28.April.2012
   The Flash - Rocklin High School - Rocklin Students Partner with Akwaaba

This past week, the Akwaaba Foundation’s Denny and Laura Daetz briefed Rocklin High Graphic Communications students on an upcoming real-world application of learning opportunity. The foundation, makers of the classroom computer program Simplicon, has enlisted 29(list below) of Rocklin High’s very own to create icons for the game.

In exchange for their work, students will be given service hours and letters of recommendation. With the project, which is expected to last into the beginning of next year, students will save the foundation almost $15,000 -an invaluable amount to a non-profit like Akwaaba.

Game creator and foundation co-founder and president Denny Daetz, long time teacher of 40 years in Saratoga,CA and Los Gatos,CA , originally created Simplicon for his own personal use, because “kids have no idea what other people in the world live like... [or what it takes] to be part of a world.”

The game focuses on classes creating a “sustainable world”, each student or group of students being in charge of one nation.

At first, student’s used paper and pencils and all of the student’s interactions with their resources and world was monitored by a teacher. Then, with the help of student’s parents fluent in computer programming he developed a model for the Apple II+ and Apple IIe computers.

Speaking of the game Daetz says, “Kids love it, I’ve had tears. They get so involved in it.”

The most beautiful thing being that the success of a country, “depends on the kids, not resources.”

Now with the enlistment of a few programmers from Columbia University, Daetz hopes to create a version of the game that will be able to run on all operating systems around the world. In that way, RHS student’s work “becomes [a] standard.”

That is where RHS students step in, creating over 125 icons for the game. Students will have the opportunity to completely conceptualize icons from scratch as well as digitize icons that the foundation has been permitted to use by the Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs(a branch of the U.N.) and the World Bank. After the game has been redesigned and coded, Daetz hopes to distribute it even further around the world. His goal is to have schools around the world be able to compare countries’ and worlds’ decisions and their relative successes and failures to maximize the benefits of all students.

Students Involved:

Kristin Meadows, Project Lead Nate
Vesosa, Project Lead
Hayden Cook, Project Lead
Victoria Adame
Aubrey Butte
Jade Casey
Lindsey Erl
Vance Gregg
Evan Gustafson
Adrianne Harvey
Jason Palmer
Angie Tran
Leslie Turner
Kinamo Williams
Brennan Flentage
Marshall Hoffman
Alexandra Hogan
Riley Hughes
Amanda Lauderman
Jake Leppek
Sam Harned
Felipe Lopez
Austin March
Alexander Rakeman
Katie Root
Ariana Salazar
Angelica Smith Fabela
Rebecca Stanley
Elizabeta Beezman