U Colorado Boulder Hosts Game Design Institute for STEM Teachers
A group of about 100 K-12 teachers has finished a week-long summer institute, dubbed
Scalable Game
Design, at the University of Colorado Boulder designed to help them use game design to
teach computer science.
The group of STEM and language arts teachers also learned about teaching computational, critical thinking and problem solving literacy
through activities such as student demonstrations of video games made with fruit, Play-Doh and USB cables.
Funded by the National Science Foundation and Google CS4HS, the institute provides free training to accepted teachers from the United States at beginner, intermediate
and advanced levels.
"This is where the future is headed," said Torrey Thomas, business and computer teacher at Rangeview High School, in a prepared statement.
"Everything deals with technology. There will be a big shortage of (qualified employees). We need to get kids involved a younger age."
Thomas said that game design is a painless way to get students interested in computer science concepts. "They just love games and playing
video games," he said. "They don't look at it as school work."
More information about the Scalable Game Design summer institute is available at
colorado.edu.
About the Author
Joshua Bolkan is contributing editor for Campus Technology, THE Journal and STEAM Universe. He can be reached at [email protected].