A new collaboration is bringing video games to the classroom, all to get kids involved in their local government. NY1's Lindsay Tuchman filed the following report.
Middle schoolers at the Staten Island School for Civic Leadership might be playing a computer game at school, but at the same time, they're also learning about government.
"I hated social studies, so this game sort of showed how interesting it can be, just with a little more fun with it,” 7th grader Rida Shah said.
It's all part of a program called iCivics, which provides online educational games to promote civic engagement.
"It teaches you about the problems a community has and where you can go to solve the problem,” 7th grader Sana Nadim said.
Borough President James Oddo announced a partnership Wednesday with iCivics, to bring the games into all Staten Island schools.
He hopes it will address what he said is a lack of understanding about government works.
Social studies teacher Michael Parise said the game is a good start to fixing the problem.
"For me, the primary goal is to excite them, to motivate them, to give them a touch-point possibly when they're not in school,” he said. “But the ultimate goal when I think it, is if you want civic engagement, they have to get off the screen."
Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor founded iCivics back in 2009, but according to Oddo, it's even more imperative now after the 2016 election.
"2016 was the election of anger, what I didn't see was a proportional increase in people becoming informed,” he said.
The program works by highlighting even the most minor issues.
"I think it's important to know about this because in the future if you have any problems you will know where to go,” Nadim said. “We're all a community, we're all a part of the government, we're citizens, we're part of the government so we should all know about the problems and where to go and stuff."
Staten Island teachers will be trained on the program in June. It will be introduced in social studies classes by next school year.