Dear 5th and 6th Grade Parents,
I am happy to announce that LIS will be piloting an innovative and exciting program this year with our 5th and 6th grade students. Gamestar Mechanic is a gaming development program designed to foster 21st century skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, collaboration, digital media literacy and a motivation for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) learning. All of these skills are increasingly important in our highly-networked, digital and rapidly evolving world.
The Gamestar program is an enrichment opportunity for our students to work on at home by connecting to the internet website http://ltps.gamestarmechanic.com. Students can learn how to develop electronic video games, publish these games as well as play and critique the games built by other LIS students. Students will be given their own username/password so they may be able to enter a closed network that only LIS students will be able to access. Our technology team will be able to monitor and manage student Gamestar accounts.
Gamestar Mechanic will operate in a similar fashion to Study Island, which is a web-based tutorial program LIS students have used at home for several years. During the month of February, we will hold a Family Game Night at LIS. In addition, we will be developing an after-school schedule for our technology lab, so students may work on game development after school. More information about both of these will be distributed at a later date.
While I do support this opportunity for students to develop these 21st century skills and I believe students can gain a lot from Gamestar Mechanic, I need to remind families that this is an enrichment program. There is nothing mandated about it and it is to be utilized only after classroom assignments have been completed.
I appreciate your support as we look to expand our learning opportunities for LIS students. If you have any questions, feel free to call me at school.
Sincerely,
Jonathan J. Dauber
Principal
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