"
Valve recently launched a free initiative called
Teach With Portals that aims to help teachers use the game
Portal 2 (click
here
for a review) to engage students in learning STEM and critical
thinking. By converting its level-building software, Hammer Editor, into
a much easier to use interface called Puzzle Maker, Valve has made it
possible for anyone to design challenging Portal rooms. The Teach With
Portals website also offers community-submitted lesson plans (
here’s
an example of a harmonic oscillator) that utilize the game and align
with national STEM standards so teachers can directly incorporate them
into their curriculum. Teachers can sign up for the ‘
Steam for Schools‘ beta program, which offers a limited version of the popular
Steam gaming platform that hosts the free version of
Portal 2 and the Puzzle Maker.
The inspiration for Teach With Portals came in part from a project
called Learn With Portals, in which seventh graders from Evergreen
School in Washington who were working on a spatial reasoning project
visited Valve last year. From the video, it’s clear what an eye opening
experience it was for the Valve staff to see students’ interest and
creativity sparked by their game"
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