DTI Game On! — Our Second Annual Makeathon
On one of the first beautiful days of Ithacan spring, Cornell Design & Tech Initiative hosted their second annual makeathon for elementary students, this year entitled DTI Game On! Just as our project team does at a collegiate level, our makeathons aim to teach students about STEM concepts, using technology to create community impact, and the importance of working together with others. Last year, we brought students to Cornell to brainstorm creative ways to solve community problems they face with design thinking. This time around, we invited 4th and 5th grade students to our free one-day event on campus to learn about game design in a relatable and engaging way.
Background
While we are made up of software developers, product designers, and business analysts, we are most importantly community members seeking to create an impact beyond the scope of technology. For a sector that is not only rapidly evolving but also carries high barriers of entry both fiscally and educationally, it’s easy to fall behind in the digital divide. From race and gender to socioeconomic class and geographical location, technology needs to be accessible to anyone and everyone with the desire and passion for it.
This was the driving force behind our makeathon program, and this year we sought to fulfill that need through a language every kid understands: games.
What is the game design process?
We take games for granted in our day-to-day lives, but rarely think about what actually goes into making a game. From tic-tac-toe to Tetris, every game is a reflection of the cultural values a society holds, like strength or strategy. In this light, we discussed the history of games, the role of games in society today, and the potential of games to teach and help others. We asked questions like What exactly is a game? What makes a game fun?
“A game is a form of interactive entertainment where players must overcome challenges, by taking actions that are governed by rules, in order to meet a victory condition.”
Perhaps a few too many 6th grade words for our audience. So we explained core gaming concepts with the games they loved best: Roblox, Fortnite, and Minecraft to name a few. Who are the players? What are the challenges? What are the goals and rules? With a bit of training from our DTI mentors, the kids were ready to start prototyping and building their own games.
Game Day
After many weeks of planning, outreach, and prepping, our mentors were ready to go bright and early Saturday morning. We had over 20 students from local Ithaca elementary schools like Cayuga Heights and Northeast, to schools up to an hour away in Horseheads and Whitney Point join us. Here’s a brief breakdown of the day’s shenanigans:
09:00–09:30 • Check In
Parents and guardians arrived to sign in their children and turn in waivers and photo release forms. We matched 4–5 children with 2–3 mentors together while playing some upbeat music ahead of the opening ceremony.
09:30–10:00 • Welcome & Introduction
After a warm welcome from our fearless leaders Neha Rao ’20 and Matt Barker ’19, mentors and mentees alike shook out those early morning heebee-jeebees with a riling round of “Shake It Out”, a tried and true icebreaker.
10:00–10:45 • Game Design Workshop
Our lovely lecturers Boon Palipatana ‘21 and Emily Chan ‘21 delved into the realm of game design, complete with Fortnite dances and funky gifs. The presentation content was adapted from Cornell’s Game Design program, but of course, edited to be a bit more age-appropriate for our audience. Afterwards, it was snack time!
10:45–12:00 • Brainstorming Ideas
Each team facilitated a game design brainstorming discussion covering what everyone liked about games and what they wanted to see in the game they made today. Results varied from straight-forward level-based puzzle games to island/shipwreck survival scenarios. Mentors then helped the teams think about how their idea fits into concepts like game purpose, background, and gameplay mechanics with the help of worksheets, guided discussion, and many, many fruit snacks.
12:00–01:00 • Lunch Break
We provided our gamers with a plentiful selection of pizza, sandwiches, and various healthy snacks with a little help from Cornell Dining. Then to burn off all their energy, we took advantage of the beautiful weather outside on the Ag Quad. The kids might like playing Zombie Tag, but I’d argue the mentors loved it even more.
01:00–01:30 • Level Editor Demo
Boon and Emily are back again, this time with a quick demo of how to conceptualize levels within a game and then learned to build their own. The kids perhaps had too much fun creating their own levels of Crash Test Dummy and sharing their levels with each other to play.
01:30–02:00 • Scratch Demo
Our developer lead Evan Welsh ’21 created an interactive tutorial pack for the coders to follow along with and learn the language of Scratch. By the end of the coding session, the kids were animating dragons and completing cake-related goals. We also shared with our young coders another kid-friendly gaming tool: UC Berkeley’s block-code platform, Snap!.
02:00–02:45 • Prototype & Build
From arts & crafts supplies to gaming software, the teams had everything they needed to create an imaginative and interactive game prototype. All of the kids took a different approach to demonstrate elements of their game, from world-building and story to character movement and controls.
02:45–03:30 • Feedback & Iterate
With progress underway, it was time to pair and share. Teams shared their work with each another, and presented compliments and constructive feedback to help make their creations even better.
03:30–04:00 • Showcase!
Parents and guardians were all welcomed back to Kennedy Hall to see all the of the hard work the kids had put into their projects. After a quick overview of the day from the mentors, the teams presented science fair-style what they came up with and worked on, even letting some people try out their games.
Thank you to our young coders and their parents for participating in our makeathon event! We hope to see you again soon.
Looking Forward
Cornell DTI’s flagship initiative was a success once again, and we’re already buzzing for our next makeathon. With all the products and initiatives we’ve launched so far, we’re particularly proud of this year’s event. Our community is as strong as all of us in it, and being able to share a piece of our hearts with others makes for an unforgettable day.
You can view photos and videos from the day here.
Stay tuned for what Cornell DTI’s Makeathon 3.0 will hold in 2020, and in the meantime, make sure to visit our website and find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Medium.
We’ll catch ya on the flip side.
