This fall, an already robust partnership between SMALLab, the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University, and Pittsburgh area schools is expanding.

The game is “disease transmission.” Players try to keep their population of avatars alive in a simulated outbreak situation, factoring conditions like population size, availability of medical and food resources, and bacterial versus viral disease modes. No, this isn’t the latest technology the Centers for Disease Control is using to help combat the spread of infectious disease. (Though it probably could be.) It’s a game scenario created by SMALLab Learning, whose technology is being used in an increasing number of schools in the Pittsburgh area.

The transformation marking Elizabeth-Forward High School’s recent renovation warrants more than literary description and admiration, it might justify a school name change to “FORWARD Elizabeth!”

The SMALLab at Elizabeth Forward Middle School gets some fantastic coverage in Education Week.