Cohoes teacher creates video game to "level up" lesson

COHOES, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- An Earth Science teacher is using video games to get his students more excited about learning the material.

Kerry Winters has been teaching the subject for eight years, five of those at Cohoes High School. He’s “leveled up” his lesson plan using a video game building software, and somewhere between 60 and 70 hours of his own time.

“It’s funny, because it only takes them like 90 minutes to beat it,” Winters said.

Those 90 minutes are jam-packed, with the students mining for minerals and identifying them using their Earth Science Reference Table. They also have a worksheet that goes along with the game.

Creating this lesson was a labor of love for Mr. Winters. An avid gamer himself, he knew it had to involve more than just the learning material to hold the students’ attention.

“I find that the games that are most engaging for me are the ones that have interesting storylines, that you actually get invested in when you’re playing the game," Winters explained. "There’s a big plot twist that happens at the end that kind of keeps them going.”

One of his students compared it to Pokémon. There are creatures that battle against one another, and a “boss” to defeat at the end.

You could hear a pin drop while the class was playing on the computers, until we asked them what they think of Mr. Winters’ lesson.

“Playing a video game at school is not normal to kids, so I think it’s very cool. It’s different,” said student Brad Bova.

“It helps kids who might not be able to learn a certain way otherwise, learn the material,” said Nevaeh Elwell.

"I have 88 minutes of this every other day, and I really like this class," said Cohoes student Jesiah Clayton, "so that really says something about Winters.”

Winters noted that the principal at Cohoes is supportive of this stray from the traditional pen and paper lecture. He’s already thinking of more games he can make.

“The thing about Earth Science, is it’s very interdisciplinary," Winters said, "so maybe I can do an astronomy one, maybe a meteorology one that features weather.”