Winners of the STEM Video Game Challenge

Last week the sixteen junior and high school winners of the 2013 National STEM Video Game Challenge were announced. There were nearly 4,000 entries and fifteen different platforms used! Each winner will receive an AMD-powered laptop computer with game design and educational software. The individual or team sponsor’s organization will receive a cash prize of $2000.

There is a tremendous amount of time and effort that goes into these games. I encouraged my son and his friend to enter, but they didn’t have the motivation to get something complete on time. So kudos to the kids who did. Of course, everyone needs help. It makes sense that so many teachers were the helpers here, but I love that other programs, parents and siblings were involved too.

“Youth are natural inventors. They are increasingly shaping their own education by making things,” said Michael H. Levine, Executive Director of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center. “We are delighted by the record-breaking interest in the National STEM Video Challenge this year and congratulate all of the winners on their superb creative entries.”

The 2013 STEM Challenge is presented by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop and E-Line Media along with title sponsors the Entertainment Software Association, the AMD Foundation, Microsoft’s Xbox 360, and national community sponsors the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), and the Hive Digital Media Learning Fund in The New York Community Trust. National outreach partners are BrainPOP, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting PBS KIDS Ready To Learn Initiative, Global Kids, Learning Games Network and Edmodo.

Here are some more screenshots of the winning games:

Playing video games is entertainment, but creating them is a fun, challenging, and rewarding experience for students. Congrats to all the winners!