Mother's Day

Anna Jarvis organized the first Mother's Day in 1908. Observances were held in Grafton, W.V., and Philadelphia. In 1914, Jarvis succeeded in persuading Congress to designate the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day.

Osama Bin Laden

ABC News with Diane Sawyer reported: 

Osama bin Laden, hunted as the mastermind behind the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil, has been killed, President Obama announced tonight.

The president called the killing of bin Laden the "most significant achievement to date" in the effort to defeat al Qaeda.

"Justice has been done," Obama said.

Bin Laden was located at a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, which was monitored and when the time was determined to be right, the president said, he authorized a "targeted operation."

"A small team of Americans carried out the operation," Obama said. "After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body."

DNA testing confirmed that it was bin Laden, sources told ABC News.

Lego Mindstorms NXT Robotics Competition

 On Tuesday, April 26th, I took my Project Lead the Way (PLTW) students, along with my Globaloria Game Design students, to the 9th annual Lego NXT Mindstorms competition at Bridgemont Technical and Community College in Montgomery, WV. My PLTW students competed in the competition against other middle and high school students in the state. This is a great S.T.E.M. activity for students to participate in. I wanted my Globaloria Game Design Students to experience this activity in hopes that they may be interested in participating in the competition next year.

There were six different events: (1) Yellow Brick Road - the robot must follow a yellow winding road, (2) Over the River & Through the Woods - the robot must travel through an obstacle course, (3) A Good Day for Golf - the robot must collect six golf balls and place them in the hole in the middle of the table, (4) Sumo - the robots wrestle with each other to see who wins the match, (5) Anything Goes - The students program a robot that interacts with humans. 
Our students did well this year. They won 2nd and 3rd in Yellow Brick Road, 1st in Over the River & Through the Woods, 1st in A Good Day for Golf, & 2nd in Anything Goes.