Our Goal is to Empower Students through a Virtual Game Design Challenge with support from Game Development ProfessionalsWith many schools adopting a virtual or hybrid plan this school year, students are missing out on the opportunity to engage in hands-on STEM experiences with their friends and classmates.  To help fill this void, and encourage learning, computational thinking, and fellowship, Legends of Learning and International Game Developers Association (IGDA) are hosting a month-long Dell Technologies Advancing Sustainability Game Design Challenge. This virtual experience will enable K-12 students to learn more about game development and practice critical thinking while expanding their portfolios.  
About the CompetitionWe are excited to provide all learners with an opportunity to design a game, no matter their device-access, age, or previous experience. Depending on the grade level and experience of the participating students, there will be two different tracks they can participate in:

• Fully build out a video game 
• Create a paper prototype and game design document

To assist teachers with integrating this experience into their classroom, lesson plans with templates and handouts for each portion of the Dell Technologies Advancing Sustainability Game Design Challenge are provided below.
Thanks to our amazing partners, there will be weekly presentations throughout the month of March from Game Development Professionals that correspond to the week’s lesson.
To encourage fellowship and collaboration, students can work independently or in teams of up to 5 people. In order to participate, all students must have their teacher register their team.Teachers are welcome to register multiple teams.
Any questions regarding the competition can be submitted by email to events@legendsoflearning.com. We look forward to your submissions!

Georgia K-12 educators, do you want to learn fun and engaging ways to encourage your students to take ownership of their ideas and discover the fascinating ways their imaginations can be used to benefit themselves, their communities, and our world? This two-hour complimentary webinar, presented by the Georgia Intellectual Property Alliance, is for you!

This interactive professional development workshop will show Georgia’s K-12 educators how to help their students harness the power of Intellectual Property (IP) in turning their ideas and dreams into reality. The session will provide educators with ideas on how to seamlessly integrate IP into their lessons, helping students gain a better understanding of how IP can be used to protect their ideas as they grow into young innovators. Educators may also benefit personally from the information presented in this webinar as they learn how to protect and even monetize their own creative ideas!

Attendees who complete the full complimentary live webinar will receive two hours of CEU credit. Cannot attend the live webinar? Register anyway, and you will receive a link to a recording of the session.

When
Thursday, February 25, 2021
3:30 – 5:30 PM

Where
This webinar will be held virtually via Zoom. Participants will receive instructions for accessing the session upon registering.

In additional to our virtual-live lessons, we are excited to offer another virtual resource to your educators.  We have launched our pre-recorded virtual lesson videos. The videos run in length from roughly 7 to 18 minutes, depending on which one is selected.
 
Lessons:

• 3rd: Heat Transfer
• 4th: Simple Machines
• 5th: Circuits
• 6th: Renewables & Non-Renewables
• 7th: Invention and Innovation

• 8th: Transformation of Energy
• High School: Nuclear and Economics
• High School: Environmental (in coming weeks)

 
To request a video, please contact me directly at dlpender@southernco.com with the following information:

• School name
• Grade level video you are requesting
• Date(s) you need the video
• Names and email addresses of each teacher in your grade level
• Number of students for each class

 
Please share with your educators and thank you for your continued partnership.  As always, the lessons are free and align with the Georgia Standards of Excellence.  Educators can also find additional energy efficiency resources like experiments, interactive games, word searches, and activity sheets at www.learningpower.org [learningpower.org]. 

STEM@GTRI is excited to announce the launch of our new Direct to Discovery series, There’s More Than You Think! These 45-minute sessions, held through the BlueJeans Events platform, will feature regional leaders in computer science, each with a diverse background and role. Through interactive Q&A and accompanying literacy-based resources, we aim to help foster a computer science identity – particularly for students who may not yet visualize themselves as belonging to the technology workforce. Guest speakers will share what their work is like, how they arrived at their current role, and advice for students. Each speaker will highlight areas of computer science and technology important for the future workforce. All K-12 classrooms are welcome to join!
 
Interested teachers can learn more and register for upcoming sessions at https://gtri.gatech.edu/d2d/d2d-computer-science-careers-series