Games That Make You Smarter

Education: Innovation and STEM

Children with iPads and cards — How many times have you heard this:So, tell me little *insert any name here* What do you want to be when you grow up? You’ll probably hear from kids -and you might have said this too- they want to become an astronaut, a singer, a doctor, or all of them! […]

Want your kids to succeed? Start today

March 1, 2019 in 7GenGames / Education: Innovation and STEM / Educational Games by Daniel Mondaca

We have come a long way with math games, from our start with Spirit Lake: The Game. I will never be able to say thank you enough to the teachers at Turtle Mountain and Fish Lake for helping us with our very buggy first version. How you like me now? […]

How a math game evolved on an American Indian reservation

February 26, 2019 in 7GenGames / Education: Innovation and STEM / Educational Games by AnnMaria De Mars

Last post, I talked a little bit about why students are not learning math. So, my question here is, how much do you care? No, this is not another rant on how kids would all learn if their teachers cared more, but it is a serious question. Unless you are […]

How Much Do You Care if Your Kids Learn Math?

February 22, 2019 in AnnMaria / Education: Innovation and STEM / Educational Games / Math by AnnMaria De Mars

Our first app for pre-school age and up teaches counting in English and Spanish. Kids will love seeing virtual numbers pop up in their real world in this new app from 7 Generation Games and Strong Mind Studios. Bring numbers to life in two languages in this interactive augmented reality […]

Introducing Counting by 2 Languages

February 18, 2019 in Education: Innovation and STEM / Educational Games / Educational Resources / Teachers by AnnMaria De Mars

Meg and Joe with their apple trees — Watch this video if you would like to learn how to visualize to solve your problems or at least your math problems. We can’t help you with the other stuff, although visualizing can help you achieve many other goals! For now, we are learning how to visualize math problems with […]

VIDEO- Problem Solving: Visualize

February 8, 2019 in Education: Innovation and STEM / Educational Resources / Fifth Grade / Fourth Grade / fractions / Freebie Friday / Math / Mathematics / problem-solving / Teachers by Julia De Mars

3d numbers — Okay, that’s an old joke, but I really do have a problem. We place some really unrealistic expectations on teachers, and people who teach math and English get the worst end of it in my experience. I teach statistics and that means that I’m going to assume students have some […]

Of course I have problems, I’m a math teacher

February 5, 2019 in AnnMaria / Education: Innovation and STEM / Math by AnnMaria De Mars

This post could be labeled Part 1 of 873 but I don’t have that much time. Here is the back story … I decided to teach a more or less introductory statistics class this semester because we make educational games and I think it is important to be in the […]

OMG I Know Why Teachers Don’t Use New Technology

January 13, 2019 in AnnMaria / Education: Innovation and STEM by AnnMaria De Mars

Excited children about to play our games — Did you miss me? So much has been going great lately – and to be honest semi-great but a lot of work – that I have barely had the chance to breathe, much less write . Here’s AnnMaria’s version of a Christmas letter. (Note to self: find out if Chileans […]

The tip of the iceberg of awesomeness: My company Christmas ...

January 12, 2019 in AnnMaria / blogposts / Education: Innovation and STEM / Game Progress by AnnMaria De Mars

Yaima the llama says feliz año nuevo — Yes, I realize it’s more traditional to say Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year but I really am incredibly thankful. Whether you work in education or on a startup you likely tend to end the year with your to-do list undone, fretting about that activity you didn’t rewrite or […]

Happy New Year and Thanksgiving

December 30, 2018 in AnnMaria / Education: Innovation and STEM / Educational Games / Game Progress by AnnMaria De Mars

3d numbers — I knew that making educational software for Latino children in the U.S. and for children in Chile would need to be different. I just didn’t how or how much until I spent the last year working with schools here. How Spanish speakers used our bilingual software In the U.S. , […]

Latin American children vs children in Latin America: What I ...

December 11, 2018 in AnnMaria / Education: Innovation and STEM / rural education / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars

You may have heard about all of the schools that have 1 to 1 devices , Chromebooks, iPads or Windows computers. It’s a lie. I’m not saying that no schools have a device for every child. I’m sure some do. However, one thing the last four years has taught me […]

The Lie about Computers in Schools: When 1 to 1 ...

December 4, 2018 in AnnMaria / Education: Innovation and STEM by AnnMaria De Mars

Daniel explaining game to students — Did you ever wonder how good high school hackers are in Latin America? The answer is that some of them are very, very good. Silabuz.com sponsored the first school hackathon in Chile. (And Strong Mind Studios helped.) This brought together over 60 students and teachers at Cowork Latam in Santiago […]

What’s a school hackathon in Latin America like?

November 23, 2018 in AnnMaria / Education: Innovation and STEM by AnnMaria De Mars