Nintendo has announced a new partnership with the Institute of Play to make their cardboard-powered Nintendo Labo kits available in schools across the United States:

Nintendo and the Institute of Play have teamed up to bring Nintendo Labo kits into elementary classrooms nationwide, combining the innovative play of Nintendo Labo with the basic principles of science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics (STEAM) to inspire kids and help make learning fun. Nintendo will provide Nintendo Labo: Variety Kits and Nintendo Switch systems to participating classrooms to reinforce skills such as communication, creativity and critical thinking. The program aims to reach approximately 2,000 students ages 8 to 11 during the 2018-2019 school year.

Nintendo Labo kits provide the tools to make DIY creations called Toy-Con, including a Fishing Rod, Piano and RC Car, among others; play games with these Toy-Con creations through a mix of physical and digital experiences; and discover how Nintendo Switch technology brings it all to life. Ever since the first two Nintendo Labo kits debuted in April, people of all ages have become amateur inventors using a mode included in the software called Toy-Con Garage. Toy-Con Garage introduces basic principles of programming, allowing anyone to use the tools and technology within each kit to develop their own imaginative creations, from fully-realized musical instruments to analog clocks and much more.

Nintendo and the Institute of Play are currently developing a Nintendo Labo Teacher Guide that will “allow other educators to implement Nintendo Labo in the classroom to promote the development of skills such as creative problem solving and collaboration.” Teachers or librarians from schools that wish to participate in the program can sign up at the Institute of Play’s website.

It’s hard to believe that two of the most-anticipated new releases of the month are a pair of cardboard construction kits from Nintendo. But here we are… the Nintendo Labo: Robot Kit and the Nintendo Labo: Variety Kit are at the top of every Switch owner’s wishlist.

When paired with the Switch’s Joy-Con Controllers, players can use the Nintendo Labo (sort for “Laboratory”) kits to build a piano, a fishing pole, an RC car, or a full-sized robot suit. A part of me still isn’t convinced that Nintendo Labo is a real product that’s really being sold by a multibillion dollar company. And yet, journalists like GamesIndustry.biz‘s Christopher Dring are convinced that Nintendo Labo’s greatest contribution to the gaming community will be in the classroom (or the library):

Labo is a series of games, and accompanying cardboard products, which work with the Nintendo Switch and its Joy-Con controllers. You can create a motorbike out of cardboard and use it to race in a game. Or a fishing rod to go fishing, or a RC car to judder and move across a flat surface. Or even a small piano. You can decorate these cardboard creations as you want, too. Hence the felt tip pens and bits of ribbon strewn throughout the room.

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The game we played contains a wealth of features, accessories and hidden modes that suggest there is a lot of enjoyment to be had. The most impressive of which might just be the game’s more ‘hardcore’ Garage mode. Garage lets gamers play around with the Nintendo Switch and its Joy-Con controllers to develop their own concepts and ideas, and even reprogram existing concepts. The Nintendo UK community manager had created his own shooting range, reprogrammed the fishing rod to control the RC Car, and even turned a Joy-Con into the world’s most expensive doorbell.

This is Labo’s undeniable strength – its an inspiration tool for a variety of different children. There’s the basics of engineering and programming taking place in here, not to mention the art and creativity that the concept prides itself on.

Nintendo Labo certainly offers a lot of creative possibilities, and even though it still sounds completely crazy, I think there’s definitely a place for the cardboard construction kits in schools and libraries.