We hear it all the time: Girls are more verbal. According to CNN, they talk earlier as toddlers and use a more extensive vocabulary. So it can be a challenge for the Library, an institution built on words, to get the teen boys revved.

On a Monday night in December, the teens of the Stapleton branch are busily building robots ahead of their "battle" in 90 minutes. They are connecting wheels to chassis, chassis to battery pack and they are very, very quiet.

But they are engaged. Intent. Winning the "battle" comes with nothing but bragging rights and each and every one of them is dead set on winning.

Then all of a sudden they're loud, running from table to table, fishing through LEGO bins, collaborating at full volume: What if they make the body short and fat like the Batmobile? Maybe it won't flip. What if they attach a shovel to roll the competition over? What if, what if, what if ... ? They are rapid-cycling through the scientific method. 

"I'm not going to tell you what to do," says Andrew Oppenheimer, the information assistant behind the program. 

Andrew has an easy way about him that brings out the best in the boys. Around him, they're loose, focused, and enthusiastic. He's clear that he wants the kids to figure out the mechanics for themselves, but he will pitch in with a suggestion. And mid-program he's seated at a table looking like the biggest kid of all. 

This is a model of inquiry-based learning, learning through questions instead of rote memorization. And maybe that's why Andrew discovered the robots, or why they discovered him. When Stapleton bought a set of laptops in 2014, was Andrew noticed they had a program for LEGO robots pre-installed. It prompted the question: Would the Library buy the LEGO kits at $1,500 a pop?

The answer was "yes," the Library bought four, and a program was born. 

A similar thing happened in the Bronx Library Center in 2007.

That's when Edwin Martinez, an information assistant, asked: What if he brought in his PlayStation and let the kids play on it? Branch Manager Michael Alvarez said go for it, and the teens showed up again and again.

The high schoolers at BLC, like Stapleton, have few places to go after school. Even though the boys are "always bragging that they're better," they don't have access to equipment at home like a Wii, PlayStation, or flat-screen TV. But they do have inquiring minds: Video games, like robots, are an open-ended question. It's up to the teens to find their own answer.

"Once it caught on I knew nothing was going to stop it. It's kids and they love video games," Edwin said. It wasn't long before the Library bought its first console, and gaming is now offered at nearly every branch.

At St. George Library Center, you can see the teen boys enjoying this legacy, sitting on a semicircle of hard-plastic chairs and playing a WWE videogame on a flat-screen. It's usually the same crowd, a couple times a week for hours and hours and hours at a time. It's clear these boys are friends as they shout with abandon: 

"Why are you running?"

"You're going to lose!"

"Rematch, rematch!"

But no one minds if they get loud. It means they're revved.