Engaging all teens in their academic, social, and emotional growth with meaningful and compelling interactive experiences
EDUCATOR RESOURCES
Educators can spark teens’ interest and support their sense of agency and ownership in the classroom and beyond by speaking the language of games and offering students the opportunity to experiment and play meaningfully within the systems game offer. We know that games can’t and won’t replace educators — educators build the connections and design the supportive and engaging learning environments that help students thrive.
We invite educators to use our Educator Hub to build their knowledge and skills for using games and design thinking to foster teens’ learning in formal and informal learning settings. Here educators can gather resources to support their journey to integrating games and game design into their practice. Our Curated Games Catalog can be used to support teens’ academic, social, and emotional growth.
Our resources — created in partnership with educators who are leaders in game-based learning — include articles, game recommendations, and teaching and design tips. We also are in the process of piloting rich game-based curricular units and teen design camps that target core academic, social, and emotional skills. We are here to support educators in forging connections within a vibrant community of practice to accompany the journey into meaningful game-based learning to encourage teen thriving.
Read about our game-based curriculum, Museum of Me, designed to support high school students’ social and emotional learning and core English and media literacy skills
WHERE TO START
Video games are rich, immersive, engaging, and motivating — and they’re where teens spend a lot of their time. Browse these highlights for an overview of how educators can recruit teens’ interest and support their agency and ownership over learning by opening the door for meaningful play.
iTHRIVE'S EDUCATOR RESOURCES: USING GAMES TO ENGAGE THE WHOLE TEEN
Take a tour of iThrive’s educator resources, including Educator’s Guides and our Curated Games Catalog. Read more.
PUTTING IT IN CONTEXT: USING COMMERCIAL VIDEO GAMES IN EDUCATION
How one educator makes commercial games part of their teaching approach. Read more.
Video games can boost empathy: PROSOCIAL OUTCOMES
Video games can uniquely model and prompt empathy when players are willing & able to reflect on what they encounter. Read more.
TOOLS
iThrive’s educator tools support teachers in choosing meaningful games for the classroom and highlight how those games facilitate teens’ social and emotional growth. Learn more about social and emotional skills and browse our Curated Games Catalog and Educator’s Guides here.
Curated Games Catalog
A list of commercially available games & their potential applications in the classroom
Using a Commercial Game in the Classroom
A pamphlet featuring best practices for using games in educational settings.
Ten Things to Know When Designing for Teens
A printable handout on using the science of adolescence to create better spaces for teens.
Educator’s Guide: What Remains of Edith Finch
A downloadable, printable 1-page guide to using the rich narrative game, What Remains of Edith Finch, to teach literacy and social and emotional skills in high school.
ARTICLES
iThrive and our educator partners explore how games open up new opportunities for teens’ positive development and provide expert tips for teaching with games in this article series.
iThrive's Resources for Educators: Using Games to Engage the Whole Teen
iThrive Games, founded in 2014, is a nonprofit committed to providing meaningful growth experiences for teens, both in and outside of the classroom. Through our education initiatives, launched in 2017, we strive to empower educators to integrate game-based learning in...
Game-Based Learning in the Classroom: 3 Essential Questions
Because games teach in ways that are unique, they bring many interesting affordances to the classroom. Games give learners a chance to immerse themselves in new information, apply that information in problem solving, and take new perspectives. They offer exposure to...
Meaningfully and Realistically Using Games in the Classroom
Practical barriers can keep the most enthusiastic teacher from using games in the classroom. Let’s get real — and realistic — about ways to approach game-based learning for the classroom. Teachers are busy, and usually spend much of a given school day completing work...
Putting It in Context: Using Commercial Video Games in Education
Editor’s note: As teens head back to school, we're putting the focus on how one inventive and passionate educator makes commercial video games (as well as games of his own invention) a vibrant part of his teaching approach. Paul Darvasi teaches high school English at...
Video Games: A Safe Place to Wonder
"Games are driven by a curiosity over what’s in the next level, what’s in the next chest, or who the next boss will be.” - Mark Filipowich Note: This article is part of a series that captures game industry experts’ opinions on game titles and mechanics that might...
I Haven’t Leveled Up…Yet: Growth Mindset in Video Games (Part 2)
Note: This article is part of a series that captures game industry experts’ opinions on game titles and mechanics that might boost players’ positive habits, mindsets, and skills. These insights arose from discussions at an iThrive-sponsored think tank with game...
MEDIA GALLERY
Browse photos from iThrive’s educator events.
Games for Change Student Challenge
Teens playtest each other’s creations at the iThrive-sponsored and -led Games for Change Student Challenge on Empathy & Kindness in Los Angeles, CA, March 17, 2018. Photo credit: iThrive Games, Annenberg Foundation, 9 Dots
Game Design Studio NMSU
Teens in Game Design Studio at the Learning Games Lab in New Mexico (2018) respond to the prompt, “Something adults get wrong about teenagers…” to inspire game concepts that can change the environments that affect teens. Photo Credit: Amanda Armstrong, New Mexico State University Learning Games Lab.
Game Design Studio NMSU
Teens in Game Design Studio at the Learning Games Lab in New Mexico (2018) play games to become critical analyzers of how games change us. Photo Credit: Amanda Armstrong, New Mexico State University Learning Games Lab.
Game Design Studio NMSU
Teens in Game Design Studio at the Learning Games Lab in New Mexico (2018) describe the changes they want their games to make in their own and other teens’ lives. Photo Credit: Amanda Armstrong, New Mexico State University Learning Games Lab.
Game Design Studio NMSU
Teens in Game Design Studio at the Learning Games Lab in New Mexico (2018) meet with real game design professionals to refine their game concepts. Photo Credit: Amanda Armstrong, New Mexico State University Learning Games Lab.
iThrive Education Hive
(From left) Dr. Karen Schrier, Aleksander Husoy, and Paul Darvasi devise a strategy for teaching teens social and emotional skills using meaningful, story-driven video games at the May 2018 iThrive Ed Hive. Photo credit: Kelli Dunlap, iThrive Games.
Students at iThrive’s Game Design Studio
Teens in iThrive’s Game Design Studio at the Boys and Girls Club of Fitchburg and Leominster, MA analyze game mechanics in well-known board games like Candy Land to determine how the mechanics make players feel. Photo Credit: iThrive Games, Boys and Girls Club of Fitchburg and Leominster.
