News of the Mythos Challenge!

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An Oregon Connected Learning Challenge in STEAM

This newsletter is for youth, youth council members, parents, educators, community partners, endorsers, and advocates who have asked for information on the Mythos Challenge.

Partner News

Oregon Game Project Challenge

On Saturday April 18th, the Mythos Youth Council spoke to teams at the 8th Annual Oregon Game Project Challenge to invite their submissions.

The OGPC's theme, "What makes a hero," was designed to encourage youth to participate in the Mythos Challenge's theme of Gods and Heroes. Jarren Jennings and Lucy Hernandez received a strong round of applause and many questions. We are excited by the many coaches who said their teams will be entering our challenge. Thank you OGPC for inviting us, and congratulations to this year's award winners.

Girls Leading in STEM

In April, the Girls Scouts of Oregon and SW Washington hosted their "Girls Engage Technology" workshop. It was a full house, and on May 2nd, girls will be showing off their creations at the Girl Scouts' Micro STEM Camp.

May 3rd also brings ChickTech's workshop in STEAM with Alice: Digital Storytelling, and we hope to offer more workshops in May. We'll have news soon about Girls, Inc. and a potential Twine workshop or PlayTest event for entrants of the Mythos Challenge. See the Workshop Calendar below for details!

Challenge Entries Due May 15th

The Mythos Challenge is in full swing with workshops, videos, and online toolkits. We are quickly approaching the entry submission date of May 15, and we need your voice supporting youth and educator engagement.

1st, please share the Mythos Challenge's facebook page.
2nd, please re-tweet and link yout tweets to @MythosChallenge.

We'd like you to share news of upcoming partner workshops, and May 1 to 14, alerts that entries are due May 15th to this link.

New Challenge Resources

The Portland Art Museum's website for the Mythos Challenge is live. They have a growing set of resources with online toolkits. Highlights include:

Video of google hangout workshops with experts
Materials on Mythos from around the world.
Game Prompts made by the Mythos Youth Counselors.
Best Loved Books
Tutorials for game making with Twine and Scratch

Workshops

Alice: Digital Storytelling with ChickTech

Sunday May 3rd, 1-5pm
Portland State University
1930 SW 4th Avenue, Computer Lab Room #325
Portland, OR 97201
Free. Register here

ChickTech is excited to provide an opportunity for you to create your own digital story or interactive game using Alice - an intuitive drag and drop programming environment that allows for endless possibilities! It's easy to learn and fun for all ages. We've seen everything from witches with spinning heads to man-eating cakes, to a dance-off with a baby yeti. Join us to unleash the possibilities and create a digital story or interactive game to enter into the Mythos Challenge.

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Saturday Academy: Girls Engage Technology with the Girl Scouts

Saturday May 17th, 1-5pm
Girl Scout Portland Service Center
9620 SW Barbur Blvd.,Portland, OR 97219
Free, Register here

Create a digital story with characters, sound and motion while learning computer programming basics! Animate images of your pet or your favorite mythical creature. Fulfill some of the requirements for the Girl Scout Junior Entertainment Technology badge. You can even enter your project into The Mythos Challenge and be entered to win up to $5,000 worth of prizes!

Community Events

Twine Workshop with PIGSquad

Saturday April 25, Noon to 7pm
From 2-7pm is a Game Jam to create games.

Concordia University
2811 NE Holman St, Portland, Oregon 97211

RSVP here

Twine is an empowering, easy-to-use software that allows anyone to become a game maker. Join us in a workshop by community friend Yori Kvitchko, where we'll learn about this interactive fiction tool to make a Twine game starting with zero experience, exploring interactive storytelling, HTML, and basic programming and logic. <ore advanced topics upon request. Sky's the limit!

Meeti in the Concordia University Library, room GRW 203 (Building 19 on this map â€“ parking on Liberty Street is free).

E-mail Will at PIGSquad at gmail if you would like to use one of our laptops. We encourage all attendees to bring their personal computers due to limited supply.

Design Workshop with PIGSquad & Pixel Arts (for Council Members Only)

Sunday April 26th, 6-8pm
Happy Brain Science
1319 SE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd #206
Portland, OR 97214

Learn creative innovation with design. We'll create a symbol, logo, or image for the Mythos Challenge. Mythos Council members, please RSVP for the design workshop. You need an invitation to register; if you cannot find your email, please let Jeffrey know.

Big Dream Screening at Portland Art Museum

Tuesday, April 28th, 5:30-7:30 pm
Portland Art Museum - Whitsell Auditorium
1219 SW Park Ave, Portland, OR 97205

Everyone encouraged to arrive no later than 5:15 p.m. in order to locate seats and get comfortable. RSVP by emailing Karin Malborough at Girls, Inc.

The documentary showcases the personal stories of seven young women who are breaking barriers and overcoming challenges to follow their passion in science, math, computing, and engineering. From small town Iowa to the bustling streets of the Middle East, Big Dream immerses viewers in a world designed by and for the next generation of girls. http://www.bigdreammovement.com/

Girls and Women in STEM will be present following the screening for a panel to discuss what excites them about STEM and how they are realizing their Big Dreams!

Girl Scout STEM Micro Day Camp

Saturday May 2nd, 1-4pm
Girl Scout Portland Service Center
9620 SW Barbur Blvd., Portland, OR 97219
RSVP Here

The Girl Scout STEM Micro camp offers workshops for girls from 9:00am-12noon that will give girls will have an in-depth experience with a wide variety of fields including: chemistry, zoology, and engineering. The afternoon activities resume at 1pm with a STEM expo for girls to explore dynamic hands-on STEM activities with Scratch programming, math puzzles, and simple engineering offered by OMSI, The Gardner School, Saturday Academy, and Chick Tech. The main event of the day will be Lego Robotics competition. Girl Scout Lego teams will compete head to head to simulate a regulation competition. The judges for the competition will be local women who have successful STEM related careers.

Free On-site Parking and 1 block from the Barbur Transit Center

Extend Your Community Visibility

Are you interested in being listed on our website under Experts in Your Area? We're looking for local professionals with expertise in coding, storytelling, game building, music, mythology, digital art production or more. We'll post the contact information you provide (email and/or phone number) so that when youth run into a bug, need advice on animation, or have a question, they know that there are a community of mentors around them who are willing to help.

To add your name to this page, email phillippa.pitts@pam.org.