The Summer Game Begins Friday

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 11:29am by aadl staff

Get ready for the summer's best game! Our Summer Game officially begins this Friday, June 13.

Sign up to play; it is truly an all-ages program. Participants collect points by reading books, watching movies, visiting the library, and attending events. Points can then be redeemed for cool prizes.

We will also be hosting a kick-off party at TOP on Sunday, June 15, 7 pm at Rackham Stage with The Dirty Sock Funtime Band.

Books & Other Fun Stuff that AADL Staff Promoted During our Annual K-12 School Visits!

Fri, 06/06/2014 - 2:49pm by erin

If during May and June your child or teen came home from school pumped up about the Summer Game and talked about the many books, programs, events and unusual stuff at the library they were lucky enough to see one of the lively presentations our staff do annually. Each May and early June staff visit elementary, middle and high schools to promote the summer game, summer programs and the unusual variety of stuff that we check out at the library! Please find the complete lists of ALL of the books, music tools, science tools and MORE our staff shared during their school visits.

Kayla visited Bryant, Allen, Mitchell, Bach and Carpenter - find her Grade K-2 List and her Grade 3-5 List.

Laura visited Northside, Wines, Hebrew Day School, Burns Park and Dicken - find her Grade K-2 list and her Grade 3-5 list.

Amanda went to Logan, St. Paul Lutheran, King, St. Thomas Catholic and Thurston - find her Grade K-2 list and her Grade 3-5 list.

Mariah visited E. Washtenaw Multicultural Academy, Lakewood, Open and Pattengill. Find her Grade K-2 list and her Grade 3-5 list.

Rachel visited Haisley, Abbot, MI Islamic Academy and Eberwhite. Find her Grade K-1 list, her Grade 2-3 list and her Grade 4-5 list.

Lastly, Erin visited Tappan, Forsythe, Scarlett, Community and St. Thomas Catholic. Find her Grades 6-12 list.

Calling All Teen Volunteers!!

Thu, 05/29/2014 - 1:18pm by sherlonya

Are you a teenager 14-18 years old looking to volunteer over the summer? If so, we have some opportunities for you.

You'll have a chance to help with select summer programs, help us get craft supplies ready for events, and/or package Summer Game orders.

Get started by filling out our online application. Your next step is to attend one of our orientations. It's at the orientation where you can sign up for your volunteer shifts.

June 18, 10:00-10:30 Downtown Board Room
June 19, 4:00-4:30 Pittsfield Program Room
June 24, 4:00-4:30 Traverwood Program Room
June 26, 9:00-9:30 Malletts Creek Program Room
July 2, 10:00-10:30 Downtown Board Room
July 7, 4:00-4:30 Malletts Creek Program Room
July 16, 9:00-9:30 Pittsfield Program Room
July 24, 11:00-11:30 Traverwood Program Room

If you've been waiting for your chance to help out at the library, we can't wait to see you!

What is THE SUMMER GAME?

Fri, 05/23/2014 - 10:15am

AADL's breakthrough SUMMER GAME is the best way to have fun, explore your town, and keep busy ALL SUMMER LONG! Solve puzzles, earn points, and get useful stuff from the SUMMER GAME SHOP! SUMMER GAME 2018 starts Friday, June 15, and runs through Friday, August 31! The Summer Game Shop opens Friday, July 20. Stay tuned to PLAY.AADL.ORG for full details, and don't miss the hottest game in town!

Are you missing the Summer Game? Here are two ways to help!

Fri, 12/06/2013 - 2:11pm by eli

GREETINGS PLAYERS! Can you believe it's December? Winter is here, which means we are almost halfway to SUMMER and the exciting return of AADL's SUMMER GAME! Here at Summer Game HQ, we've got a lot of new things in the hopper, including the still-simmering and long-awaited launch of DOWNLOAD QUEST, coming in January to tide you over until June! But in the meantime, we've got 2 great ways you can fill that SUMMER GAME SHAPED VOID in your lives by helping make Summer Game -- and badging in general -- better!

First, we're working this semester with some University of Michigan Ross School of Business Undergrads from the BOND Consulting Club on a real economic model for the Summer Game to help us make some sense of this crazy planned economy we've concocted! One of the things the BOND team is looking for is some hard data on how much time players spend on different summer game actions. So, if you've got 5 minutes, please help us out by taking this survey:

BOND Summer Game Time Survey

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE! As you might know, Badging is HOT HOT HOT in education right now. There's lots of attention and desire to understand why people like badges so much! So, a local researcher is doing a study on Badges and is looking for participants. If you're jonesing for more badgey goodness, this might be just the ticket! To find out more and get involved, check out this blog post at BadgeBox for more details. The deadline to get involved with the survey is December 16th, and you'll need permission from your adults if you're not one.

