Can Kids Love Math and Science More than Ice Cream?

Posted by Lili Cheng
General Manager, Future Social Experiences (FUSE) Labs, Microsoft

As part of our broad efforts to improve science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education and inspire the world’s next innovators, Microsoft today launched a new product that opens young minds to STEM while providing students with a fun way to build a whole range of skills that will be useful regardless of their chosen career path.

Kodu Game Lab is a free PC application that enables kids as young as five to create new worlds and video games without any programming expertise. It builds real-world skills by encouraging kids to analyze a problem and develop a solution by using drag-and-drop icons to create a video game with landscapes, players and their own characteristics, actions and rules.

In addition to today’s launch of the Kodu Game Lab, we launched the U.S. Kodu Cup, a competition for students around the United States to submit their Kodu games. We’re also releasing a classroom kit for teachers to easily implement Kodu into their curricula. Hopefully, Kodu can play a role in helping children learn and encouraging more children to become future video game designers, engineers or scientists.

Recently there’s been a lot of discussion in the U.S. around the importance of igniting students’ interest in STEM.

Read more on Microsoft's On the Issues Blog.

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