SimCityEDU will bring city planning to the classroom

Last week, it was reported that a Swedish school was to use Minecraft to teach kids about "city planning, environmental issues, getting things done, and even how to plan for the future." The obvious objection is that there are better games for learning how to simulate cities. Like, I dunno, that one called SimCity.

Clearly Maxis also see the potential of their sandbox sim as an education tool, as EA have announced SimCityEDU , an online community designed to let teachers create and share lesson plans based on the game. This one is US focused, with the curriculum and tools being designed around the US Common Core State Standards Initiative. The goal is to spark student's interest in science, technology, engineering and maths.

The tool is in development by GlassLab, a non-profit collaboration between the Institute of Play, EA, the ESA and others. SimCityEDU is due out in March, and teachers can sign up for the program here . Your pupils will love for it.

Thanks, Joystiq .

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.