The GIANT Room Partners with OKO Labs!

GIANT Partners With OKO Labs in collaboration with Joan Ganz Cooney Center from Sesame Workshop!

The GIANT Room, an innovation hub for children and their families, is excited to announce they will be partnering with OKO Labs and Joan Ganz Cooney Center from Sesame Workshop to co-design an app for helping children learn and practice math. Children entering grades 4 and 5 this upcoming school year are invited to apply and join the co-design workshops.

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Participation entails joining three free, two hour workshops focused on co-designing and playfully brainstorming ideas with designers and industry innovators. Kids who join will have a chance to learn and practice the art of giving and receiving feedback and then to join a prototyping exercise with industry innovators and researchers. In this particular workshop they will be play-testing and co-designing a game that uses AI to help groups of students work together to solve problems. Applicants must join all three workshops on July 30th, July 31st, and August 1st from 10am to 12pm. All sessions will be held in person at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

The GIANT Room believes the most engaging and effective digital experiences are the ones that are designed with children’s point of view in mind, and even better, those that are designed with children and their families involved in the design process. “As part of our mission, we thrive to amplify children’s voices and bring their ideas into the design process of products that are being designed for them,” Dr. Jamalian, The GIANT Room’s CEO explains, “this will benefit children who participate in these sessions, by engaging in design thinking, teamworking, and building prototypes with designers in the field, and also children who will use these products once in the market.”

OKO Labs stands at the intersection of academic rigor and social-emotional learning, offering a suite of games and puzzles designed for small groups in upper elementary classrooms. By fostering an environment where students engage in meaningful discussions, solve problems collaboratively, and support each other's learning, OKO thrives to not only achieve meaningful learning gains but also cultivate vital social skills.

Named after Sesame Street’s visionary co-founder, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center is an independent research and innovation lab within Sesame Workshop dedicated to shaping a positive digital future for children. The Center conducts cutting-edge research on emerging technologies, partners with industry leaders, academics, and educators to translate insights into action, and works closely with policymakers and investors to drive meaningful conversations and decisions. By actively involving children and young people in co-designing the tools that they use, the Center ensures that innovations enhance both learning and well-being—ultimately empowering children to thrive in the digital world.

This program is completely free for children and their families to participate. We are accepting a limited number of children in New York City to participate in the program. Families with children entering grades 4 and 5 in the upcoming school year are invited to apply.

Who: Children entering 4th or 5th grade in the 2025-2026 school year

Where: School of Visual Arts, 136 West 21st Street, 3rd floor, New York, NY, 10011

When: July 30th, July 31st, and August 1st from 10AM to 12PM

For more information about GIANT STEAM programs and a full list of their workshops, class series, and events, please visit The GIANT Room’s website.

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Check out these photos from our previous co-design sessions with OKO!