Valve opens 'Steam for Schools' education initiative

Valve has opened a "Steam for Schools" initiative, offering a special educators version of Steam that includes Portal 2 and the Portal 2 Puzzle Maker, along with various lesson plans for science, technology, engineering, and math.

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Valve has opened a new "Steam for Schools" initiative, offering a specially-designed and free version of Steam to educators. It's kicking off the new program with "Teach with Portals," a free version of Portal 2 and the Portal 2 Puzzle Maker offered through SoS to teach kids about science, technology, engineering, and math. And who better to show kids a passion for science than GLaDOS?

The official site (via Joystiq) details the program, which is now in beta. It makes educators the administrators of the limited version of Steam, so they can oversee their kids learning about physics and math using the game and tools.

It already hosts a number of lesson plans for physics and math, including ones on spatial visualization, parabolas, gravity, terminal velocity, and conservation of momentum, among others. The site hints that eventually it will host lesson plans at chemistry, game design, and language arts.

The FAQs detail how to apply. If you're an educator, you'll need to provide contact information for your supervisor and the organization, the subject, the number of computers, and the number of students. After that, your kids can learn about physics while GLaDOS complains about being a potato.

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  • reply
    June 20, 2012 11:00 AM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Valve opens 'Steam for Schools' education initiative.

    Valve has opened a "Steam for Schools" initiative, offering a special educators version of Steam that includes Portal 2 and the Portal 2 Puzzle Maker, along with various lesson plans for science, technology, engineering, and math.

    • reply
      June 20, 2012 12:46 PM

      Is this US only?

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        June 20, 2012 2:35 PM

        The request form seems to list out every country in the world, so...

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      June 20, 2012 2:31 PM

      This is fucking brilliant.

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      June 20, 2012 2:36 PM

      God damn brilliant!

      "Mom! They got Steam at school! Can I get on it at home?"

      "At school? It must be educational. Of course son."

    • reply
      June 20, 2012 2:46 PM

      Am I missing something here? Iin the video they are talking about and working with the Hammer Map editor which is the Map/ BSP tool, not the PeTI.

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        June 20, 2012 4:10 PM

        It's an old video from last year.

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          June 20, 2012 4:13 PM

          Yea, this was an idea that Newell was talking about last year, but with all they've done with Portal and the new map editor makes it much much easier for a non-gamer to make such tools, and ergo now they have a whole part-and-parcel offer.

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      June 20, 2012 4:53 PM

      why is every shacknews article a repost of something i've already read in the chatty?

      • reply
        June 20, 2012 5:47 PM

        'cause you don't have to write a formal article with pictures and backlinks when you find something!

    • reply
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