🏈🐻❤️🔑👁😋

🏈🐻❤️🔑👁😋 is here!

🌈💎☠️🖖

🌈💎☠️🖖 is here!

💎☠️💎

💎☠️💎 is here and here and here!

Floors Signing Off December 31st 2016

Dear Floors Players,

This decision was not an easy one to make. Floors is our first product and it's seen millions of games created, over 100,000 games shared to our arcade, and more than 5,000,000 plays across those games.

However, as our company has grown and released new products, it's important for us to let go of some things to ensure our focus stays in one place. For us, that focus is on the product that was born out of Floors: Bloxels.

We've had a great run together, but we've decided that as we near the end of the calendar year – after 2.5 years of service – Pixel Press Floors will no longer be available for download or supported as of December 31st, 2016.

If you currently have a version of Floors installed on your device – or do so before December 31st – it will continue to work as long as you have it running on that device. However, the Arcade will no longer be accessible. Please be sure to install Floors on any and all devices before December 31st that you need it to continue working on.

Thank you all for being such a huge part of Floors and our company. If you find that you'll miss Floors in the future, we hope you'll also check out our latest product, Bloxels, and/or our follow up to Floors – available on Apple and Android devices – Game Wizard.

Thank you,

The Pixel Press Team

STEMs from ISTE!

We're featured in "Learning STEMs from Play"

THE ADVENTURE

Kurt Klynen's book “Learning STEMs from Play” gives incredible insight into bringing hands-on and playful activities into the classroom to make learning STEM more engaging and fun. Though it was made to be a handy guide for the “Learning STEMs from Play” workshop at ISTE 2016, anyone who reads this can benefit in bringing STEM to curious learners.  
 

“Learning STEMs From Play” is a free, interactive eBook that gives readers and educators an idea of how to engage their students in learning STEM by allowing them to be curious, creative, and most of all, playful, and the tools this incredible eBook covers will not only engage students in learning, but also inspire students to be creators and innovators. By taking physical, tangible experiences and utilizing them in a digital space, students are sure to be captivated and engaged throughout the whole learning experience. Learning STEM has never before been easier with the tools we have today. These tools enable students by helping them learn through the best way possible: Play.
 

THE TOOLS

From coding to game design to inventing, “Learning STEMs From Play” will give you insight on the top tools available to get students hands-on into learning dedicated areas of STEM.

Want to begin coding? Ozobot, Sphero, and WonderWorkshop can help you out. By programming actions for the robot to perform, students will begin to understand the basics of coding! Want to make your own toys and inventions? You might want to check out Thingmaker and Littlebits. Thingmaker is a kid-friendly 3D printer that receives and prints toy designs from it's companion app, where the student designs their own toys. Your inner inventor can shine with LittleBits, a kit that contains an arsenal of electronic parts, or bits, like a power source, buzzer, or motor, that easily snap together with magnets. Connect a power source to a buzzer and noise will sound. Too loud? Connect a slide dimmer bit between the power source and the buzzer bits to control the volume.

If you are looking for a tool to tackle all of the areas of STEM at once, you're in luck. Both Pixel Press video game design tools, Bloxels and Floors, are featured in “Learning STEMs From Play”, and for good reason. Game Design covers every aspect of learning STEM and then some while still maintaining playful and hands-on learning. When starting out building a game, the student will ask questions like: “How high can the player jump? If I put these two platforms this far apart, can the player make that jump? Did I place too few enemies? Did I place too many enemies? Is my game too hard to complete?” It's this kind of Design Thinking and problem solving that helps students become better thinkers and learners. Bloxels even takes it a step further by allowing the student to create and design the art of the game, further encouraging their imagination and creativity.

“The most important aspect of the curriculum is to promote student engagement throughout the entire learning experience.” - Kurt Klynen, Learning STEMs From Play
 

Hands-on STEM activities will encourage students to play with more creativity and learn with more curiosity. With this STEM guide, you will be able to implement engaging lessons that students will love. If you're at ISTE this week, be sure to check out this amazing book and all the booths, playgrounds, and workshops featuring these edtech tools!

Learn more about these amazing STEM learning tools and how to implement them in your classroom by checking out the interactive eBook “Learning STEMs from Play”!

See you all at ISTE 2016!!!