How are video games made?

Watch this penny pyramid being built. It’s made of more than a million coins! (It’s worth over $10,000!) What other shapes can you build with coins?

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Look at these tower shapes! Notice how careful these builders are being. Their towers fell down thousands of times before they got this good! Challenge: Try to make coin stacking into a game!

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It takes steady hands to balance dominoes. You might accidentally knock them all down—or if you have a pet, they might do it instead! How could you test if your pet is careful around dominoes?

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If you have a pet, try out their skills at this game! Or try it yourself! You don’t need to have dominoes—you can balance any small objects to walk in between!

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Don’t touch the lasers! Have you ever seen a laser maze in a movie? You don’t need lasers to sneak like a spy. How could you create your own “laser maze” with objects you have at home?

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These people are zigzagging through laser mazes made of string. You don’t even need tape! Just wrap string around doorknobs, chair legs, and tables, and let the challenge begin!

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Imagine that you had a bunch of cones or poles like these and lots of space to move around. What games could you play? Could you make up your own game? Use your imagination.

Athletes zigzag around poles and cones to win competitions! Set up bottles or stuffed animals in rows to try it out! Can you quickly walk around them? The more you practice, the faster you’ll be!

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These look like ordinary cups. But could they also be instruments? How many sounds can you make with a plastic cup? If you have one nearby, give it a try!

Here’s one way to do it! When you use your imagination, ordinary objects can turn into extraordinary music. Kids and even college students make these beats—Harvard even has a cup music club!

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We pulled three questions from our jar. Which question do you want to explore?

Are any animals picky eaters?

-Evan, 4th Grade
Could a baseball pitcher throw faster than the wind?

-Colin, 2nd Grade
Why do some animals sleep during the day?

-Eliana, Kindergarten

Mini-lessons

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How are video games made?

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