Attached below you will find a zipped version of our group game. We were challenged to make a game about the political system here in the US. We chose to make a game about the 270 Electoral votes needed to win the election.

We did some research, and found on http://www.270towin.com a wealth of information regarding how states are leaning now, how they've voted in the past, and how many times they voted for the winner. All of this went into the algorithms we developed during game development.

Take a look at the curriculum I've been developing.

http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dr84rr8_22fvdxb9ht

Read my regular blog post at:
http://mhobkirk.wordpress.com/2008/07/02/teacher-game-institute-continue...

Before beginning my evaluation discussion on the Assessment Rubric, I'd like to revisit the conversation we had during one of the first pedagogy sessions.

The question asked was do we use rubrics. As I remember, most did, but there was one participant who argued against them vehemently. The example given by this person was that when grading with rubrics she found that those that really weren't good programs scored high, and those that were good programs scored low.

You can check my blog at
http://mhobkirk.wordpress.com for my experiences on Day 6, and a reflection on the week.

You can read my account of Day 5
http://mhobkirk.wordpress.com/2008/06/28/day-5-du-teacher-game-institute...

I do think I would explicity teach the process:
Design>Create>Play Test>Tune>Exhibit process. I know this process is not identical to, but I find it very similar to the SDLC (System Development Life Cycle). I think it would be good for students to understand what they are doing, and the process they're going through. Also it would be good lead in to Computer Science/Programming and then they could make the analogy to the SDLC.

What is your current thinking on the importance of enhancing creativity and developing innovative abilities in your students?

I think this is something that we should pursue. However, I think this is a little like teaching our students technology skills, it must be integrated, and be transparent. We can no longer teach "technology" classes. So anything to enhance creativity and innovative thinking must be done transparently and in the content and context of classes.

What is your current thinking on the roles of: