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Emoti-Con! Recap: Games, Robots, Hacking, eBooks, and More!
The Fifth Annual Emoti-Con! NYC Youth Digital Media and Technology Challenge was a huge success--thank you to everyone who came!
This past Saturday, June 1, over 200 people from across NYC came together for the fifth annual Emoti-Con! at the New York Public Library's Bartos Forum. It was an awesome day of creativity, innovation, inspiration, and fun!
The A-Team--a group of youth from several Hive NYC organization (including several youth from MOUSE!)--helped plan Emoti-Con! and were front and center throughout the day, introducing speakers, explaining activities, and keeping us all moving.
After lunch, the A-Team led us through a game design activity where everyone had to invent a game in just 10 minutes using a bunch of materials from bags--people designed some awesome games that involved balancing things on balloons, launching plastic dinosaurs with rubber bands, and more!
We also got to hear from three amazing keynote speakers over the course of the day:
- Teresa Lynn spoke about her experiences working on community organizing with The Point CDC and developing and starring in Michel Gondry's film The We and the I.
- Chloe Varelidi talked about her long history with games, including her work on the Athens Plaython (an awesome festival of outdoor games in Athens, Greece) and her work with the Mozilla Foundation. Learn more about Chloe here!
- Limor Fried (AKA Ladyada) shared about things she's learned as an engineer, DIY techie, and business owner, and talked about using tech skills to solve problems, create new things, and hack old technology. Check out the Adafruit website to learn more about what Limor does and get inspired!
In the afternoon, we were lucky enough to be a part of the largest Emoti-Con! project fair ever! HUGE shout out to the M.S. 328 Super Techs, the Gateway Academy Squad at P256Q, the Lewis and Clark Squad, and MOUSE Corps for presenting projects! (And thank you to the P.S. 89 Defenders of Technology for coming out to cheer them all on!)
MOUSE Squad Members presented their projects alongside youth from Iridescent, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Eyebeam Art + Technology Center, Global Kids, New York Hall of Science, Parsons Scholars, The Point CDC, REV, WNYC Radio Rookies, ReelWorks, Girls Write Now, and Institute of Play!
We're excited to announce that two MOUSE Corps groups won prizes at the end of the day! The Mixing Buddy group won Crowd Favorite and Most Innovative, and the Art Squared group won the Point of View Award! Congratulations to them and to everyone who participated!
For more on Emoti-Con!, check out the Emoti-Con! website, Flickr album, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube!
The Fifth Annual Emoti-Con! Is Coming -- Join Us on June 1!
We want to see YOU and your project at this year's Emoti-Con!
On Saturday, June 1, 2013, over 150 New York City-area youth will gather at the Bartos Forum at the Fifth Avenue Library for the fifth annual Emoti-Con! NYC Youth Digital Media and Technology Challenge. The day will include:
- a youth project fair
- a science fair-style competition for technology & digital media projects created by by youth
- awards across several categories for exceptional projects
- great professional speakers, and
- catered lunch and cool giveaways for all!
This is your chance to show off awesome projects that you've worked on this year in MOUSE Squad! Projects that are a good fit for Emoti-Con! include digital media projects (like podcasts, videos, graphic design projects), web-based projects (like websites, video games, and apps), physical computing projects (things with moving parts or blinking lights), and remixes/hacks/mashups (projects that use content that already existed in a new & exciting way).
This event is open to youth from different programs all over NYC (and particularly from Hive NYC programs), so we need your Squad to represent MOUSE!
The Essential Details:
- WHEN: Saturday, June 1. Students presenting projects arrive at 11am to set up, and audience members arrive at 11:30am.
- WHERE: The Bartos Forum at the 5th Avenue Library in Manhattan, entrance on W. 42nd Street between 5th & 6th Avenues - see a map.
- WHO: Youth in grades 6-12 are invited to present projects at Emoti-Con! Each group of presenters may have up to 2 adult chaperones. If you don't have a project to present but would like to attend, please register as "Youth Audience." If your group has more than 2 adult chaperones, additional chaperones should register as "Adult Audience." Please note that if you register as an audience member your space is not guaranteed, as priority goes to presenters. More details available on the registration page.
- SIGN UP: Register at emoticon2013.eventbrite.com. Please register as a group--talk to your MOUSE Squad Coordinator about getting signed up!
- WHAT ELSE: The day includes lunch for everyone, swag bags with fun giveaways, and roundtrip Metrocards for MOUSE Squad students!
- COORDINATORS: Please collect MOUSE photo release/waivers from all students who will be attending. Every attendee will also need to bring a signed copy of NYPL's waiver on June 1, as well.
Get Ready:
If you're planning to present a project at Emoti-Con!, you'll need to bring your project, bring anything you need to display it, and be ready to talk about it! If you're entering your project in the competition, you should also prepare a short pitch--if you're selected as a finalist, you will be presenting your project to everyone at Emoti-Con! Either way, make sure you read the "To Prepare" section of the registration page.
Last year, two groups from MOUSE won prizes! Students from the Gateway Academy Squad at P256Q took home the prize for Most Innovative, and MOUSE Corps students won Best Pitch and Crowd Favorite!
Prizes & Glory!
Five finalists will be selected from the projects in the competition, and each finalist will be awarded one of these prizes: Most Potential for Social Impact, Most Entertaining, Best Pitch, Most Innovative, and the Point of View Award. One of the finalists will also walk away with the trophy for Crowd Favorite!
So register today--we hope to see you there!
Learn more and stay in touch with Emoti-Con!:
Win Glory! Become MOUSE Squad of the Year 2013!
Tell us your story to become MOUSE Squad of the Year!
It's time to let the world know you are truly the champions of MOUSE Squad by proving yourselves in the MOUSE Squad of the Year competition! Tell us why your squad is the best in the country. Whether you crack cases, do MicroProjects or build robots we want to hear about it. Tell us a story that exemplifies why your squad is the MOUSE Squad of the Year for 2013!
Winning squads will receive a plaque honoring their school and other secret awesome prizes like a pizza party or a Best Buy gift certificate, MOUSE tee-shirts and possibly more. But don't do it for the prizes--do it for the glory.
Click here to apply for MOUSE Squad of the Year by Friday, May 31st.
Last year's winners were the two Squads from PS 43 in Queens, NY: the Codebreakers and the Nerdy Bulldogs. They fix computers, upgrade internet browsers, install printers, and much more technical work as well. Besides keeping things running, the Codebreakers even write a monthly newsletter that talks about technology interests at the school.
Check out one of their MicroProject submissions from last year here:
On the other hand, our winner for Best New MOUSE Squad last year was the The MOUSE Squad at SISCL from the Staten Island School for Civic Leadership in Staten Island, NY. This squad keeps a school of 750 students running with only two laptop carts, and they even run a community help desk!
Applications close Friday, May 31st, 2013, and winners will be announced in June. To see the full winner's post from last year click here. May the best Squad win!
