NYC's public gaming school enters first semester, teaching with 'Troggles'

by Ben Gilbert { Sep 17th 2009 at 5:00PM }

The first semester of New York City's Quest to Learn began last week on the 9th, with an inaugural class of around 75 sixth graders in NYC's Chelsea neighborhood taking classes that employ games (of all types) in learning. "One thing I want to emphasize: this is not a school about just playing video games ... this is a school that uses the system of games to deliver rich discussion," the school's principal, Aaron Schwartz, told Joystiq over the phone this morning. "We use games as a medium here." Education at Quest to Learn is delivered through a variety of means other than games, though game systems are a focus for teaching the specific subset of student that Q2L targets: "digital kids."

We pressed him on exactly how the students will be using games like LittleBigPlanet to assist with education. "Right now, one of our classes called 'The Way Things Work' [math/science] is using clips from LittleBigPlanet to introduce this race called the 'Troggles' who are having problems with how things work," he said. " Our kids are studying simple machines, so the Troggles have reached out to our children for help building their machines." As the semester progresses, students will build on their knowledge by creating something a bit more complex -- a Rube Goldberg machine. "Some of them will be doing it in actuality, some may be doing it virtually, and from there they'll use LBP to understand other concepts."

Quest to Learn plans on adding one new grade annually (up to 12) and is currently hiring teachers for next year.

Tags: aaron-schwartz, education, littlebigplanet, new-york-city, quest-to-learn, rube-goldberg, school

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Lemonsqueeze @ Sep 17th 2009 5:04PM

Damn...

[ArchiGamer] @ Sep 17th 2009 5:08PM

I'm happy about this.

Any positive outlook on games is a good thing for us gamers.

Shadsy @ Sep 17th 2009 5:13PM

Old news: thanks to the Munchers games, we always knew the Troggles couldn't do anything right.

yincrash @ Sep 17th 2009 5:12PM

what they should include is every tlc and mecc game. both companies made excellent learning games which would still be fun today.

Haohmaru (PSN - DimmuBurgerKing XBL - A Real Puppet ) @ Sep 17th 2009 5:13PM

Troggles? http://www.flickr.com/photos/unalaska/268288663/ ???

TRON.dll @ Sep 17th 2009 5:19PM

Troggle Trouble Math.

The game where the Troggles kidnap the Muncher and you have to help a dog save him by doing math problems.

Yes.

Shadsy @ Sep 17th 2009 5:49PM

For the longest time I thought I was the only one who ever played that game, EVER. Thank you.

S. Tiger @ Sep 17th 2009 6:44PM

Isn't there some sort of copyright infringement being done by this school now?

TRON.dll @ Sep 17th 2009 7:01PM

Troggle Trouble Math was the standard for educational kids games in the 90's.

There is no such thing as an educational kid's game today. Kids games today are either "Answer the question! NOW DO IT AGAIN!" or ridiculously stupid to the point where it actually does the exact opposite of teaching you things by actually killing brain cel..

Oh, look, Pooyoos.

TRON.dll @ Sep 17th 2009 7:02PM

Type to Learn, Hot Dog Stand, A to Zap, Troggle Trouble Math, Odell Down Under.

Best educational games ever. No contest.

Ben Gilbert @ Sep 17th 2009 7:26PM

Alternate headline: "The Trouble with Troggles: NYCs public gaming school enters first semester"

Also, Number/Word Munchers were totally boss. I hear good things about Math Blaster as well. I was big into Mavis Beacon Typing. Oh, and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? on my 486 was a lot of fun (and geographically educational!).

TRON.dll @ Sep 17th 2009 10:28PM

@Ben Gilbert

Type to Learn > Mavis Beacon

And I know Mavis Beacon has a pinball machine hidden in it.

However, most of my 1990's computer gaming consisted of Descent and Descent 2. Those games were, still are, and will always be freaking awesome.

daytripper @ Sep 17th 2009 10:31PM

Oregon Trail FTW!

spikeylee @ Sep 17th 2009 5:22PM

LittleBigPlanet as a learning tool?

Wow, we've come a long way from only having Number Munchers and Oregon Trail in the classroom!

j.howlett @ Sep 17th 2009 6:14PM

i'm honestly a little jealous

BleachMan! @ Sep 17th 2009 6:15PM

Math Blaster will always be the greatest educational video game of all time

TRON.dll @ Sep 17th 2009 7:04PM

I remember playing math blaster. It was freaking boring. The activities in it were so forced into the storyline that it just felt like a standard quiz game.

Then again, I haven't played Math Blaster since 1998. My opinion is likely invalid.

razer922 @ Sep 17th 2009 7:34PM

I FUCKING LOVE NUMBER MUNCHERS! I wish there was a browser-based version. If there is I'm going to spend the next five hours playing it.

JeezWhiz87 @ Sep 18th 2009 6:26AM

I want to take Little Big Pre-Calculus. I don't see how this can apply much further than middle school, but neat concept anyway.

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