Thursday, October 14, 2010

Video Game Development Contest for Middle Schoolers Announced

For all those middle school students out there who want to design video games....

The White House has recently announced a video game development competition as part of its Educate to Innovate campaign to improve student achievement in STEM disciplines (that is, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathmatics education).  In the Youth Division part of the competition, U.S. middle school students--those enrolled in grades 5-8 or for homeschoolers, students aged 9-13--are invited to submit their best game designs dealing with STEM topics.  There are three ways students can submit their ideas:  (1) a written game design document; (2) a playable game that uses the design features in the free version of Scratch, Gamestar Mechanic, or Gamemaker 8; (3) a playable game than runs for free on any open platform (for example, using something like Flash).  There are over $50,000 in prizes available for the middle school contest, which is actually split into two sections:  submissions from 5th-6th grade, and those from 7th-8th grade.  But even if they don't win, or even end up submitting an entry, this is a great place for middle school students who want to design video games to check out, because there are lots of resources available on the competition submission platforms and other options.  Those who want to compete have until January 5, 2011 to submit their design documents or playable games.

For more information, see the competition site at http://www.stemchallenge.org/Default.aspx

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