game time

Thought-provoking games are scattered around a classroom. Girls drift from one station to the next, seeking out the most challenging one. Friends, new and old, bond over working together to master a task. This is Gritty Games.

“Gritty Games is a new club,” said moderator Mrs. Patricia Perry. “The idea is we’re playing not just your bored Candy Crush kind of games, but games that require some grit, some perseverance.”
The point of the club is to bring girls together to have a better understanding of how to work things out and how to problem solve in various kinds of situations.

The most popular game is called Traffic Jam. “It’s a box, and you have all your cars and you’re trying to get this red car out,” explained freshman Olivia Haas. “You have to move all of the other cars around, so you can get the red car out of the grid.”

This game was played by many girls because it was a hands-on activity that was very strategic. The point was not only to get the car out, but to do it in the least amount of moves possible. It became a competition to the students to see who would come out as a victor by the end of the meeting.

“I got the idea from the Tech Talk I went to last year,” said Mrs. Perry. “There was a woman who had all these deep-thinking math games, or these robot-programming activities or games. So, it made me think ‘this would be a fun way to introduce problem-solving skills in a fun way for those kids who haven’t found a place in the other clubs available.’”

The club, with 12-15 members currently, is open to anyone who might have an interest in joining. It is considering possibly holding some after school meetings so that other girls can join who are busy during the day.

“Personally, I think it would be cool to hold a big game night with the entire school to promote our club,” said senior Mary Marquette.