Overview

The Toolkit activities emerged from Think Tank sessions hosted by NMSU’s Learning Games Lab team. Think Tanks sessions are designed to engage youth, from elementary to high school grades, in games and media. These sessions give youth opportunities to play games, socialize with peers, and develop digital media knowledge and skills.

The Learning Games Lab team originally offered Think Tanks to get feedback on products through user-testing. In giving youth the chance to be “Game Lab Consultants,” they needed some training in how to critically review games. Since then, the team consistently implemented play and review of games and have expanded activities over time to include design projects and activities that enhance their understanding of themselves and their peers.

The sessions have varied from day-long to two-week or week-long sessions, and have traditionally included a design project, where youth can build their digital skills, explore the kinds of change they want to make in the world, and engage in collaborative design.

The activities in this Learning Games Lab Toolkit have evolved since the first Think Tanks in 2005 through the guidance of several Games Lab coordinators, including Amanda LaTasha Armstrong, Matheus Cezarotto, Michelle Coles-Garza, Rachel Gallagher, and the lab director, Barbara Chamberlin. Additional teachers, game lab developers, interns and student volunteers have also contributed in the ongoing evolution of game lab activities and purposes.