Second Avenue Learning

02/10/2025

💡✖️ In “Blackout,” manufactured in the U.S. circa 1940, the player must cover (blackout) all light sources by balancing metals balls in shallow holes within two minutes (before the warplanes descend)! ✈️ 💣
It mimics the blackout protocol practiced in Great Britain during both World Wars and then adopted, largely for the sake of solidarity, by many mainland American cities during WWII.
Due to warping of the cardboard base, most antique versions of the game are unplayable, but if you want an authentic playing experience download the Original Mobile games app, available now on Android and iOS! Inject a bit of history into your gameplay! 🎮 📚
App Store: https://buff.ly/4hpjhGO
Google Play: https://buff.ly/40YjmuZ
Switch: https://buff.ly/40VvvAZ

02/07/2025

🌊 The Niagara Puzzle was manufactured during 1927 and likely inspired by daredevil Charles Stephens’ final stunt: attempting to go over the Niagara Falls in a barrel. The trick had been successfully performed by Annie Taylor in 1901 and Bobby Leach in 1911, both with non-fatal injuries, but Charles Stephens met a more gruesome end. His right arm, which was the only part of his body that could be recovered, is buried in Durmmond Hills Cemetery in Niagara Falls, Ontario.
🧩🕹️ Antique versions of the game are available on eBay for ~$100 but with Original Mobile Games created by Second Avenue you can have access to the Niagara puzzle and a bunch of other similar dexterity games for just $1.99! 🎮
Bonus fact: during WWII some versions of the Niagara puzzle were manufactured to conceal a tiny compass and small hacksaw blade, and sometimes even held a small silk map, hidden beneath the playing field. These were intended to be mailed to P.O.W.s in Germany to help them escape.

02/06/2025

Looking for a new mobile game to pass the time? If you don’t mind getting some weird stares while you wriggle your device around like a time traveler seeing a smartphone for the first time, then the Original Mobile Games app might be just the ticket! Get it here:
App Store: https://buff.ly/3Ekr75L
Google Play: https://buff.ly/3Ekr75L
Switch: https://buff.ly/4hHwHxg

🧩 💡 You might recognize 19th century toymaker Charles Martin Crandall’s “Pigs in Clover” puzzle from having played a modern iteration of it, but what you probably didn’t know what it was called that! ☘️ 🐷
Pigs in Clover made quite a splash when it first hit the scene in 1889, apparently becoming something of an obsession for many Americans. Perhaps the most famous example concerns its popularity amongst politicians during the Presidency of Benjamin Harrison, who was rumored to be personally fond of the game.
The story goes that Senator from New York, William Evarts, bought the game from a street vendor and ended up playing it for hours, even bringing it with him into the senate chambers the following day. After seeing the hand-held game on Evarts’ desk, Missouri Senator George Graham Vest became enthralled and asked to borrow it. Senator Vest then hid away in a cloakroom to play uninterrupted but was soon joined by five other senators. A page was sent to purchase five more games so that the men could participate in a “pig driving contest” with Vest emerging triumphant after 30 minutes, according to reports from the Tribune. Can you beat Senator Vest’s time? Download Second Avenue’s Original Mobile Games app (now available for Android/iOS) and find out!

Fun Fact! The Senate loved Pigs in Clover just as much as they did in 1889 when our team showcased OMG on the Hill last June as part of an event organized by the
Entertainment Software Association 🔗 https://buff.ly/3WLk10i

Software Association 🔗 https://buff.ly/3WLk10i

02/05/2025

📱🎮 If you haven’t already heard, Original Mobile Games, our groundbreaking collaboration with The Strong Museum and RIT’s MAGIC Spell Studios, is now available on iOS and Android!
This title has quite a story to tell: from making history as the first education museum game on Nintendo Switch to being viewed nearly 1M times after being featured on the Game Grumps YouTube channel, OMG has been breaking new ground in game preservation and education.
The game's impact continues to resonate--from earning a Serious Games Silver Award in 2019 to being featured as a case study in Lindsay Grace's "Doing Things with Games." Most recently, our CEO and Professor Stephen Jacobs presented at Save The Games conference , discussing the role of emulation in game preservation.
Ready to try these addictively challenging antique dexterity games on your mobile device? Download now!
App Store: https://buff.ly/42Fhit5
Google Play: https://buff.ly/4hHvSEG
For the Switch: https://buff.ly/4hHwHxg

02/04/2025

🎉 OMG! It's official! We've relaunched Original Mobile Games (OMG) and it's now available for Android and iOS!
App Store 🔗 https://buff.ly/3WGPEZe
Google Play 🔗 https://buff.ly/4gkfWY4

Created by Second Avenue in collaboration with the The Strong Museum and students from RIT's MAGIC Spell Studios led by Professor Stephen Jacobs, Original Mobile Games recreates antique dexterity games from The Strong's collection that are too fragile to handle in real life. Step into the past and try your hand at these frustratingly addictive puzzles

01/27/2025

🔐 Today marks the start of 2025!
The National Cybersecurity Alliance will be having sessions all week to empower individuals and organizations with awareness and strategies to help prioritize their data management. Check it out 🔗: https://buff.ly/3PUcdpe
While it is important to be proactive about cybersecurity on an individual level, At Second Avenue Learning we are highly aware of our unique responsibility as edtech providers when it comes to protecting the data of students and faculty, especially in light of recent attacks that have impacted schools across the nation.
Strong cybersecurity is not just a good practice—it is essential to the trust schools place in digital learning tools. This week is a perfect reminder for all of us to review our security protocols and privacy standards.

