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Want to learn all about the video game industry and work with a group to construct a game idea you’ll pitch to real video game professionals? Then GameWerks is for you.

The University of Georgia Summer Academy camp program has just completed its third and most successful year, according to co-creator College of Education alumnus Mark Austin Evans (EdS ’09).

GameWerks1 is a one-week program that focuses on the design of the game based on the Georgia Performance Standards in math, science, social studies, language arts, art and music.  Participants evaluate video games, conduct research on different types of software, hardware and development tools, and get guidance and feedback on their ideas from experts in the field.

“You’ll leave with some serious 21st century skills to help you at school, home and other areas of your life that involve critical thinking, confidence and teamwork,” said Evans, who earned an educational specialist degree from UGA in social science education. “Constructionism is the guiding principle of the camp, with emphasis on building knowledge through the construction of the game. There’s a lot of STEM involvement, but English and art as well.

“I tell parents that the Arts are a missing component of STEM. If you told DaVinci he was a scientist he would punch you in the face and say, ‘No I’m an artist.’ I believe STEM needs the Arts to create STEAM. STEM gives you a great foundation but STEAM takes you to the next level,” said Evans.

GameWerks2 is a two-week programming/designing camp that takes the ideas from GW1 and uses them as a base to create prototypes. Many of the campers take advantage of the Georgia Center’s residential program so they can have a much richer and fuller experience of being immersed in the video game industry.

At GameWerks, (UGA) students are able to take theory they have learned over the previous year and put it into practice.

Camp participants, nicknamed “werkers,” range in age from 11-17. They come from not only Clarke and surrounding Northeast Georgia counties but also neighboring states like Alabama, South Carolina and Tennessee. GW1 averages about 27-30 participants and GW2 about 15-20 participants each summer.

The cost of the camp runs around $400 for GW1 and $800 for GW2 and is paid for largely by individual parents. But there is also a scholarship system in which local businesses (Silver and Archibald Attorneys at Law, First American Bank, and Play ‘N’ Trade of Athens) have given financially and materially to help low-income students participate.

Also this past year the camps have 4-H students participating through the UGA Extension Program. In addition, some Athens restaurants—La Parrilla Tacqueria, Five Star Day, Papa Johns Pizza on Baxter and McDonalds on Broad Street—contributed by providing healthy lunches to the participants this year.

Many masters and doctoral students in the COE’s Learning, Design and Technology program have participated as counselors in the camp. They receive a course credit, a financial stipend and most importantly, gain valuable teaching and learning skills that have translated into being better educators and educational designers.

“At GameWerks, (UGA) students are able to take theory they have learned over the previous year and put it into practice,” said Evans.

The idea for GameWerks sprang from Evans and his partner in MoWerks Learning, an Athens-based learning and technology company, Josh Squires, who both saw the power of using games to teach during their experiences as educators.

Squires, a former UGA graduate student, taught at ITT Tech in Austin, Texas, where his students were interested in working in the video game industry. As a department head he helped create a system of vocational education that gave the students a real world perspective of what it was like to work in the field of video games.

Evans worked at the DeKalb County Truancy School where he taught young juvenille offenders economics and social studies. He used video games and video game terminology to teach complex economic theory. During his tenure at the school, he had a 100 percent pass rate of students on the End of Course Test in Economics before coming to UGA to work with the department of elementary and social studies education.

Evans cited two UGA faculty members for their support of the GameWerks program, Michael Orey, an associate professor in learning, design and technology and Casey O’Donnell, an assistant professor in telecommunications in Grady College’s New Media Institute, who has given the camp more credibility because of his research and work in the video game industry.

Early registration will be available for GameWerks 2012 in March.

For more info:
GameWerks1
GameWerks2