Stratolab’s new business is writing software—tools and games—for learning. We have started working on several projects including a math game and a training simulation for teachers. We have many more ideas too, but first things first.
In this era of change, Stratolab is changing too. We are shifting our focus from after-school classes to software. In the new year we will be creating video games that teach. As a result, we are closing our cozy studio. January 31 will be our last class.
Last Chance to Take a Stratolab Class. Call Now. All courses are 30% off in December and January. This is your last chance to experience Stratolab. Tell all your classmates. Email all your friends!
Eric Scott is our new Advanced Computer Programming teacher. He runs Dolphin Micro, a web development company, but loves to teach a bit on the side. I have worked with him and he is an outstanding programmer. I’m very happy to have him on our team teaching our Game Programming for Teens course.
By the way, he also has a lot of experience in Marketing and Sales so he is a great consultant for building websites. If you need a website built, we recommend him highly.
Expect the return of old favorites as well as some exciting, new courses here at Stratolab. For starters, Video Game Programming is available after-school and weekends too. Robotics Jr. (Ages 9 & up) and the more advanced Robotics for Teens (ages 13 & up) is back and refitted with new goals & contests. For all you builders, tinkerers and general gear-heads, DIY Electronics teaches you how to build a mini-music system that will rock your socks off. Returning with new tricks and techniques, our wildly successful 5 C’s of Comic Book Storytelling is bringing heroic justice back to Saturday mornings. Brand new to the line-up is Anime and Animation where you create stop motion films and Japanese style cartoon creations. A new course, Comic Illustration with the renowned artist & teacher John Rapone, covers drawing and illustration to bring any story to life.
For summer 2008, our innovative ensemble of instructors have devised two new courses for the summer. Also we will continue our StratoLounge experiment on weekday afternoons starting the second week of July. For details, see the Courses page.
Comic Storytelling and Animation covers two subjects: the six C’s of comic storytelling, and stop motion animation. The Six C’s of Comic Book Storytelling – the greatest heroes and the vilest villians come together in your own professionally plotted graphic novel. Stop Motion Animation – bring to life your favorite action figures and inanimate objects with voices and sounds effects in this all fun, all action, stop motion animation class.
Electronic Music and Devices covers two subjects: electronic music and Do-It-Yourself electronics. Electronic Music – Compose songs and soundscapes, learn arrangement, production, and special effects. DIY Electronics – One person’s trash is another person’s portable stereo system. Build headphones and other musical gadgets out of things commonly found in the recycling bin!
Congratulations to Julia, Will, and Eric — winners of the Master Robot Builder award. AMNH’s Robotics Camp studied mechanical engineering, a little computer programming, and learned something about teamwork and communication. What a fun week it was.
Mark Shuttleworth, software engineer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist from South Africa, is funding work on developing software tools to help education, especially analytical thinking and problem solving. Here’s what he has to say:
This is exactly what I’m interested in, so I couldn’t help adding my two cents.
February 2006 - One of my good friends here in New York is Duncan, who I’ve known since our days in the mid-90’s writing Star Wars games at LucasArts. His friend started the company GameLab which writes great smallish games. They do lots of short games — games for when you have an extra 15 minutes to waste, rather than the epic immersive games like Halo or Red Alert.
GameLab hosted a non-electronic games night, i.e. board games and card games. I got to see their office space and It was a gamer’s fantasy come true. In a grim looking building near Canal Street, we walked up two flights of stairs to a door with a huge pixellated Space Invaders image on the door. “This must be the place.” I walked in and every visible surface was covered with something related to games, comics, or computers. Bookshelves were filled with Japanese Manga, Marvel and D.C. comics, and also a huge collection of old hand-held electronic games like the Mattel Football. There were dozens of programmers and artists putting the last touches on their work before relaxing to an evenings entertainment of pizza, card games, and idle banter.
We played one hand of The Family, a card game where you play Mob bosses trying to eliminate your competition before they eliminate your. Pretty good, but not as fun as Kill Dr. Lucky. Kill Dr. Lucky is similar to Clue, but instead of trying to find the killer, you are trying to do the evil deed. Corner Dr. Lucky in a room without witnesses and attack him with weapons on hand. Or if no weapons are around, at least try to poke his eye out. But your opponents have their own vendettas against the poor doctor, and will try to foil your plans in order to take the honor. A humorous game to top off a pleasant evening.
It’s been a year since I moved to New York and I have to say I’m really enjoying it here. Not owning a car and being able to walk everywhere is the best aspect. I walk to my favorite pizza spot, I walk to Chelsea Market for fresh fruit and vegetables, to Doma Cafe in the village, to Murray’s Cheese Shop for my weekly cheese fix, and a relaxing stroll along Hudson gazing out at the water and back at the city is a genuine pleasure. Growing up in Los Angeles where any interesting restaurant is at least 45 minutes drive is a long way from Manhattan! New York is a great city to explore with such rich treasures of my favorite things: food, art, architecture, people, and computers. Okay, maybe Berkeley had more computers, but four out of five is not bad at all.
Now it’s time to prepare for the coming school year. No longer worrying about summer camps, it’s time to start orchestrating after-school courses instead. But looking back on the past year I can say things have worked out well. Moving to a new city is never easy but I’m slowly meeting new people and building up customers who seem to enjoy the services I provide. Indeed I had the pleasure this week of a phone call from a former pupil in Berkeley, still in middle school, who called to update me on his new website building endeavors and the HTML course he will be taking. It is so satisfying to hear from old students and to hear that they are keeping the spirit.
The Maryland Lunar Repair Yard course was a big success. My six students were 10 years old and I was a little concerned that they would not take well to the intensive schedule I planned – six hours a day for two weeks. In fact they were so enthusiastic that they pleaded to skip breaks and cut lunch short to work on their projects. All in all, we had two big projects where each person or pair of people wrote a little game or animation. At the end of the course I was honored to receive a t-shirt that they had made for me and signed by everyone. One of them even asked if I could continue sending him assignments so he could continue working on games. Now that’s motivation: asking for homework.
Copyright © 2005 Stratolab
