Institute of Play

The Institute supported innovative public, private and charter school design projects for over 10 years. Its first success was the design of the New York City public middle and high school “Quest to Learn,” which opened in 2009.

Quest to Learn emphasized “situated learning” where students were asked to take on the identities and behaviors of designers, inventors, writers, historians, mathematicians, and scientists in contexts that are real or meaningful to them.

Quest to Learn fulfilled all state and federal mandates for teaching, but it used the internal architecture of games—rules, components, core mechanics, goals, conflict, choice, and space—to guide the design of learning experiences. Thus, throughout the Q2L curriculum, game design was used as a learning strategy for students. The core of the school was the Mission Lab, which was an onsite game design studio staffed by designers and curriculum developers who work closely with teachers and kids to design learning activities.

The Quest to Learn approach strived to present creative and engaging learning strategies to address children’s interest in digital media and video games. The Institute of Play demonstrated that the classroom can adapt to reflect the realities of the information age without sacrificing learning.

In addition to school design, the Institute also designed training programs for educators, consults on curriculums and conducts corporate training.

The Institute shut down in 2019, but free resources are still accessible on their website.