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Participants learned how to modify games to achieve a desired goal, how to test play to determine its effectiveness and how to help students think more critically by designing and playing games. As an exercise, workshop participants were separated into groups and asked to modify the classic game of musical chairs. To make the design process more challenging, each group was given a specific constraint that had to be incorporated into the game. One group had to use an element of trading; another had to make the game collaborative. “We are so accustomed to being masters of our curriculum that it was a little uncomfortable to be struggling with a child’s game,” said Marie May, a 7th and 8th grade math teacher from Ardsley Union Free School District. “But it was good for us because that’s what our students experience.” The Institute of Play creates learning experiences rooted in the principles of game design — experiences that simulate real world problems and require dynamic, well-rounded solutions. Its goal is to help teachers make learning irresistible.
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