Ireland-Based Game-Making Competetion welcoming Northern Virginia students

October 21: Deadline for Individual Registration (flexible)

We’d love to have some participants from the US take part in this challenge. I’ve attached the poster for This Is Not A Game (www.thisisnotagame.org). The basic idea is for kids between the ages of 14-18 to create games with a social conscience. We are using ocean awareness as our main theme.   

The kids will form teams (or be assigned teams) with 2 – 5 team members. We’ll webcast a launch event in Dublin, Ireland on October 29 that will give an overview of the project and deadlines. We’ll also have a number of guest speakers (including Tierney) to talk about the importance of the marine topics as well as using creative forms to highlight important issues.

The kids will be given workshops on the following platforms: Gamemaker (for windows), Game Salad (for Mac), and Project Anarchy (more advanced – for mobile). If the kids want to program on another platform, that’s absolutely fine. We will be pitching this at all skill levels and for kids with a variety of interests including:

• computer programming (to write the code for the game using provided software or software of your choosing)
• art (to choose the visual design of the game)
• marine sciences (to create the story of the game)
• marketing (to help create a trailer and other marketing material for the game)

2013 Girls Rock: Emerging Young Leaders Empowerment

2013 Girls Rock: Emerging Young Leaders Empowerment Conference

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., Xi Zeta Omega Chapter

Saturday, November 16, 2013 from 7:30 AM to 5:00 PM (EST)
Washington, DC

http://xzogirlsrockconference2013.eventbrite.com

Gunston MS (Arlington) Ecosystems Project

Reposted from the Green STEM Learning Blog by Mary Van Dyke:

Learning from Trees:Gunston Middle School Tree Ecosystems Project and Project Learning Tree Webinar

 Here is a Arlington Public Schools GreenScene film of the three-day Tree Ecosystem Study I co-facilitated with Luz Chamorro at Gunston Middle School in September as a catalyst for student stewardship projects.
The movie shows Day 3 where classes are going out to look at three stations to evaluate the ecosystems of trees on the hillside.

On Day 1 students drew their Favorite Tree and we learned about products from trees, Goods from the Woods and also recapped Tree Biology - how a tree works inside and out.

Commonwealth STEM Industry Internship Program (CSIIP)

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Keeping STEM Talent in Virginia

The Virginia Commonwealth
STEM Industry Internship Program (CSIIP)

With an increasing demand for skilled STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) workers in Virginia, the development of efficient pathways between undergraduate students pursuing STEM degrees and industry has become an urgent need. With support from the Commonwealth of Virginia, Virginia Space Grant Consortium (VSGC) in partnership with Virginia’s Regional Technology Councils, and in collaboration with Virginia companies, Virginia colleges, and community colleges, has created the Commonwealth STEM Industry Internship Program (CSIIP). CSIIP links undergraduate STEM students to paid summer internship positions with companies throughout Virginia.

This program offers a one-stop, centralized, online internship application system that provides Virginia's undergraduate STEM majors the ability to search and apply for STEM-related (summer/fall/spring) paid internship opportunities with participating Virginia-based companies that can search our database of prescreened student applications for specific skills, experience, educational background, interests and desired work locations to find the best possible candidates for their paid summer internships. Companies select students, make offers, and employ interns directly.  

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Important Internship Highlights

There is no cost for students or companies to utilize this online service.

Please use the appropriate link Students, Companies or Colleges for program access.

CSIIP has the strong support of the Center for Innovative Technology and the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.

Mid-Atlantic Girls Collaborative Project - October Update

Be sure to check the October Newsletter:  http://conta.cc/16bdHgj

In This Issue Message from the Directors MAGiC Mini Grants Encouraging Girls in Computer Science STARBASE Academy GEMS Club Expands 3rd USA Science & Engineering Festival Upcoming STEM Events Across the Region Upcoming Conferences & Webinars Across the Region

Virtual field trip at the Autodesk Gallery

   PLTW - Project Lead The Way

Virtual field trip TOMORROW.  Join Discovery Education for a virtual field trip at the Autodesk Gallery in San Francisco. Explore the world of innovative design: http://bit.ly/1cs4d7R

U.S. adults lag most countries in literacy, math and computer skills

We regularly hear elected officials and broadcast journalists misrepresent international comparisons in math and science with complete disregard for all confounding variables, but this article also identifies the real culprit, highlighted by Layton in a previous article:  achievement gaps.

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From today's Washington Post:

By Lyndsey Layton, Updated: Tuesday, October 8, 5:00 AM E-mail the writer

Policymakers and politicians who wring their hands about the mediocre performance of U.S. students on international math and reading tests have another worry: The nation’s grown-ups aren’t doing much better.

A first-ever comparison of adults in the United States and those in other democracies found that Americans were below average when it comes to skills needed to compete in the global economy.

The survey, released Tuesday, measured the literacy, math and computer skills of about 5,000 U.S. adults between ages 16 and 65, and compared them with similar samples of adults from 21 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OEDC).