Newsela Article #1 - "Teen Girl Winners of Google Contest"

The sentence below from the section "Games Contain Positive Messages" helps prove the claim that Dakota wanted to make a game about creation instead of destruction.

Dakota noticed that "many games center around destruction and tearing things down." She asked herself, "What if I made a game about building things up and rebirth?" Which sentence from the section provides further support for the claim?

• Another finalist, 14-year-old Dakota from Encino, California, created "EcoVerse."

• It is a series of mini-games in which you are meant to clean, plant, and bring animal life to planets as part of a Galactic Restoration Team.

• "Few activities can compete with the excitement of designing a game; it encourages you to blend logic and creativity into a device with the missions of helping people have fun.

• Center your game around something that excites you--the more passionate you are about your idea, the more successfully your game will ignite that interest in others.

Read the paragraph from the section "Bringing Awareness To National STEAM Day."

"As an aspiring artist in the gaming industry, I don't want to repeat this cycle of gender-based pandering in the future," she said. Her goal instead was to create a challenge that could be enjoyed by any gender.

What conclusion is BEST supported by the paragraph above?

• Christina wants to focus on making games that girls would want to play.

• Christina believes there is nothing she can do about gender-based pandering.

• Christina dislikes games that are clearly geared toward only boys or only girls.

• Christina fears that games of the future will ignore the things girls like to do.

One of the central ideas is that Google launched the Change The Game Design Challenge contest to encourage more women to make mobile apps.

How does the author introduce this central idea?

• by highlighting statistics that show only one-fourth of mobile games are designed by women despite the fact that half of the mobile game users are women

• by describing the different games designed by the five finalists and listing the prizes that they won at the contest

• by interviewing the five finalists and illustrating the reasons why they wanted to enter the contest and share their games

• by explaining that the winning games will be available for purchase on November 8 so they could be linked to National STEAM Day

Which statement would be MOST important to include in a summary of the article?

• The grand-prize winner of the Change The Game Design Challenge will get a $10,000 college scholarship, and her school will receive some technology.

• National STEAM Day was created to encourage students to get interested in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math.

• Google will be flying the five finalists from their contest to a conference in Los Angeles, and all of them will receive a free tablet.

• The five finalists for the Change The Game Design Challenge created games about adventure, puzzles, music, art and helping the planet.

Which synonym could best replace the word "distinction" in the following sentence:

Grand-prize winner Christina, age 17, detected a clear distinction between games made for girls and games made for boys.

• sameness

• destruction

• differentiation

• unimportance

Which words could replace prodigy in the following sentence? Check all that apply.

Through practice and love of craft, Erin says, "anyone can become their own self-made prodigy."

• genius

• sensation

• regularity

• wizard

Which one sentence is NOT punctuated correctly?

• It's an effort to get kids interested in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math.

• To help build their respective games, the finalists worked in partnership with the Girls Make Games' development studio LearnDistrict.

• Last spring, Google launched the Change The Game Design Challenge contest.

• They also had access to a team of artists programmers and producers.

What is something that is bringing you joy during this challenging time?