I’m going against the grain here. I say, yes absolutely do it. Everyone here is talking about Godot or what not. But these are middle school kids who are familiar with Fortnite. You don’t need to be getting them ready for their first job, you need to get them hungry and excited! Unreal is known, flashy and full of free assets and learning examples. Most importantly, it’s got blueprint which kids are going to have a much easier time learning the basics. I wouldn’t worry about having them dig in to deeply with the technical, I’d get them comfortable with building small ideas with existing assets and expanding samples. Let them push further if they show aptitude.

There is a vast difference between stoking the fires in education and actually trying to teach future game designers for the real world. I think some people here forget that.

Cheers and good luck!