Game design Quest – last week
Morning launch – On Thursday morning, Alden led a launch about the tension between tattling and “blowing the whistle”. We tried to figure out when reporting injustice is tattling and when it becomes their moral duty to report it. Then we discussed the high price of whistle blowing and tried to figure out if they would choose to report the issue anyway or would choose to ignore it in order not to pay the price. It was undoubtedly thought provoking.
Planning the exhibition – On Thursday, the Eagles began planning their exhibitions for the end of the session. I participated in the circle but barely did anything. The Eagles suggested all kind of ideas, voted for each idea, decided how much time each activity will take and even managed to divide the different roles between themselves. Not all of our discussions go so smoothly, but when they do, it really makes us feel proud.
Meditation – As I have already written here, we have meditation three times a week as part of our daily schedule. A week ago, the Eagles asked to take responsibility for meditations and from this week onward, so it was. Each Eagle in turn is responsible for the daily meditation and this responsibility includes choosing the music, starting to play the music on the studio’s T.V. exactly when the session begins and moving from meditating Eagle to Eagle carefully placing a few drops of essential oil on his forehead and gently massaging her forehead and hands. This week, one of the young Eagles was responsible for the meditation and it was a pleasure to see how responsible he felt and how gently and sensibly he did that.
Session summary launch – On Friday morning, I led an end-of-session launch and we talked about what makes a game successful. In order to inspire them, we watched the interview with the 11 year old who invented the famous “Sleeping Queens” game when she was only six! At the end of the launch, we gave the Eagles an assignment to play their games during the break and decide whether they think their game was successful enough to offer it to a gaming company. Would they take their idea to the next level?
Session exhibition – The exhibition, made by the Eagles, was so much fun! It started with a presentation of their progress in core skills, then the parents played the video games, which were developed by the Eagles, they saw the products of the different challenges and played their board games. Finally, the Eagles ran a casino with games like roulette and black jack, where the Eagles were the dealers and the parents were the players. Here are some pictures of the final products:
