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Can designing games about real-world issues teach students empathy, systems thinking, and design thinking? After organizing a series of game jams around serious social issues—immigration, climate change, future cities—the answer was an overwhelming yes. A game jam is a gathering of people—youth, adults, professional game developers, or really anyone—to design and prototype one or more games in a short time span. The model is similar to that of a hackathon, where participants have a limited amount of time to work on a project using an iterative design process. Game jams can help increase social engagement, community building, new economies, motivate and inspire design, experimentation, and innovation. This allows students anywhere to learn basic game development skills (coding, art and design, storytelling, in combination with communication, collaboration, and planning), all infused with STEAM skills. Included with be a curriculum guide that includes over 20 unique lessons and activities developed by digital learning organizations in the HIVE NYC network, as well as the free Global Game Jam NEXT (GGJ NEXT) curriculum, a global game jam form kids age 12-17. These lessons can be used individually, to inspire new curricular tools, or for game jam events.

Session Resource Link: http://MatthewFarber.com