International Games Day

Thousands of libraries around the world celebrate International Games Day every November.  International Games Day is an annual celebration of games, play, libraries and learning. It is co-sponsored by the American Library Association in partnership with Nordic Game Day and the Australian Library and Information Association.

This year was the second year for our library to participate. Our theme this year was “Games are Magic” and we were able to hire a local magician to put on an hour long show for the kids.  We also had a variety of card and board games for all ages to play.  Our library main focus this year was on technology-based game play. 

We were lucky enough to receive a monetary donation to purchase a new Wii U and Playstation 3 game systems last year.  The teens/tweens have regular monthly gaming programs and we hyped the kids/teens up by announcing the unveiling of our new games and systems at IGD. Needless to say, the new video games/systems were a BIG hit with the kids (and kids at heart).  FYI- LEGO Avengers is AWESOME!!!  

The only issue was that we had to limit the kids to 10 minutes of playing time. Four kids can play the Wii U at once, however, there was a big crowd (263!).  Everyone got a chance to play but there was some grumbling and complaining about the limited playtime. 

In addition to the video / board games, I set up five raspberry pi’s with Scratch and Minecraft Pi.  Scratch programming is a computer programming language developed for kids by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to teach kids the basics of coding.  We have been having a monthly tween SCRATCHer club so there was a lot of interest from parents and kids.  

Minecraft Pi is a version of Minecraft developed for the Raspberry Pi that encourages users to open and change the game's code.  Kids can modify their world to be anything they want.  It’s Minecraft plus! We recently started circulating these Raspberry Pi kits and the already lengthy hold list doubled after showcasing the Pi’s at this program.  

The come-and-go / multiple station set-up for this Saturday program was popular with all attendants.  We had many people wandering in and out throughout the day.  Everyone loved the focus on technology based games. I will defiantly be repeating this IGD format again next year. 

Tween Tech: SCRATCHer club

SCRATCH  is a fun computer programming language developed for kids by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  SCRATCH teaches kids the basics of coding while letting them create original works of interactive art, games, animation, and stories. 

Two months ago, a volunteer came into the library asking to teach monthly SCRATCH programming classes to our tweens.  Theses classes have become so popular they are filled (with waiting lists!) until the end of November.  

I am lucky to have such an awesome volunteer but it is not necessary to have your own SCRATCH expert to run this library program.  The SCRATCH platform is simple enough that any tech savvy library professional could put together (or steal) their own curriculum.  For instance, SCRATCH-ed has a FREE curriculum for introductory classes (including the Power Points and handouts!).

Speaking of free…. the program is completely free to use.  If you have access to computers/internet that is all you need to start classes. 

**one word of caution**  

If students will be posting their projects to SCRATCH online make sure parents know that other kids will be viewing and commenting on them (the comments are monitored to ensure that all are positive).

I have gotten around this issue by asking parents to stay for the first five minutes and help their child register for SCRATCH online.  This enables parent to have access to their child’s account and gives me a chance to remind everyone about cyber safety.  

Tween Tech: Gamestar Mechanic

STEAM programming has been promoted and endorsed by the ALA, ALSC, YALSA, National Science Foundation, and Collaborative Summer Reading Program as a way to encourage learning, critical thinking, and exploration. Increasing numbers of youth service librarians are embracing STEAM programs for kids of all ages. 

Technology is my favorite part of STEAM.  I taught basic digital literacy classes for adults in the past, however, computer classes for kids is a new experience for me.  Two weeks ago I started a five session weekly class on video game design.  This program has been so fun and easy.  The kids love it!!! It has been so wildly popular that I am repeating the program in February 2015.  As of this morning, the February 2015 class has filled up as well!!!

I personally knew next to nothing about video game design a few weeks ago. Thanks to a program called Gamestar Mechanic I am now an "expert".  ;)

If you have not heard of Gamestar Mechanic, I highly suggest you visit their website.  An educator/library account costs a measly $2 a student.  That $2 gives the students lifetime access to the Gamestar program.  In 2011, several Gamestar Mechanic game-makers won the Scholastic Arts & Writing Award for games produced in this program. 

Users play a series of missions (or games) and collect “Sprites”.  These sprites are the building blocks the kids use to build their own games.  The program also encourages collaboration and constructive feedback by allowing students can share and give advice on their peer’s games.

The Gamestar Mechanic program comes with a pre-made curriculum that teachers/librarians can download free of charge.  It is easy to use, teach, and administer.  More importantly, the kids have a blast developing system thinking, storytelling, and critical thinking skills through play. 

If video-games are a "thing" with the tweens that frequent your library (and I suspect they are) you can't go wrong with this program.  

Mythbusters STEM Program

I <3 Mythbusters! Explosions, science, awesomeness…   So, I was uber thrilled to conduct a mythbusters program for tweens this summer. I actually borrowed (and then modified) this program idea from the Tween Scene.  The Tween Scene is an awesome resource for pre-planned tween programs that you can modify to meet your library’s needs. 

Age Range: 8-12

Time range: About 1 hour

Attendance: capped at 20 Mythbusters due to supply limitation

Cost: around $15-$20 in grocery supplies

Shopping List: cornstarch, glass bowls, large metal spoons, paper, lightweight books, tape, pencils, caffeine free cola, pop-rock candy

To start, I set up 5 tables with enough chairs to seat 4 kids per table.  The tweens choose their “team” by picking an empty seat at one on the tables. Next, I presented the tween teams with:

Da’ Rules - 

1. No running
2. No yelling 
3. Your team must agree on an answer – truth or myth – before conducting the experiment
4. You are not allowed to get help from parents or older sibling
5. Each team that guesses the right answer receives four raffle tickets (one for each tween) to the summer reading raffle prize drawing (water park tickets)

Myth #1: A substance can be both a liquid and solid at the same time

First, each team had to decide if this statement was truth or a myth. The team guesses were split down the middle. Half guessed this was a true statement and half guessed myth.  Next, each team received a bowl of Oobleck from our awesome teen volunteer.  The tweens "experimented” with the Oobeleck by squishing, bouncing, dripping, punching, etc… 

***WARNING***

This is VERY messy!  In retrospect, I should have saved this experiment for the end.  Luckily, I had disposable tablecloths covering all the tables.  I just rolled them up with the Oobleck and threw everything away after the kids were done experimenting.  FYI – Oobleck vacuums off carpet when it dries (thank goodness!).

Correct Answer?  Truth   
We showed the following Mythbusters video to explain the answer (while my brave volunteers and I cleaned up their colossal mess):

Myth #2: Paper can support a book

First, each team had to decided if this statement was truth or myth (only one team guessed myth).  Each team was then given one piece of paper, tape, and a stack of light weight books:

Correct answer? Truth – The teams could have folded paper accordion style or rolled it into a tube using the tape.  The youngest team completed the challenge very quickly.  I was impressed!  The participants then had a blast competing with each other to see whose structure could hold the most books (the record was 16). 


The teams watched the following YouTube video explaining the science behind their constructions:

Myth #3: Eating pop-rock candy and drinking coke will make your stomach explode

This was, by far, the favorite myth of the program!  Teams spent five minutes debating the truth of the myth while daring each other to try the combination first.  The following video explains the history behind this myth:

http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/mythbusters/videos/pop-rocks-minimyth.htm

The End

After sugaring the kids up….I passed out the SRP raffle tickets.  I directed the tween Mythbusters to a cart full of science experiment literature and book-talked a few of them.  This program was well worth the cleanup after.  I will defiantly be repeating this program again next year.  Possibly with a different set of myths?