PlayMaker School

Organization: GameDesk
Role: Curriculum development, game design
Period: 2011–2013

Students sit around an activity projected onto the classroom floor while other students move across it. — PlayMaker's classroom, with an activity projected onto the floor.

The PlayMaker School (2012-2014) was an innovative school model embedded within the New Roads School in Santa Monica, CA. Funded in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, it was a reinvention of the traditional school model with a focus on play, creation, authentic assessment, and project-based learning. I was a significant contributor to the school’s design, curriculum, and operations.

A dark learning space with screens around the room and an image projected onto the floor. — Interactive floor projection activity at the PlayMaker School.

Students and adults at tables in a bright classroom with writing on the walls. — Inside the PlayMaker classroom.

Students gathered around tablets during a classroom activity. — Students working with tablets.

Students seated around classroom tables, facing an adult at the whiteboard. — A classroom discussion.

A group posing behind tables covered with construction toys and models. — A team photo in the GameDesk office.

Selected Press Coverage

A School Day That's All About Play KQED's MindShift
Schools Ditch The Classroom To Put Play Back In Education Fast Company
Gamedesk's "Classroom of the Future." Why is it so hard to reinvent K-12 education? Pando Daily · Archived article
California school integrates play with learning PBS NewsHour