The classroom usually is not the place that you will find people playing games, however there is now one exception to that rule: GOLO. The game is being used at all levels of education, from junior high to college. Physical Education Teacher Pete Brown from Wilson C. Riles Middle School in Roseville California uses the game to teach his beginn- ing golf class. "GOLO is a perfect way to introduce the kids to the basic rules of golf. It’s fast, simple, and most importantly fun."
Total Golf Adventures Atlanta is an on-campus, after -school golf program for ages 5 – 12. Chris Knobloch, the program director, says the program and the TGA of Atlanta has had over 600 kids in our golf program in 2006. "We provide all the equipment, a 5 level curriculum, and a skill based program. The kids always look forward to see who’s going to be this week’s GOLO champion. The game has been an excellent component of our golf educational program."
Last winter, Paul Stephenson, the Chair of the Department of Statistics at Grand Valley State University in Allendale Michigan, purchased GOLO because he was intrigued with the game. "As a golfer who lives in Michigan, the winter months provide many occasions to daydream about golf, but few chances to actually play. GOLO represented an opportunity to play golf, even though two feet of snow blanketed my favorite golf course. From the first game, I was hooked."
Stephenson was curious about the potential of using GOLO to teach probability in his classes. He first introduced the game to two of his colleagues, John Gabrosek and Mary Richardson. The three of them immediately started brainstorming about how they could leverage the enjoyment of playing GOLO to engage their students in probabilistic reasoning. Since that time they have utilized GOLO in both their courses and classrooms. Stephenson added, "GOLO is easy to explain to our students, and more importantly it quickly stimulates their enthusiasm. Further, GOLO provides an outstanding setting to illustrate probability and statistics." They recently gave two presentations on how GOLO could be utilized in the classroom at the annual Joint Statistical Meetings of the American Statistical Association. The published paper that accompanied their presentation at the can be found online at the company’s website www.iGOLO.com.
Front9 launched its first game, GOLO, back in January of 2000. With over 300,000 units sold, it is the best selling traditional golf game. Today, Front9, Inc. is headquartered in Los Gatos, California. Its mission is dedicated to spreading the fun, excitement, and education of GOLO & Golf to the rest of the world. Front9 is also committed to developing games that follow the same basic formula of GOLO: fast, fun, challenging, affordable, and portable. For more information, please visit www.iGOLO.com.
Contact:
Patrick Shea
Front9 Inc
408 395-4056
pj@igolo.com