Final AFDA Project

I offer students a choice in my AFDA class for their final assignment: They can take the final exam or make a final project.

The final project is to design a game.

It's called "project based learning." The idea is to give something open ended, allow for research, creativity, and, hopefully, fun. Kids are supposed to make, modify, or expand a game. Then they playtest and design a survey the playtesters have to fill out. We have a unit on statistics, probability and surveys, so....it fits.

I try to introduce students to a few games over the course of the year to expand their horizons and have fun doing something new and logical. Often, there's resistance. This year/semester, I've had multiple subjects in each period, gaps, hyperness, and I haven't had much success or interest like in previous years (I helped start an Uno craze last year when I discovered one of my students didn't know how to play).

Here's a pair of kid's testing out a modified version of Labyrinth. They're both gamers (and awesome kids), so the interest level was higher than normal. 

I wish the students got a little more into it, but I think it's memorable at least. When kids desperately need to pass an SOL, they typically focus on studying and I let the test count as their final exam (I am sometimes one of the final verified credits they need to get their diploma, so that's a priority).