Hopefully that will tide you over a bit! Stay tuned for DOWNLOAD QUEST coming at last in January, and hang in there... SUMMER GAME 2014 is only SIX MORE MONTHS away!

THANKS FOR PLAYING!

SUMMER GAME 2013: Game Over!

Sat, 08/31/2013 - 12:46am by eli

TIME IS UP PLAYERS! Summer Game has been turned off for 2013 and will be back on June 13th, 2014.

The SUMMER GAME SHOP will stay open for orders through SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 15th, and any unused Summer Game points will roll over to next Summer's Summet Game Shop. Orders will be held for you until OCTOBER 11, 2013, after which they'll be returned to stock if not picked up.

If you have any questions, comments, or need any help transferring points or last-minute mishaps, just contact us and we'll get you set.

For now, Team Summer Game is going to take a little break, then stay tuned for some new features for Points-o-matic, and keep checking http://play.aadl.org for the upcoming off-season game DOWNLOAD QUEST!

To all our amazing players, with all our hearts....

THANKS FOR PLAYING!

THE FINAL COUNTDOWN! New Badges, and the return of the SUPREME SUMMER GAME MASTER SET!

Fri, 08/30/2013 - 6:59pm by eli

It's the LAST DAY OF SUMMER! Well, the last weekday, anyway. And the equinox is still a few weeks away. BUT STILL! SUMMER GAME 2013 ends tonight at midnight, when we uncheck one tiny little box, and ALL FUN DISAPPEARS FROM THE EARTH UNTIL JUNE 2014! Maybe we're just too close to it at the moment. BUT REGARDLESS! Summer Game 2013 has been AMAZING, with 56 MILLION points earned, 50,000 badges awarded, and an astounding 194,000 redemptions of over 800 different Game Codes!

And while it all ends tonight at midnight, the Summer Game Shop will stay open through Sunday, September 15, for you to spend your points. And don't worry; if you don't spend them all, they'll still be right there in your account next year when the Summer Game begins again... on FRIDAY, JUNE 13, 2014... and that's only 287 days away!

But for now, here's your final BADGE DROP of SUMMER GAME 2013!

Let us also direct your attention to the Super Packages Section of the Summer Game Shop, where this year's FINAL PACKAGES have FINALLY BEEN ADDED!



And that's it for this year's badges... an even 200! You've got just a few hours left, until Midnight tonight, to earn those last few points; then stay tuned over the next few weeks for our new off-season games and your chance to help shape SUMMER GAME 2014!



Happy trails, players, and as always......



THANKS FOR PLAYING!

BE A MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE (or at least Summer Game)!

Fri, 08/30/2013 - 1:34pm by mariah

Summer Gamers! We're getting close to the end of the 2013 game. Close, but not quite done yet. You'll have until MIDNIGHT tonight to wrap things up, enter in any more read/watch/listen points, and yes... the EARN MORE BADGES!



We'll have a wrap-up post later today, but wanted to give all of you die-hard players a heads-up that we now have the MASTER BADGES up and running (and on the Badge Page). Yessir (or ma'am!), as before, if you've completed EVERY badge in a particular series, you'll automatically be dubbed a MASTER and awarded a badge befitting your mastery!



So if you're close to scoring a particular master badge, get in there and earn those remaining badges! By this evening you could be a LEGENDARY MASTER, a WILD KINGDOM MASTER, even a SQUEE! MASTER!



When ELSE will you be able to claim such FANTASTIC titles?!?



Get to it, help each other out, and see how MASTERFUL you can really be!

1 WEEK TO GO! But still time for NEW BADGES and NEW SHOP ITEMS!

Fri, 08/23/2013 - 7:38pm by eli

OH MY WONDERS! There's only one week left in SUMMER GAME 2013! But that doesn't mean that we're out of ideas here at Summer Game Central... in fact, we've got a great crop of new badges, and even FIVE TOTALLY NEW SHOP ITEMS! These are all limited quantity, so please share nicely with other players:







Would you just LOOK at that new stuff? And if you're waiting for the big reveal of our final packages.... just a little longer! They'll all be posted next week so hang in there! And know that all 5 of these new items can be found spread across the final packages... in case you were wondering.



