If you were a K–12 student in the 1980s or 1990s, playing a video game at school likely makes you think of only one thing: “The Oregon Trail.” The side-scrolling game, a combination of choose-your-adventure story and survival challenge, was invented in 1971 by three student teachers to educate students on westward expansion.
It found its place in the classroom, with some companies even bundling it with their computers. While the game was frustrating — “You have died of dysentery” was a common outcome — many former students credit it with sparking a love of video games, among other things.
Each Tuesday is EducationTuesday here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts about educators and all things STEM. Adafruit supports our educators and loves to spread the good word about educational STEM innovations!
Make a robot friend with Adafruit’s CRICKIT – A Creative Robotics & Interactive Construction Kit. It’s an add-on to our popular Circuit Playground Express, FEATHER and other platforms to make and program robots with CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. Start controlling motors, servos, solenoids. You also get signal pins, capacitive touch sensors, a NeoPixel driver and amplified speaker output. It complements & extends your boards so you can still use all the goodies on the microcontroller, now you have a robotics playground as well.
Each Tuesday is EducationTuesday here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts about educators and all things STEM. Adafruit supports our educators and loves to spread the good word about educational STEM innovations!