Episode 172 - Biomed eSports

Overview Today is a different episode. I’m not talking to an author, this has to do with video games. Though it’s not focused on video game storytelling as I’ve had in the past. It is related. I am talking with the coaches for the BioMed Science Academy eSports team. BioMed is a local alternative STEM school and they are one of over 200 schools in Ohio with eSports teams. This is important, because it shows the rise of videogames and how our culture is changing with that. Video games are still growing and there will be more future for today’s kids to be in the video game industry – as storytellers or other. If you are a teacher or school administrator – this is a good episode to help introduce you to eSports. If you are a parent, there’s a lot in here that you may not realize. I hope to do more episodes that deal with video games and video game storytelling. Website https://www.biomedscienceacademy.org/ YouTube Transcription Stephen: Great. Okay. So today on Discover Wordsmiths, a very exciting conversation for me. If anyone’s been following along on this podcast, I’ve had several interviews with some people in the video game industry where we talked about storytelling in video games. And today I’m continuing that with a couple of teachers at a local school, Biomed STEM Academy, which I’m very excited to talk to because they have an e sports team, one of the few in the area. So welcome Eric and Alexis. How are you guys doing? Eric: I’m doing wonderful. How Stephen: are you doing today? I’m I’m really doing great. I’ve been excited. I went to Blossom last night. So I went to bed late, but then all I could think about was talking to you guys. So if I yawn, I apologize. You’re not boring. It’s you know, body picking up. Before we start delving into this to inform parents and students or whatever tell us a little bit about biomed and what biomed is. Eric: So we’re at biomed science Academy and biomed is a STEM plus M school. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. But we also have a medical pathway as well at our school. And what we do is instead of just teaching math, I will teach math in terms of different science and technology and engineering and even some of the health pathway. So the math that you see not only goes with the state’s standards, but I’ll also give those applications in the STEM field. And that’s not just me, but the entire school that that’s part of our mission and vision. Stephen: And my kids, after they went there, what I described that people is instead of just sitting down for a history class, where they tell you the Panama Canal was built at this time, they say, Go do a research on it and build us a working canal that you can move levers and adjust it and then tell us how it affected the economy in the area. And I’m like, Oh, my God, that tells you so much more than just it was built in this time. You know, about biomed. I remember the table of elements. You know, when I was in school, it’s like, okay, memorize the table of elements. As much as you could. Who cares? Nobody, you can look it up. So who cares if you memorized it? But you guys put them in groups. Because that’s important working in groups in the world and companies. And you said, okay, this is your one or two research. These tell us everything you, you can find out about it and give a report. And I guarantee those kids reme