Calling all teachers! Sprockets hosts a special teacher workshop. Space is limited and is reserved on a first-come, first-served basis.

Date: Friday April 23, 2010
Time: 9:30am – 3:00pm 
Location: Famous Players Canada Square, 2190 Yonge Street
Cost: $6.60 plus applicable taxes and fees

Please contact the box office to reserve your spot today. Call 416-968-FILM or toll-free at 1-877-968-FILM Monday to Friday, 10:00am to 7:00pm.

This workshop is geared toward educators teaching grades 4 through 8. Materials can be adapted for those teaching higher or lower grades as well!

Designing and creating video games can be used in a classroom setting to:

  • Engage students in subject matter – have students create a video game for a health science unit: Bacterial Wars!
  • Exercise team-building skills – have students work as a game-design team as they go through the process of planning, designing and creating a video game. Alternate roles of team leader, designer, programmer, artist and game tester.
  • Appeal to a range of students with diverse interests and skills – analytical and mathematic skills, creative and artistic skills, organizational and leadership skills, and game-playing skills.

In this full-day workshop educators will become acquainted with the game-design process and create a video game from scratch. Material covered will equip educators with the basic skills needed to start teaching videogame design in the classroom. Projects are designed to address curriculum outcomes in science, technology, mathematics and language and visual arts.

Working individually and in teams, participants explore the various stages of game development from concept and design through testing and deployment. No previous game design or computer programming experience is necessary.

Requirements:

  • Basic computer skills.
  • Workshop participants are asked to bring a laptop computer running Windows 2000, XP, Vista or Windows 7 with a screen resolution of 800×600.

Educators will leave with:

  • A CD with game-making software and sample games.
  • A video game that they created.
  • Starter lesson plans for video game design projects designed for use in a classroom setting.
  • A resource list of relevant books and websites to complement material covered in workshop.
  • A network of like-minded professionals that they can build upon!

Presented by Ronnie Scullion, the owner and director of Artech Camps – Imagination in Motion! Inc. Scullion has been teaching children and youth, from 5 to16 years of age, to design and create video games, produce animated films and build and programme robots both in schools and camps since 2000. Scullion has a BFA in Fine Arts from NSCAD University and an Applied Information Technology Diploma from Information Technology Institute (ITI).