So, without further ado, here are your FINAL PUZZLE BADGES of the summer! There will be a badge drop next friday, but it will consist only of MASTER BADGES for each series, so if you're missing any badges, better earn them by next Friday!

Remember, SUMMER GAME 2013 ends at MIDNIGHT on FRIDAY AUGUST 30th! Then, you'll have until SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 15th to place your orders before the shop closes. So, make these waning days of summer count, and as always....



THANKS FOR PLAYING!

Winners of the 8th Annual LEGO contest! Congrats to all of them!

Mon, 08/19/2013 - 3:59pm by erin

Once again our annual LEGO contest was hotly anticipated and the entries were bigger and better! All ages from Preschoolers through Adults participated in the event. There were a total of 188 entries and the contest was held on Thursday, August 8 at the Kensington Court Hotel. There were six age categories and winners were chosen within each age group. The top three finishers and the People's Choice winners received custom LEGO trophies. The top three finishers also got medals and gift cards to Target. Please congratulate the winners! Photos of the winning entries will be added to this post on to our gallery soon.To see the contest guidelines and start planning for next summer click here.

Preschool Winners:

1st Place - Lucas Long
Runner-Up - Iris Brabbs
Honorable Mention - Steve Samuel
People's Choice - Lucas Long

Best Motorized Project - Vicky Kotsis
Best Architectural/Engineering Project - Becca Van Lent
Coolest Robot = Sanchia Gupta
Best Vehicle - Scarlett Williams
Most Creative - Eliza Farr
Most Sophisticated - Sarra El-Tawil
Best Local Interest - Kevin Chen
AADL LEGO Master Builder - Owen TenBroeck

Grades K-2

1st Place - Brendan Khuu
Runner-Up - Milo Varnum
Honorable Mention - Elizabeth Finnegan
People's Choice - Milo Varnum

Best Motorized Project - Dominic Nazario
Best Architectural/Engineering Project - Emma Khuu
Coolest Robot - Yotam Chopra
Best Vehicle - Yoyun Kim
Most Creative - Jake Williams
Most Sophisticated - Hanna Nilman
Best Local Interest - Catherine Van Lent
AADL LEGO Master Builder - McKenna Ge

Grades 3-5

1st Place - Eliot Varnum
Runner-Up - Betsy Nieman
Honorable Mention - Piper Favors
People's Choice - Eliot Varnum

Best Motorized Project - Brian Khuu
Best Architectural/Engineering Project - Koen Van Nieuwstadt
Coolest Robot - Noah Nieman
Best Vehicle - Jarrett Tseng
Most Creative - Max Mients
Most Sophisticated - Lily Papp
Super Effective Award - Mason Bleed
AADL LEGO Master Builder - Keegan Globke

Grades 6-8

1st Place - Beatrix Dergis
Runner-Up - Casimir Mankowski
Honorable Mention - Bach Nguyen
People's Choice - Casimir Mankowski

Best Motorized Project - Matt Rupp
Best Architectural/Engineering Project - Derek Mrachko
Coolest Robot - Manish & Ashish Venumuddula
Best Vehicle - Hamza Khan
Most Creative - Alexis Boyer
Most Sophisticated - Ryan Sauer
Best Vending Machine - Bilal Ahmed
Best Use of Tactical Nuclear Weapons - Jeffrey Brooks-Conrad
Best Irreverent Treatment of Star Wars - Joey Nieman
AADL LEGO Master Builder - Alex Szumko

Grades 9-12

1st Place - Zachary Petersen
Runner-Up - Matthew Ramillard
Honorable Mention - Aliahna Porter
People's Choice - Pete Johnson

Best Motorized Project - Alex Wochna
Best Architectural/Engineering Project - Ethan Golombisky
Coolest Robot - Justin Forester
Best Vehicle - Tommy Cohn
Most Creative - Pete Johnson
Most Sophisticated - Alez Siple
AADL LEGO Master Builder - Matt Karls

Adults

1st Place - Virginia Falk
Runner-Up - Nieka Appel & Ken Varnum
Honorable Mention - Peter TenBroeck
People's Choice - Peter TenBroeck

Best Motorized Project - Logan Benton
Best Architectural/Engineering Project - Peter Alway
Coolest Robot - David Papp
Best Vehicle - Paul Bierdz
Most Creative - Amy Remillard
Most Sophisticated - Meenu Garg
AADL LEGO Master Builder - Mike Bleed