Portal is free for PC and Mac through September 20

By Rick Marshall Published September 16, 2011

If you’re one of the few people who hasn’t played the original Portal yet (and own a computer), you now have no excuse not to dive into the world of Aperture Science. After all, it’s free!

The free Portal offer comes via a new website touting the potential use of Portal and Portal 2 as learning tools for teaching physics and critical-thinking skills. Here’s the pitch, according to www.learnwithportals.com:

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Using interactive tools like the Portal series to draw [students] in makes physics, math, logic, spatial reasoning, probability, and problem-solving interesting, cool, and fun which gets us one step closer to our goal—engaged, thoughtful kids!

And while that’s all well and good, the promotion — which runs through September 20 — also comes with the ability to download the original, much-celebrated Portal free of charge. Oh, and you’ll need to set up an account on the Steam gaming network if you don’t already have one.

The site also posted a neat little video featuring a class of seventh-grade students visiting the studio of Portal developers Valve Software, showing the whole gaming-is-learning theme in action.

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