The California Academy of Science's is a world-class science research and educational facility, that hundreds of thousands of young people every year get to experience and learn from. However there are many more who can't travel to San Francisco to check out our living specimens and meet our scientists and educators. That's why we created …
The 2015 Digital Media and Learning Conference I feared was going to be the last. With the announcement by the MacArthur Foundation in August 2015 that they were ending funding of the field of digital learning, including the DML conference, it seemed like the writing was on the wall. DML Los Angeles felt to me …
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 …
The California Academy of Sciences released a whole new set of Flipside Science videos, short explorations of different environmental topics. This series deals with the important topic of ENERGY, and stars Bay Area teens that volunteer at the Academy. Check out all the videos below. Learn more about Flipside Science …
The Pixar film Finding Dory takes place largely in the fictional “Marine Life Institute” whose mission is the “rescue, rehabilitation and release” of marine life. The institution is depicted in the film not only showcasing marine life for the public, but also performing veterinary services, working with injured animals to prepare them to be released back into the wild, …
On Saturday, I had the pleasure of going on one of the first boat trips to the Farallon Islands with the Oceanic Society this season. It was an incredible, all-day voyage, just 27-miles from San Francisco, but felt like a world away. Here's a video of some of the coolest marine life that we encountered. …
What would happen if you let 40 teens spend the weekend at your museum and challenged them to create digital games on complex sustainability topics? That's what we wanted to find out, so we organized the Science Game Jam last month. Over the weekend of April 24-25 at the California Academy of Sciences, nine teams of …
I’m excited to announce that I will soon be taking on a newly created role at the Academy, the Senior Instructional Design Lead for Science Action Club. This is a new position working with our largest youth program, the Science Action Club (SAC), a high-impact STEM learning program that designs professional development and teaching kits for middle school afterschool …
I am thrilled to announce bioGraphic, a new multimedia magazine, powered by my museum the California Academy of Sciences, that features immersive stories from around the globe about all things that awe in nature, biological science, and the ingenuity of humankind. Check out the newly launched site. The stories you’ll find on bioGraphic are meant to entertain, …
Everyone likes free stuff, right? Educators in particular are constantly in need of free resources to use with their students. It's not hard to find or obtain free content online. That's just the nature of the internet. But how do you find media that is both freely available and ethical to use? Fortunately, it's pretty …