Students create video games

• By JAMES MINTON
• Advocate Baker - Zachary bureau
• Published: Jun 29, 2009

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ZACHARY — Instead of merely playing computer video games during the past week, 24 Zachary Community School District students spent lots of time learning the fine points of creating such games.

The middle- and high-school students, along with a similar group in Lafayette, participated in a “Digital Workforce Intensive” presented by a non-profit company, 3D Squared, that is working to educate young people for 21st century work-force careers, said Joe Castille, a producer for the company.

Students working together at the Zachary and Lafayette sites communicated via Internet-based audio and video connections.

“If all else fails, we have cell phones,” said Jared Landry, of Vandebilt Catholic High School in Houma, a team leader for the week-long exercise.

“Our job is to make educational games that are also fun,” said Collin Shelton, an eighth-grader at Zachary’s Northwestern Middle School.

Shelton’s team created a game that was not only fun to play but delved into the serious issue of finding sources of “clean” energy.

The program is part of the Digital Workforce Initiative, funded by a grant from Louisiana Department of Economic Development.

Zachary gifted and talented teacher Margaret Atkinson gave up her spring break to take 12 students to a similar conference in Lafayette in April. It was their first entry into an intense environment for learning digital media concepts.

The stay in Lafayette also was not all fun and games, as the April conference challenged students to confront three problem areas for Louisiana: coastal erosion, obesity and problems in the state’s educational arena.

“Whac-A-Nutria was one of the games, because they learned that nutria are known to contribute to coastal erosion,” Atkinson said.

When the students presented their idea to video-game professionals, they had to argue against suggestions of copyright infringement because of the similarity to “Whac-A-Mole,” she said.

Atkinson said the experience was “life changing” for her students.

“They learned to problem-solve on the spot and work as a team,” she said.