Lazertron


www.lazertron.net

LET THEM CREATE!

http://frostsabergames.net/

 

Illinois State Standards

Lazertron_Keynote.ppt 

Bought URL in November 2007.

 

This is a student website started in October 2007. Students were interested in Flash.

They had to come up with a "spectacular" final project for their sixth grade project and since many gaming sites were blocked, they created a site for students at SRS to play games.

 

They then moved on to experiment with iPhone apps and more.

 

LOGOS are important as well.

 

September 2008, it won a national website award from Digital Education, students flew to Hollywood to accept award.

 


 

Today it has over 14,000 hits and it's creator also created a widget that was the third top download on the apple widget site for three weeks in April 2008 - The GeoWidget

 

How did they do it?

     Tutorials

     Forums

 


The Story

Lazertron.net was started by two sixth graders at Sunset Ridge School in Northfield, Illinois. There were so many gaming sites blocked at SRS, so they decided to create games for the students using Flash. They added polls, when needed and asked what the "audience" wanted for their direction, such as "Mike's World," a flash story or more games. In listening to the polls, the decided to expand the flash games and cancel "Mike's World."

 

The now are creating widgets and interested in iPod games. There audience is fourth through eighth grade and they are always asking what the audience wants next. They are developing tutorials.

 

They are constantly searching the internet for new ideas, such as how their games can translate into science and social studies. Since all the computer and software is located at school, all work in done during school time, before and after school. This makes it even more amazing that they are able to create and post as much material as they do on the site.

 

It is a simple website that offers so much. It has inspired many students at Sunset Ridge to think "outside" the box. All games are made in Flash using tutorials. The students at Sunset Ridge have learned how to "teach themselves." as lazertron.net is a testment on how it can be done.

 

Since they are sixth graders (now in seventh grade) you will not find their names anywhere on the site, and the actual URL is masked, of course you can do a google search to find it, but at least the main URL is blocked.

 

Ironically, neither student really plays video games, they delight in other playing their games.


Moving on and mentoring

Now the two sixth graders are seventh graders and working in Quartz Composer, they have passed it on to sixth graders, those students are working on Photoshop for Logos and putting together tutorials for other students to learn about Flash. The learning and discovering never ends...