The week-long campaign will center around empowering individuals and businesses to safeguard their data through education and action...

01/21/2025

Check out our blog post about our adventures at I/ITSEC 2024 as finalists in the Serious Games Showcase & Challenge for Election Edge! 🔗: https://buff.ly/3WpUvO6

Big thanks to Jen McNamara for everything she does to make this showcase happen! ✨

We have exciting news to share! Second Avenue Learning is thrilled to join the EDSAFE AI Alliance Industry Council to help shape the future of AI in education!

01/20/2025

What a fantastic week at representing EquIP HQ! Our team had an absolute blast connecting with educators and sharing how this free resource is empowering K-12 invention education. Thank you to everyone who stopped by booth 2686 to learn more about fostering innovation in the classroom!

01/20/2025

📅 Today, in an uncommon calendrical occurrence, Inauguration Day and Martin Luther King Day fall on the same day! This will be only the second time a U.S. president has been sworn in on MLK Day since it became a holiday in 1983, the first being Bill Clinton.
🧩 Are you looking for an MLK-related lesson plan that also ties into civics topics like the presidential inauguration? We’ve recently added Dr. King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” as a featured primary source on Election Edge, Second Avenue’s platform for teaching U.S. History and civics.
This letter is a recommended primary source for AP-U.S. History curriculum--and with good reason! It offers a unique insight into not only the philosophy of MLK himself, but also the political dynamics between non-government activists and elected officials that was in play. It can also be an excellent jumping off point for civil discourse in the classroom. We suggest you invite your class participate on a discussion using the free platform created by our friends at Kialo Edu! You can even use one of their premade templates created for the topic like this one: https://buff.ly/3DUQ8Ek
On Election Edge we provide other guiding questions you may wish to use as well, in addition to helpful historical context to help students fully situate primary source material into their understanding of history.
The beauty of a platform like Election Edge is that the curated primary sources for a given year provide different lenses to analyze related events, enabling students to think like historians and investigate to develop their interpretation of the historical narrative. Later this week we will be adding another primary source, a declassified recording from inside the JFK white house in which the President and his brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, discuss the violence that had reached a boiling point in the streets of Birmingham by May of 1963—this was after King had bonded out of jail and around the same time his letter was officially published in full. In this particular meeting, the Kennedy brothers discussed whether to deploy federal troops to quell the riots (spoiler, they did) as well as the more long-term answer to the problems that incited the initial non-violent protest: a civil rights bill. Stay tuned!

One of the most quoted passages from Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is his criticism of the “white moderate.” It is a striking…

01/15/2025

📸 Shots from Mobile Mega Share yesterday!
The room was buzzing with passionate educators and district leaders exploring innovative solutions across dozens of roundtable discussions. Thank you to everyone who joined Victoria Van Voorhis at her table for a discussion about strategies to foster productive civil discourse in the classroom and ways educators can leverage digital tools like Election Edge! Your engagement and insights made these sessions truly special. 💫

01/12/2025

📢 Planning your schedule for Tuesday, Jan. 14th? Make sure to mark your calendar for a presentation by Second Avenue's CEO, Victoria Van Voorhis! 📆

Join her in South 320GH during the Mobile Mega Share event (1:30-4:30pm), where she'll share tools and strategies to help you foster civil discourse as a critical part of your social studies curriculum. This session is perfect for educators, librarians, district leaders, and anyone passionate about preparing students for informed citizenship.

✅ Key topics she’ll cover include:

🗳️ Combating truth decay and political polarization starting in the classroom
💬 Facilitating respectful conversations around sensitive political topics
💻 Leveraging digital resources to create engaging, productive learning experiences

Don't miss this chance to gain practical strategies you can implement in your district! Let's work together to empower the next generation of critical thinkers and responsible citizens. 🌟

01/09/2025

✈️ 🌴 Second Avenue's CEO, Victoria Van Voorhis, will be attending next week in Orlando! If you're planning to attend, this is the perfect opportunity to connect. Whether you're in , a school district leader, or an organization seeking innovative solutions, be sure to reach out and schedule a 15-minute meeting!

At Second Avenue Learning, we specialize in:
🎮 Game-based learning experiences that engage and inspire students
📚 Custom eLearning development for interactive digital content
📈 Data-driven and research-backed design to support learning
🧩 Seamless accessibility, integrations, maintenance and lifecycle support, mobile app development and more!

If you have a project idea or need expert guidance on developing your existing digital content, we would love to hear from you. We're excited to explore how we can partner to create transformative learning experiences together.