Pixel Science: Weekly Science Project Idea and Home Science Activity Spotlight

In this week's spotlight: a video and computer games project and family activity that lets you investigate how the number of pixels used to create a video game object determines how it will look in the game. If you compare older games to new ones, you probably see a big difference in how the characters look today. Which look better? Do you know why? The number of pixels used in creating the images has a lot to do with the differences you see. In this family science activity, you can get create your own video game characters and experiment to see how much detail an image has (and how it looks) at 8 pixels, 16, 32, or even more. What happens as you increase the pixels? Put it to the test with your own graph-paper drawings!

• The Pixel Puzzle: Why Video Game Characters Look Better Today (full Science Buddies Project Idea)
• Seeing Science: Why Do Video Game Characters Look Better Now? (science activity at Scientific American)