How About Swapping That Science Book for a Nintendo Switch? | News & Opinion

Okay, not quite. But Nintendo will deliver Nintendo Labo: Variety Kits and Switch systems to elementary classrooms nationwide, with the goal of reaching 2,000 students this school year.

Nintendo is giving elementary school students across the country the opportunity to tinker and game while learning the basics of science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics.

The company plans to deliver Nintendo Labo: Variety Kits and Switch systems to elementary classrooms nationwide, with the goal of reaching around 2,000 students ages 8 to 11 this school year. Nintendo is teaming up on this effort with the New York City-based education nonprofit Institute of Play, which is helping to build an accompanying curriculum that combines cardboard engineering with gaming and STEM education.

The Labo Variety Kit, which earned a rare “outstanding” rating in PCMag’s review and our Editors’ Choice Award, is essentially a craft set and Switch video game. It’s based around Toy-Cons—cardboard toys and mechanisms kids can build and use with the Switch to play video games.

“It’s a marvel of incredibly clever cardboard engineering, and can be a stepping stone for your kid’s future in STEM,” PCMag Senior Analyst Will Greenwald wrote.

Nintendo and the Institute of Play plan to develop a Nintendo Labo Teacher Guide, complete with sample lesson plans and basic STEM learning modules, to help educators bring this tool into their classrooms. The guide will be available for free later this fall.

For now, the Institute of Play is piloting this idea with schools in the greater New York area. In November, the program will expand to approximately 100 US schools. Teacher can apply here.

Nintendo also launched a similar program in Canada with the STEM outreach organization Actua.

“We hope our programs in the United States and Canada encourage kids to explore, tinker, problem-solve and, in the process, get excited about design and technology—all while having fun,” Nintendo of America President and COO Reggie Fils-Aime said in a statement.