Products & Materials

STEM fields are constantly innovating with new computational tools to represent data about our natural world. Educational games in schools are already a success. Building Systems from Scratch goes a step further, working from the premise that when students build their own games, they construct knowledge at the same time.

With Building Systems from Scratch, 8^th grade students design and build games to teach others about climate change. Three modules engage them with climate science, systems, game design principles, and computational thinking.

Students:

• participate in jigsaw learning to conduct independent research on climate science
• use principles of game design to design their educational games 
• learn Scratch, an MIT-developed visual programming language
• program their games collaboratively
• engage in critique sessions that are art studio-inspired to deepen knowledge and improve game design.