A few weeks ago, I was so pleased to receive my copy of my friend Barry Joseph’s new book Making Dinosaur’s Dance (American Alliance of Museums). Subtitled “a toolkit for digital design in museums,” the book uncovers Barry’s unique take on how to create powerful learning experiences in museum spaces using a variety of digital …
The Talk Show is one of my favorite ice-breakers to get students to know one another toward the beginning of a program. The idea is to pair up students with one another randomly and have each one play the role of a talk show host and talk show guest. The goal is for each student to …
The New York Times recently ran a series of articles on how parents are increasingly worried about the amount of time their children are spending on their digital devices. The click-baity headlines include: “The Digital Gap Between Rich and Poor Kids Is Not What We Expected“, “A Dark Consensus About Screens and Kids Begins to …
I never understood why in the 1990s there seemed to be shelves full of educational games at my local computer store, and then suddenly they were all gone. According to The Outline, that was the work of one man, Kevin O’Leary, a businessman trying to break his way into the lucrative educational software industry. In …
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has teamed up with DJ Ben Mirin to bring us BeastBox. Make your own music by mixing wild animal voices with beatbox loops and unlock "Beast Mode" by adding five animals from the same ecosystem. You get access to a special track created by DJ Mirin! I've been playing with it …
I am thrilled to be returning to the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) conference this year, happening next weekend in San Jose, California. It’s been a couple years since I’ve been to ASTC, one of my favorite science education conventions. And it’s great to have it in our backyard, just a few miles …
Two thousand and sixteen was a big year for me at the California Academy of Sciences. Lots of pivots, adventures and new beginnings! Here’s some of the highlights. The biggest news was my transfer in the Spring from Digital Learning over the Science Action Club team. Shifting from managing my own youth program to being part …
On Wednesday, I am giving a talk “87 Tips on Running A Successful Serious Game Jam,” for the Digital Media and Learning conference in Irvine, California. I was being a bit facetious in my title. But upon reflection, it was not hard to come up with 87 actual tips, based on my experience organizing game …
Why are these bison so gassy? What's hurting the chestnut trees? What's turning the coral white? In MicroRangers, a new augmented reality game at the American Museum of Natural History, you get to shrink down to the microscopic-level to investigate these mysteries and more. On Monday, I got to try out MicroRangers for the first time, …
I'm very excited to share the news that the California Academy of Sciences has added a new online game to our Flipside Science modules called "Cornucopia." This fast-paced, fun strategy game puts you in charge of a virtual farm, where you have to fulfill different food orders before time runs out. Keep an eye on …