ABSTRACT
Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) have much in common, but they are also very different in some fundamental ways. RPI’s academic year is composed of two semesters. WPI’s year is broken into four terms of 7 weeks each. There is a full week between the first and second term and the third and fourth. Teaching English/Language Arts naturally provides plenty of opportunities for student choice. Students choose the books they want to read for the first 10 minutes of the class period. Perhaps the greatest learning happens when students create their own games. Over the years, students have created a vast variety of games; a single class may have a board game designed by one team, a Go-Fish game by another team, and a Hed-Banz game from a third team.
