Nintendo Labo Coming to US Classrooms

Nintendo has announced a new partnership with the non-profit Institute of Play that will see it bring the Nintendo Labo to schools across the United States.

More specifically, the new initiative will mean that Labo currriculums will be integrated around 100 US classrooms throughout the remainder of the year.

The Labo courses will be exclusive to second, third, and fourth graders, so if you’re in Kindergarten and you’re reading this, sorry, but you’re not getting any free Labos.

The Labo specific courses will see 2-4 students building a variety of different Labo products and projects in small teams. According to the initiative, doing this will help the students build basic concepts of STEAM, as well as help them to learn how to communicate, critical think, and problem solve.

Registrations for the program are currently open via Institute of Play’s website, so if you’re a teacher who really wants a Labo for yourself (and your students), head over to the Institute of Play’s official website.

With the program only coming to 100 classrooms, obviously not everyone who registers will be selected. However, those that are chosen, won’t just get a bunch of Nintendo Labos dropped of at their door, they will also receive a companion teacher guide developed by professional curriculum creators with the help of Nintendo and Institute of Play.

Nintendo also revealed the the aforementioned curriculum will be made available, to everyone, for free, sometime later this year.

According to the Institute of Play, it will be selecting a diverse group of classrooms across the country and from all different types of areas, from urban to rural. It also notes that it may prioritize schools that have already set up a STEAM education.

As you may know, the Nintendo Labo shipped earlier this year, and despite considerable excitement in the build-up to its launch, it was a pretty massive commercial flop, and we really haven’t heard much about it since. While there was palpable excitement upon its reveal, that excitement quickly evaporated after the initial wave of curious adopters.

That said, if there is one way to bring Nintendo Labo back to life, it’s by getting it into the hands of more kids, who were always the prime target audience to begin with.

Source: GamesIndustry