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2012 Challenge announced, entries open in Nov. 2011, The Middle School Stream aims to motivate and engage middle school students (grades 5 through 8) in STEM learning, 21st Century Literacy Skills and Systems Thinking by challenging them to design original video games. The High School Stream aims to motivate and engage high school students (grades 9 through 12) in STEM learning, 21st Century Literacy Skills and Systems Thinking by challenging them to design original video games. The Collegiate Stream challenges emerging game developers at the graduate and undergraduate levels to design video games for children (grades pre-K through 8) that teach key STEM concepts and foster an interest in STEM subject areas. The Educator Stream challenges educators to design video games for children (grades pre-K through 12) that teach key STEM concepts and foster an interest in STEM subject areas.

Abstract: "The purpose of this study aimed to construct an online competitive game-based learning system by using freeware for junior high school students and to assess its effectiveness. From the learning standpoints, game mechanisms including learning points, competition mechanism, training room mechanism, questioning & answering mechanism, tips, and feedback mechanism are taken into consideration while constructing the system. The system contains screens of Log-in, Game lobby, Waiting room, Player's room, Question & Answer, and Scoring. After the system was established, it was implemented in a 10 week teaching experiment. A total of 35 junior high school students participated in this teaching experiment. Both pre-test and post-test were administered and analyzed. A 5-point Likert scale questionnaire, containing domains of system operation, learning effectiveness, competition and incentive, and training room learning was also included to assess user's satisfaction. Descriptive analysis and independent t test were used to analyze the collected data. The findings of the study show that most students are satisfied with the four domains of the freeware constructed online competitive game-based learning system. Meanwhile, the online competitive game-based learning system is effective for junior high school students' learning."

abstract: "This literature review will discuss the efficacy of using video game programming as an attractor and entry point to engage middle- and high-school girls in a computer science curriculum. The review begins by exploring historical trends of female participation in the technology industry and in computer science programs at the high-school and collegiate levels, and the impact these trends have on women's opportunities. For additional background context, the review will then review a number of empirical studies regarding girls' attitudes toward computer science, as well as environmental and social influences that impact their participation in the field. It will then identify the educational and social goals of increased female participation in the computer science curriculum and briefly discuss various potential attractors that have been under investigation. Finally, the review will describe specific research studies that explore both how effective the teaching of computer game design is in attracting female students to a computer science course of study, as well as its efficacy in teaching important computer science concepts."

Looking for sponsorship to save high school digital media awards in Canada, DIGIS

"The Kamloops-Thompson school district is taking its video-game design curriculum to the next level. What started as a summer-camp program in 2007 and grew into a limited course offering last year is set to assume full-course status - meaning area high school students will have the opportunity to spend an entire semester studying nothing but video-game design."

"Gaming has proven to be successful in K12... can it work for undergraduates as well?"

Introducing high school students to biology concepts via Spore and designing their own science games via Spore Galactic Environment (SGA), over an eight week period with twice a week classroom meetings.

Evaluation of a six week course

"MakeGamesWithUs is a new iOS game publishing company with a twist: its focus is on helping high school and college students to build games. MakeGamesWithUs us will take the kids' creations, provide professional graphics and art and publish them in the App Store."

Athens, Ga. - A team of University of Georgia researchers has been awarded a $500,000 small business grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to develop interactive educational software aimed at teaching high school students how the five senses work in the context of the brain and how neurons work.IS3D LLC, a partnership founded in 2010 by eight UGA faculty and staff members, will develop the software with input from high school teachers and students in Atlanta and northeast Georgia.IS3D will design a game based on the five senses, along with a series of interactive case studies that will allow students to explore how neurons work. The software will be tested in classrooms to gauge their effectiveness in helping students learn and whether they improve the students' engagement in science curriculum

"Valve wants to help. The 17-year-old Bellevue company just launched Pipeline, an experimental project aimed to educate high schoolers about the ins and outs of the video game industry."

Abstract: "Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs) have begun to develop hybrid systems that balance the learning benefits of ITSs with the motivational benefits of games. iSTART-ME (Motivationally Enhanced) is a new game-based learning environment developed on top of an existing ITS for reading comprehension (iSTART). In an 11 session labbased study, 40 high school students interacted with the full iSTART-ME system and completed comprehension measures at multiple time points (pretest, posttest, retention, and transfer). The current work examined students' comprehension outcomes and how they were related to performance within three integrated practice methods: Coached Practice (non-game), Showdown (game-based), and Map Conquest (game-based). Results indicate that performance within the game-based practice environments was positively related to comprehension outcomes, whereas performance within the non-game environment had no relation to subsequent comprehension measures."

Abstract: "This paper describes the design and evaluation of Zoo U, a novel computer game to assess children's social skills development. Zoo U is an innovative product that combines theory-driven content and customized game mechanics. The game-like play creates the opportunity for stealth assessment, in which dynamic evidence of social skills is collected in real time and players' choices during gameplay provide the needed data. To ensure the development of an engaging and valid game, we utilized an iterative datadriven validation process in which the game was created, tested, revised based on student performance and feedback, and retested until game play was statistically matched to independent ratings of social skills. We first investigated whether the data collected through extensive logging of student actions provided information that could be used to improve the assessment. We found that detailed game logs of socially relevant player behavior combined with external measures of player social skills provided an efficient vector to incrementally improve the accuracy of the embedded assessments. Next, we investigated whether the game performance correlated with teachers' assessments of students' social skills competencies. An evaluation of the final game showed (a) significant correlations between in-game social skills assessments and independently obtained standard psychological assessments of the same students and (b) high levels of engagement and likeability for students. These findings support the use of the interactive and engaging computer game format for the stealth assessment of children's social skills. The created innovative design methodologies should prove useful in the design and improvement of computer games in education."

Abstract:"A one-semester introductory undergraduate course in computer game development is described. The freshman-level course has been taught for four years. The course was designed and implemented in the context of a new curriculum in computer game development. Goals of the course were to retain undergraduate computer science (CS) majors, attract new students to CS, and expose students to the content creation pipeline used in more advanced courses. A significant aspect of the course is the end-of-semester project to create a machinima - a video created using computer game technology. Besides the initial goals for the course, other benefits were discovered including fostering a sense of community by helping students get to know their peers early in the program. Results, both quantitative and anecdotal, show the course has exceeded expectations in meeting the goals originally established. In addition, the course content has been adapted to the format of a three-day summer workshop to recruit high school students to the university. The course has been integral to the growth of the CS program, enabling the program to nearly triple in size over four years and achieve both statewide prominence and national recognition."

"What are the appropriate curriculum competencies for a secondary level Game Art and Design curriculum for technology education in the United States? There was an absence of research related to gaming education in the secondary level classroom, particularly in the field of technology education. This research strove to alleviate any impediments, while establishing curriculum competencies for a secondary Game Art and Design course framework."

Q. So you designed the game and programmed it yourself? A. I did all of the art and background, I programmed the levels, I did the music, the timing. I outsourced the programming to a company in New York. I pretty much did everything I could possibly do except the raw coding itself.