Junior High School Students Getting Serious About Games Design

Junior high school students from not for profit organisation Schmahl Science Workshop, based in San Jose, California, are given a popular 3d serious games authoring tool to help them create their own 3d computer games.

Schmahl Science Workshop, the charity formed in 1996 to provide hands-on science activities for children in a free-form environment have been given the opportunity to add serious games development into the charity’s portfolio of practical activities for junior and senior high school students to take part in.

The Schmahl Science Workshop already count science and technology experiments and lessons including biology, chemistry, earth science, forensic science, mathematics and physics as part of their wide variety of hands on activites for children to take part in and now they can add serious games design into the mix too.

The charity, based in San Jose, California, were delighted to receive an email from international serious games and simulation company, Caspian Learning, who asked the workshop if they’d like to be the beneficiary of a donation of an educational licence to Caspian Learning’s award-winning 3d authoring tool, Thinking Worlds.

The idea behind the donation was that the children could use their practical experience in the workshop’s science experiments to put together creative 3d simulations that would support the practical exercises they were undertaking whilst improving their technical pc skills. It was an interesting and unusual use of the serious games software and it will be even more interesting to see what the classes put together.

Belinda Lowe-Schmahl, founder of the charity, was both surprised and grateful for the opportunity and was very keen to make the most of the offer and is encouraging her students to take advantage of the technology in order to put their creative hats to the test.