P-TECH at Watervliet Weekly Update
April 18, 2019
Game on! P-TECH students design board games based on principles of evolution
It was all fun and games on a recent Friday afternoon in the Capital Region Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH) east campus. Four teams of P-TECH students at Watervliet High School designed prototypes for board games they had created based on elements of Darwin’s theory of evolution.
Each team developed a 5-minute elevator pitch to introduce their game and explain the mechanics and objectives of it to a panel of judges, including
Astra Wijaya, game design instructor for Capital Region BOCES Career and Technical Education; Rachel Reilly, an independent game designer; and Karen Fox, director of educational initiatives for the Capital Region Chamber. Following the presentations, the three judges asked questions about the games and provided feedback to students.
As a judge and educator, Wijaya shared this advice for students interested in game design as a career. "Play and analyze many different games depending upon your interests. Meaning, if you are interested in being a game designer, scrutinize different game mechanics," he said. "If you are interested in visual art for games, pay attention to the games' art style, graphic design, and so on. The same goes for other professions in game development."
Delivering the pitch
During their pitch, Sha-Quan Jenkins, Phoenix Tobin and Tristan Torres described their game, Evolve: The Risk for Resources, as being appropriate and fun for “ages 8 to 88.” For their game, players pick an animal, such as a snowshoe hare, a black panther, a chimpanzee, a hawk or other, roll the dice and embark on a journey through various territories on the board collecting resources, such as food and population, to avoid extinction.
Danyal Akhtar and Adonis Cyrus presented their game, Variation in Migration, based on the migratory habits of the monarch butterfly. In this game, players must complete the annual migration their butterfly species makes from its summer residence in Canada to its winter home in Mexico. On the board, which is a map of North America, there are squares that contain various environmental challenges and hazards. The goal is to be the first player to land their species of monarch in Mexico and collect the most points.
For the game Adapt It, designers Diogenes George and Colin Foster explained that players choose a character (amphibian, bird, mammal or reptile) and must travel a path to escape their habitat after it is contaminated by radiation. Along the path to safety, players pick up “chance cards” that contain various challenges that test their skills, as well as their luck.
“I liked learning about natural selection and the ways that animals adapt to their environment to survive,” said Colin. “It was interesting to learn about marketing and being able to sell your product, too.”
Survival is the name of the game created by Kendyrek Flynn, Stephen Franco and Teaghan Rockenstire. In this game, scavengers, carnivores and herbivores travel around the board and must adapt to the various terrain and survive a variety of environmental challenges (storms, tornadoes) and obstacles (predators) along the way. Players must make it back to their home habitat with the most population (points) to win!
After the presentations were complete, students, teachers and judges had an opportunity to roll the dice and play the games.
Upcoming School Breaks
Extended Memorial Day Weekend: As of April 18, the Watervliet City School District has not used any emergency closing days. As a result, Watervliet schools and the P-TECH East Campus will not be in session on Tuesday, May, 28. This “give-back” day will extend the Memorial Day weekend holiday from Friday, May 24 through Tuesday, May 28. Classes will resume for teachers and students on Wednesday, May 29.
What should society do to save the bees?
Algebra 1
Regents Exam Reminder
Please contact the subject area teachers with questions or concerns.
How are our perspectives of love, relationships and character skewed by society?
In English, students have begun Shakespeare's infamous play, Romeo and Juliet. To help them tackle Elizabethan English, students decoded current pop songs and used their knowledge of iambic pentameter to identify the stressed and unstressed syllables of song lyrics. Following this, we began reading and watching Acts 1 and 2 of Romeo and Juliet.
Following spring break, students will perform their interpretations of the balcony scene. Be sure to ask a PTECH student what genre they chose!
Can you guess these songs?
Participation in Government
In PIG, students are studying the rights are responsibilities of citizenship. We have been exploring voting rights and the importance of voting and have been looking at the Women's Suffrage Movement as an example of political action.
RPI Biomechanics Day
Several P-TECH student-athletes participated in RPI's Biomechanics Day with their Watervliet teammates. RPI college athletes and student researchers taught students how to apply statistical analysis and physiology toward improving their basketball and soccer skills.
P-TECH Contact Information
To contact P-TECH staff, please use the email addresses below, or call (518)629-3331. Please note that this line is not always accessible to our staff. If it is an emergency, or you need immediate assistance, please call the Watervliet Jr./Sr. HS main line at (518)629-3300.
Kurt Redman – P-TECH Principal kurt.redman@neric.org
Tim Honsinger – P-TECH Guidance Counselor tim.honsinger@neric.org
Dharini Adhvaryu – P-TECH Science Teacher (Living Environment) dharini.adhvaryu@neric.org
Kirsten Dunn – P-TECH English Teacher kirsten.dunn@neric.org
Matt Battisti – P-TECH Math Teacher (Algebra) matthew.battisti@neric.org
Kate Burke - P-TECH Social Studies Teacher katherine.burke@neric.org