Video games are serious educational tools at one Chelsea public school. NY1's Shazia Khan was recently on hand when a leading game designer showed students the math and science behind video games.

When students design and play video games in Quest To Learn, a sixth through 12th grade public school in Chelsea, they are doing so in the name of math and science.

"It’s a great experience, being able to design something, thinking it through in your head and see it being played," says student William Smith.

Game designer and educator Katie Salen helped launch Quest To Learn in 2009, and she recently returned to the school to hold a special workshop.

"I love the idea of kids being able to see what’s underneath the things that they are really engaged in, which tend to be games," says Salen.

The school emphasizes game-based learning.

"We just found that play becomes a really interesting space for kids to be creative and for kids to really be empowered around making things that they can then put in the world that other people can use," says Salen.

Now, Salen is a featured leader of a new initiative called SPARK. NY1's parent company, Time Warner Cable, together with PopTech, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to inspiring the next generation of innovators, recently kicked off the new campaign in an effort to spark an interest in more young people to pursue science, technology engineering and math, or "STEM" education.

"This year we decided to tap into our network of thought leaders and social innovators and bring them back into the youth community," says PopTech youth program coordinator Jennifer Feeney.

For the Quest To Learn students, teaching math and science though gaming puts learning in a whole new playing field.

"It’s important to make science and math fun, because we use it for everything," says student Tigerlily Ross. "Especially math is tied into everything -- it's tied into dancing, it's tied into cooking, it's tied into your life."

For more information on SPARK and other programs designed to inspire kids to engage in STEM education, visit www.connectamillionminds.com
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