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NYC Haunts at Curtis! 

Submitted by Joliz on Tue, 05/15/2012 - 17:11

 

Curtis High School Global Kids Leaders have had a busy couple of weeks at the NYC Haunts program in collaboration with the St. George Library. At their first session youth were introduced to the program by play-testing the NYC Haunts game created by the team at the Seward Park Branch. They shared their feedback on both the game and the benefits and challenges of the ARIS system. 

 

Carli DeFillo from the Museum of the City of New York came and showcased some amazing artifacts from Staten Island as well as take the youth on a historical walking tour throughout the neighborhood. 

 

 

Designing a Program-based Badging System at Global Kids 

Submitted by bjoseph on Mon, 05/14/2012 - 14:33

When we began the badge development process at Global Kids, we focused heavily on "global"-badges, which is to say badges which could work across the institution. We looked at our organizational Outcomes & Indicators, and developed a process for analyzing nearly four dozen letters of recommendation. While that process continues, and is bearing fruit, a parallel process has moved faster and may be proving more productive: developing "local"-badges, or program-specific badges.

 

Today we had our first meeting (dare we say of our fourth badging group - the Badge Betas?) of the four summer projects which will beta test the program over the summer. There are two 2-week long digital media-based programs, a 3-week long intensive camp at the Council on Foreign Relations, and a four week trip to Kenya. We developed templates for creating badges - one for any individual badge and one for the constellation of badges that are to found within any one Global Kids program (and tied to the "role badge" earned in the process), designed to produce something like this:

 

Prepping a Geocache for Wingate Students 

Submitted by bjoseph on Wed, 05/09/2012 - 10:33

Devon and I walked around Wingate High School to find a good place for a new geocache. The area around the school is a geocaching deadzone - there is NOTHING around for blocks and blocks. To show the youth what geocaching is all about we had little choice but to make our own.

 

This lovely park behind the school provided the perfect opportunity. With our magnetic key holder in hand, and all prepped, Devon picked a nice spot. Here he sits, close by but not at the location, pleased with his decision:

 

 

Devon is looking at a NYC Parks Department plaque about the interesting man for whom the basketball courts were named:

Geocaching by Wingate High School

Create to Learn: play testing 

Submitted by JRubio on Fri, 05/04/2012 - 16:47

' Create2Learn

Global Kids youth leaders from Create to Learn at Wingate School for Human Rights and School for Democracy and Leadership, visited the GK offices to present their game idea to First Playable designers and other Global Kids staff.  After the main presentation, those attending play tested the game and gave feedback to the presenters. Create to Learn, sponsored by NYU Games for Learning Institute, is an after-school program designed for middle school girls to learn game design, while developing a game to teach math skills to their 6th grader peers.  The girls have been working during the school year on a game called Nine Lives. Nine Lives is a game about rescuing a non-player character while going through obstacles that passed by answering math questions such as fraction conversions, and giving multiples of numbers.

 

Using Outcomes and Indicators to Shape Organizational Badges 

Submitted by bjoseph on Fri, 05/04/2012 - 16:13

Today we held second meeting of the Global Kids Badge ADvisory (or, B-AD for short). This is a meeting open to all GK staff members to offer feedback on and consult in a meaningful way about the development of the GK badging system.

 

 

After reviewing the latest version of the GK Badge Design Schemata, we focused on how we could use the GK Outcomes and Indicators, developed during a strategic planning process, to create organizational-wide GK badges. (Meanwhile, the youth are using the letters of recommendation to suggest other organizational-wide badges and, in a parallel process, other staff will be creating program-specific badges.)

 

Staff noted all sorts of interesting things in their generally successful attempt to build badges from the indicators.