This July, Woodrow Wilson HistoryQuest Fellows gathered in Princeton for the HistoryQuest summer institute. Facilitated by the Institute of Play, the week-long professional development program focuses on designing and implementing game-based learning in U.S. history classrooms. Fellows came from across five different states—Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

Fellows created their own games, and, after testing the games on peers and students at the Lawrenceville School, refined them throughout the week.

Tia DePalma, a veteran teacher from Connecticut, said the opportunity to attend the expense-paid institute was phenomenal. “This is the best professional development I have ever been to,” she said. “They’re not just teaching me something new, we’re doing it. We’re living what they preach, and you can’t get better PD than that.”

She says her eighth-grade students can sometimes be hard to please. But, she thinks, the tools she’s taking home from HistoryQuest will help keep her students engaged:

“It’s not just fun and games, it is with purpose, with meaning. And I think they’ll love it.”

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