New School Model
Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Board of Directors
Paul Meegan – President of LucasArts
Bill Nye – Bill Nye the Science Guy, President, The Planetary Society
Mike Diamond – Former Exec. Vice Provost, USC. Prof. at the Marshall School of Business
Li Trung – Director of The Third Teacher, Architect, Cannon Design.
Adam Fletcher – Attorney at Law. Irell & Manella LLP
(Additional Board members are unannounced)

I. Overview

Disengagement is widespread in American schools, while games, Internet, film, and social medias are engaging these same students in extraordinary numbers.

Planned for the fall of 2012, GameDesk will launch a lab-school whose mission is to serve as a flagship school and community hub from which 21st century skills, technology, content, and teaching culture will be built, implemented, and scaled for nationwide adoption. The school will uniquely enable advances in the research and use of game-based learning, embodiment, simulation and immersion, web and social media, hands-on tinkering, and media creation as engaging pedagogical tools to support deep STEM conceptual learning, higher order thinking, and art and engineering design. Ultimately serving grades 6-12, the lab-school will enroll at least 50% low-income and minority youth.

The project will involve in-house software game and simulation development, curriculum materials, and an aggregation project to integrate 3rd party tools and existing effective 21st century curriculum into implementation-ready modules.

II. Methodologies and Practice

The school’s making and play curriculum will be designed for high-engagement, long-duration, and hands-on experiences. Our unique approach offers students an opportunity to develop a relationship with the content, to understand its meaning and utility in a way that goes far beyond passing a test.

The project will also embrace a discovery model of instruction where experience and experimentation drive the completion of creative projects. Students will gain confidence and ownership over STEM content by actuating their own ideas both individually and collaboratively. Associated skills and content will have clear and apparent links to life, career, and post-secondary pathways. The aim of our approach will be to holistically develop each student’s identity as an individual, reflective learner, and creator/engineer for their generation.