National STEM Video Game Challenge Launches

The 2012 National STEM Video Game Challenge, which is a collaboration between E-Line Media and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop (JGCC) with generous support from AMD Foundation, Entertainment Software Association(ESA), Microsoft and CPB/PBS KIDS Ready to Learn, is well underway.

The competition seeks to inspire students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) – all areas that are declining in the United States compared to other developing nations – through games, which have proven effective in demonstrating high-order thinking and skills.

Past challenge winners created written game document designs and playable games with STEM themes. Former STEM Prize winner, Jasper Hugunin, recently designed a videogame using E-Line’s and Institute of Plays’ Game Star Mechanic among 100 young adults in the late White House Science Fair.

The STEM competition, which was inspired by President Obama’s Education to Innovate Campaign, features three categories: middle school, high school and and collegiate. This year’s STEM games are expected to be focused around the National Research Council’s 2011 Framework for K-12 Science Education and the Common Core State Standards Initiative. Entries close March 12, 2012. For more, visit stemchallenge.org.

For more STEM-related challenges and contests read “10+ STEM Inspiring Challenge and Contests.”