A Minneapolis STEM school wants to bring esports into its physical education curriculum, and it hopes a nationwide contest will provide a boost.
Hall STEM Academy, a STEM-based elementary school with a predominantly African American student body, is one of 12 finalists for a nationwide furniture giveaway.
To enter the contest, teachers and school librarians around the nation submitted floorplans for their dream classrooms or libraries using KI Furniture’s Classroom Planner Tool. If Hall STEM Academy is one of four winners of the giveaway, the school will receive $40,000 worth of furniture from KI to furnish a dream classroom.
Hall STEM Academy’s classroom would bring esports into physical education. Though esports may not usually be a part of a physical education curriculum, physical education teacher Rachel Stewart, along with two other Hall staff members – a social and emotional life (SEL) specialist and a technology specialist — have designed a curriculum where physical exercise is enhanced with teamwork and problem solving skills students can develop via gaming.
“Esports is a different kind of sport, but it’s one of the fastest-growing sports,” said Stewart, explaining that in the curriculum, “if we were doing soccer, we would actually do the physical thing, learn about soccer (and) the mechanics of it. Then we would talk about the gaming aspect, creating soccer programs (and) games with kids. Then the SEL teacher would come in and talk about all of the social and emotional pieces around (gaming) – how to work as a team, how to be a leader, how to encourage one another.”
The value of making esports part of the physical education curriculum, said Stewart, is that it “levels the playing field” for children with physical disabilities at Hall, along with children who are not adept at physical activity, while teaching digital and interpersonal skills.
“If I was grading, I wouldn’t discriminate (based on the task being done virtually or in the real world). If you’re playing, participating and giving your best, whether it’s in a gaming program or on the soccer field, a win is a win.”
Though the curriculum is associated with esports, the classroom can be utilized for students in various ways, with spaces available for giving a presentation or having a discussion with other students, along with easels for note-taking.This is in keeping with Hall’s focus on inquiry-based learning, where students learn through hands-on projects.
“(At) the beginning of our (academic) quarters, kids come up with different questions (about) solving a problem in the world,” explained Stewart, adding that the opportunity to solve these problems provides a focus for each grade level to do different projects, such as building trash- collecting machines or models of these machines if they’re working on the problem of litter on the streets.
Three teaching positions at Hall were lost as a result of budget cuts, Stewart said, leaving the school to choose between offering art, music or technology classes. While an arrangement was made allowing fifth grade instrumental music to be taught — in Hall’s case, by an instructor who rotates between two other schools in the district — the school still has no art program, which was a difficult decision to make, Stewart said. However, investing in technology, such as through the esports classroom, may be able to help fill that gap.
“When you look at the direction that the world is going right now, we think it was the best decision (to invest in technology courses over a formal art program) because our kids are on devices all day, so why not provide them with more instruction to use the devices where they’re not just texting all day? Gaming is gaming, but gaming is also learning so many skills – learning to react and learning to problem solve,” Stewart said. “We realized technology was another way to give (our students) art. If we’re teaching our kids how to do it digitally, which is the way everything is happening now, we can kind of build art into that.”
The winning school for the furniture giveaway will be chosen via online voting, which ends at 11:59 p.m. on Nov. 17. Those interested can go here to vote and view other classroom plans across the nation.
