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While playing with Nintendo Labo at our office, the Institute of Play team immediately felt all of our seven game-like learning principles coming to life. As we collaborated to construct a fishing rod out of cardboard, our eyes all lit up as we reeled in the cardboard fishing rod to catch fish on the Nintendo Switch’s digital screen. It was immediately apparent how Nintendo Labo could support students in developing 21st century skills, such as collaboration, communication, and problem solving; and through the use of Toy-Con Garage, a basic programming interface within Labo, students could build basic computational skills. We saw how well Nintendo Labo would work within a science. technology, engineering. art, and math (STEAM) curriculum and we were excited to partner with Nintendo to run the Nintendo Labo Classroom Program, a program that introduces Nintendo Labo to classrooms nationwide!

After running Pilot workshops with Nintendo Labo in 2nd-4th grade classrooms in 12 schools in the New York tri-state area, we launched The Nintendo Classroom Program, which will bring Nintendo Labo to 100 2nd-4th grade classrooms across the country. The program equips teachers with the materials they need and provides a Teacher’s Guide with lesson plans, classroom management tools, and other tips to support them in incorporating Nintendo Labo into their curriculum. There are three modes of interaction within the Nintendo Labo experience: Make, Play and Discover that students will be able to explore. The hands-on Nintendo Labo kits combine physical and digital play experiences for a series of projects that support STEAM outcomes by fostering creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and problem solving.

The Nintendo Labo Classroom Program will be running through the end of March 2019. We’ll be collecting feedback from teachers and students along the way. We’re already receiving notes from thrilled teachers and students who are beyond excited to be playing around with the Nintendo Labo kits at school and we can’t wait to hear more as the program continues. Visit the Nintendo Labo Classroom website for more information on the Program.

If you or someone you know is interested in partnering with Institute of Play to create a new classroom program, please contact us at info@instituteofplay.org.

The following blog post is based on an interview with HistoryQuest graduate and mentor, Melissa Pivonka. Pivonka is a history teacher at Marlborough High School in Marlborough, Massachusetts. HistoryQuest is a professional development fellowship conducted in collaboration with the Woodrow Wilson Foundation that offers middle and high school American history teachers in CT, MA, NJ, NYC, and PA the opportunity to use the power of games and play to transform teacher practice and student engagement. Participation in the fellowship is by nomination only. For more information, visit https://woodrow.org/fellowships/historyquest/.

Photo Source: https://woodrow.org/news/perspectives/ww-historyquest-fellows-bring-game-based-learning-to-massachusetts-classrooms/

I was initially introduced to HistoryQuest (HQ) from my supervisor, who wanted to know if I’d be interested in learning more about bringing game-based learning into the classroom. I was thrilled to learn about the program and jumped at the opportunity to apply.

After being selected as a fellow, what I loved the most about the program is that while all participants are U.S. History teachers, the focus of our work is pedagogy; how to best make history fun, engaging and relevant for students regardless of which topic you are discussing. HistoryQuest also gave our group a scaffolded experience to learn about how to change our thinking about lesson planning and educated us on how to slowly bring games and activities into the classroom.

As a HistoryQuest fellow, the biggest take away for me was that incorporating games and game-like learning into my classroom would include changing the way I think about and approach planning, teaching, and assessing. I had always used the backwards design model, but this takes it to a whole new level that really challenges me and pushes me to be creative and find new ways to infuse this new style of learning and assessment into the course content. I found that over the course of the school year, this way of thinking became second nature, and it became much easier to think of ways to utilize what I had learned from IoP at the HQ institute. Many of the introductory games we played as fellows are games and activities that I used with my students to give them an introduction to game-based learning. They loved it, and by the end of the year, students were creating their own games this past school year!

I had students write reflections on their own games, and they kept saying that this was the most fun they'd had in school, and how much fun it was to be the game designer. Students made review games, modified games, and even built their own escape rooms in my classroom! The focus with the students was on building a learning game that could infuse the course content into the fun of the game. They also loved a Shark Tank activity, where they were able to playtest each other’s games. They told me the highlight of the game design was having other students from other classes come in to play their games. I’ve noticed a huge improvement in student engagement and participation. Their reading and writing skills have improved, and they have become more confident in their skills as well. The concept of game-based or game-like learning allows you to naturally infuse many historical thinking skills and academic skills into lessons and units. I have seen a tremendous amount of growth in engagement, enthusiasm, accountability, and academic performance in my classroom since incorporating IoP's ideas into my classroom. Even though I completed the fellowship last year, I decided to return to HistoryQuest in July as a mentor to the new cohort because I saw how powerful this type of teaching, learning, and assessment can be. I saw the way my students became more engaged in the content and how much fun history became for them. They loved taking on roles, solving problems, and coming up with their own games. HistoryQuest helped me see how this type of learning is helpful for all types of learners. I was very excited to share what I had learned and help a new cohort see just how incredible games and game-like learning can be. As a mentor this summer I learned so much and I found that HistoryQuest constantly challenges me and amazes me with the new ideas people have. I hope that as other teachers participate in the program in the future, they will learn that although it takes a lot of planning, games and game-like learning isn’t difficult to incorporate into the History/Social Studies curriculum; it is immensely rewarding for both students and teachers. This past year, I was challenged as a teacher, but my students reaped the benefits of those challenges, which made them excited about learning in my classroom.

Last year, Institute of Play kicked off its newest fellowship program, MathQuest. Funded by General Motors, MathQuest works with math teachers over the course of a year to develop and implement engaging curriculum that focuses on game-based learning and design thinking. In its first year, Institute of Play worked with about 40 teachers in the New York Tri-State Area. Now in the second year of the program, MathQuest has expanded to include educators in the Greater Austin Area.

Already established as a hub of live music, art, culture, and tech, Austin, Texas is ideally suited for MathQuest, and we were incredibly excited to work with educators in that area. After consulting the Austin Independent School District, we decided that a one-week summer intensive program would be the best way to work with the most teachers, with a follow-up workshop scheduled for early 2019. From June 18-22, we traveled to Austin to work with our first Austin cohort. Take a look inside MathQuest: Austin to learn more about the program!

One of the most powerful moments of our programs is when teachers are able to playtest their newly-created learning games on actual students. Here, MathQuest Fellows Mara Bernal and Carol Dala (Magellan International School) roll out their learning game to a group of playtesters. Afterward, they will have the students give them feedback on the game to answer.