ESA supports STEM with video game related competitions
As part of President Obama’s call for a renewed focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) and the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA), Microsoft Corporation, and the MacArthur Foundation today announced a number of efforts to engage, motivate and encourage students in STEM learning. All of the aforementioned organizations will work to harness the power of video games to help children learn. They will do this, says the ESA, through a through a series of STEM-related video game design competitions.
The first will be a program called “Game Changers,” a part of the 2010 Digital Media and Learning Competition, a $2 million annual effort funded by the MacArthur Foundation that advances innovative approaches to learning through games, social networks and mobile devices. SCEA, the ESA and ITI, will work with MacArthur to support the competition which will use games like SCEA’s LittleBigPlanet to create STEM related applications and games. SCEA will also donate 1,000 PlayStation 3 systems and copies of LittleBigPlanet to libraries and community based organizations in low-income communities and make the winning levels available to game players at no cost. Winners will be announced at a date and time to be determined in 2010.
The second contest will be the “STEM National Video Game Competition.” The ESA and ITI will work with Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, Games for Change, and E-Line Ventures. This competition will challenge America’s best and brightest – including children – to come up with ideas that can be designed into web-executable, browser-based, STEM-related computer and video games in three age-based categories: 4 to 8 year olds, 8 to 12 year olds and 12 to 16 year olds. In addition to funding, ESA, ITI and partners will provide judges, mentorship, and technical expertise to the winning teams. Prize winners will receive a total of $300,000 and their games will be used in school and community settings, with a particular emphasis on reaching historically underserved populations including girls and minority students.
For more information on all this stuff, visit www.theESA.com.
