St. Louis WizKids

Zoo Tycoon

When I walked into the E-mints computer lab at Jefferson Elementary two of the computers were missing.  A student told us that new computers would replace the old ones.  That would be wonderful considering we were short one computer for the session.  A Brainpop clip on the Vietnam War was shown and it was surprising that the students knew so little about history during that era.  They had a difficult time with the Zoo Tycoon cd-rom game as well.  We attempted to get through the tutorials so the WizKids could play an actual scenario game.  Many of the youth ran into problems with the tutorial.  It appears that a lot of the problems were due to them not reading through the information, or not comprehending the information.  One of the reasons why I like this game so much is because of the required amount of reading in order to play the game successfully.  This was a major barrier for most of the students. 

November 2, 2005

Lorraine Vivian Hansberry

1.  Age when she died.

2.  She was the youngest and first Black writer to receive this award.

3.  How did she and her family challenge Chicago's segregation laws?

Hot, Hot, Hot!

It was really hot in the classroom yesterday.  The WizKids were restless but managed to stay focused.  There were a lot of technical problems with the computers this week.  Only eight computers were functioning.  There were two absences (the most to date) so no one had to share a computer.  Sharing would not have been very fun this week because we started with “Zoo Tycoon.” The “Zoo Tycoon” game is an excellent source of fun and education for children ages 10 and above.  It is a simulation game where the participant is challenged to run a zoo and/or marina.  It is the best simulation game I have ever previewed due to its content, graphics and ease of learning.  The game requires the player to learn about animals, including dinosaurs, dolphins, sea turtles, tigers, monkeys and zebras.  They have to read the directions in order to successfully complete the scenario, as well as manage their money (MATH!) to keep their zoo afloat in order to adopt more animals.  Hopefully the WizKids will find it as interesting and fun as I have.

Digital Assessments

Digital assessments were given to the WizKids during last week’s session.  Our evaluators from Philiber Research were on hand to conduct the assessments with help from Sue and Shirley.  While the children took the assessments two at the time, the others were allowed free time on the computers.  They went to a number of sites including mofun.com and evergirl.com.

At the beginning of the session I handed out a list of famous Black inventors.  The WizKids seemed quite surprised at some of the inventions like ice cream, the clock, air condition, the toilet and the clothes drier.  For their home activity they were asked to find out who invented the telephone.  The answer might even be a surprise to you.  The question the children were asked this week was the person that they most admire.  While half of them listed a family member, the others listed Nelly (a rapper), Mya (a singer), Ice Cube (an actor and rapper), and Ricky Williams (a football player).

Schools Start to Say "No" to Junk Food

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a package of school nutrition laws.  The laws make up some of the strictest pieces of school-food legislation in the country because it extends restrictions to high schools.  The schools will have to phase out half the sodas sold in their schools and replace them with more nutritious options such as milk, juice, water and sports drinks.  By 2009, all of the sodas will have to be replaced.  Governor Schwarzenegger stated that one out of three kids and one out of four teenagers is overweight or at risk.  He also stated that California, like other states, has seen an increase in childhood obesity.

Legislators in 38 states considered proposals on school nutrition this year, and 17 of them enacted new laws according to Amy Winterfeld at the Denver-based National Conference of State Legislators.  Laws in other states include requiring students to have a certain amount of physical activity each week, nutrition policies for food and drink availability, and prohibiting all deep-fried foods.