HARLEM — Not too long ago, all professors Stan Altman and Brian Schwartz knew about video games was that students loved them. Today they’re using games to help kids develop skills for the real world.
The duo works with the Harlem Gallery of Science, a nonprofit encouraging students to pursue career paths in science, technology, engineering and math, as well as to help them develop social and emotional skills.
Altman and Schwartz were looking for ways to attract more students of color to STEM programs and wondered if video games, which were popular with their students, held some sort of key. They conducted a study and found an unexpected motivation. Altman noticed that “young people play games to develop skills and in fact, they develop exactly the skills that we in universities talk about young people needing for the 21st century.” The group set out to spread the word to other educators.
HGS put together the traveling exhibition, Video Games: The Great Connector to demonstrate how kids use games to build connections in themselves, their communities and ultimately to their future. It uses video games, activities and art stations to illustrate concepts. The pop-up was a hit, attracting thousands of students, teachers and parents in its first several weeks. Now the exhibition is on tour at area schools.
Project manager Matthew Lopez is proof the program works. An alum himself, he appreciates how games can help kids grow from a social perspective. He points to the drawing station: “You sit down, you draw a (video game) character that you like and talk about why you like them. But that has a lot of power to it. Especially for kids living in the South Bronx, in Harlem, in New York City in general, where we come from so many diverse backgrounds.”
Lopez sees the connections forming in real-time when students “start drawing the characters that they see themselves as. Not only because they’re cool, but because, ‘Hey like, this person looks like me’ or ‘This person speaks the language I speak’ or ‘This person has shared experiences that I feel like I connect with very deeply.'”
Schools or educations interested in hosting the exhibit can find more info at the Harlem Gallery of Science site.
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