The scariest four words some of us heard in high school were “end-of-year testing.”
However, this time of the year may not be as stressful at the Edison Academy in Alexandria, Virginia, thanks to the students in the cyber and electrical classes.
Thanks to the students in those classes, and their teacher Aaron King, Edison Academy students can relax before they put pen to paper.
“In order to keep them engaged, we decided to build a yearlong project where we build an arcade,” King said. “The goal was to have somewhere for the students to come and relax.”
The students were allowed to visit the arcade with the class for 30 minutes.
The Edison Arcade not only has old school Atari games like “Pac-Man” and “Donkey Kong,” but it also has “Minecraft” servers, Nintendo Switch consoles and Wii Sports — plus, it always has ’80s music playing along with colorful LED lights.
Friday was the arcade’s final day, and over the last 30 days, it averaged around 20 students twice a period for six periods a day.
“The beauty of it is the students have learned customer service skills. They have learned to repair the equipment,” King said.
“Making an arcade was the best experience ever,” said 11th grader Natasha Turner. “I learned a lot about the parts of the computer and how the components work.”
Freshman Jonathan Nguyen told WTOP his class did the floor planning.
“We learned how to reset the games and change the games,” Nguyen said.
Benjamin Olivas-Barja, who will be graduating next Tuesday, believes King taught him more than he expected.
“One of the first things he drilled into us was professionalism — what to say, what type of language we’re allowed to use. The soft skills we will use every day in the real world,” Olivas-Barja said.
Not only has the arcade been a hit with the students, over 120 teachers signed up for a visit as well, telling King that it reminded them of going to Springfield Mall in the ’80s.
But what did the principal say when King told them of his idea?
“How are we going to fund it?” King said with a laugh. “I applied for grants with the PTSA, Educate Fairfax, and the Foundation for Applied Technical Engineering.”
King received every grant he applied for and spent $2,500 building the arcade. But he also has another $2,500 for next year.
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