Play Passion Purpose

Play is taken seriously motivates learning

Recently Grenaa Gymnasium hosted af conference on how to integrate play with teaching in order to facilitate for learning the motivation for examining, practicing and interacting with others that is inherent in play. Approximately 35 teachers from different schools participated.

The event was the closure of the three year long project Play Passion Purpose headed by science teachers Claus Løvgren Madsen og Kasper Severinsen at Grenaa Gymnasium. The project was funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation and a concrete outcome is the mini-exploratorium that is the base for the school’s extra-curricular Science Club.
Claus Løvgren Madsen and Kasper Severinsen gave brief talks about the theoretical ideas of the project which was followed by the main talk by associate professor at Aarhus University Marc Malmdorf Andersen. One of his points was that play thrives within the so called Goldilock zone between to little and to much challenge, and to this Claus and Kasper could immediately testify from their own efforts with the students in the Science Club.

Read more about Play Passion Purpose at Grenaa Gymnasium

In Theory and in Practice

The theoretical talks were followed by practical workshops exemplifying play integrated with teaching. Biology teacher Anne Brolin Gade from Egaa Gymnasium demonstrated her “cell race” that combines play and exercise.
Claus Løvgren Madsen demonstrated another concrete outcome of the Play Passion Purpose project, the digital learning platform Study Bubble that among other things allows students to grind basic knowledge at their own pace.
Kasper Severinsen demonstrated Shadows which is a computer game designed for learning. The basic plot is to answer school subject related questions in order to gain strength to beat monsters that threathens the world. The game is funded by EU’s Erasmus + and is being developed in cooperation with game developers in Cologne and schools in Croatia and the Azores. There the game was tested much to the delight of the students and resentment of the monsters. Systematic test runs are planned to take place next spring.