Playing video games at school and leveling up doing home work is something which seems highly unrealistic but as it turns out a school in New York is actually considering this as new way of teaching kids. The Quest to Learn school, a 6-12th grade school, which opened a few months ago in Manhattan, welcomed their first class of sixth-graders who will learn almost entirely through videogame-inspired activities, an educational strategy geared to keep kids engaged and prepare them for high-tech careers.
According to the school’s website, the Curriculum is divided into five courses — The Way Things Work(math/science), Being, Space and Place(social studies), Codeworlds(math/ELA), and Wellness(health/PE/Nutrition), as well as a media literacy/design course called Sports for the Mind. It also involves a special unit, cleverly titled “The Boss level” where students are given a challenge the whole school works on together to solve, drawing on the knowledge and resources generated during previous missions(challenge-based units)
The plan is for this class to attend Quest through high school, adding more sixth-graders every year. Although students must pass the annual standardized tests that all public students do.
So if you want your kid to become the next Miyamoto or Hideo Kojima you now know where to send him.
More information can be found on the school’s website.
