If you know a 5th-12th grade student in the U.S. who wants to design games, check this out. The National STEM Video Game Challenge is now underway. Between now and August 16, students—either individually or in teams of up to four members—can submit actual, original games or game design documents.
Winners will get cash prizes of $1,000, as well as game design and educational software. Winning games (or designs) will also be featured on the National Geographic Education website. Games are judged on how engaging, unique, and well-balanced they are. There’s a special category for Nat Geo Explore, and those games will be judged on exploration, inspiration, and storytelling.
This is the fifth year of the contest, which is sponsored by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, E-Line Media, and the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), joined this year by National Geographic Society. The purpose of the contest is to “motivate interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) among youth by transforming their natural passions for playing video games into designing and creating their own.”
Kids who want to participate can get help in workshops led by professional game designers. More information about the workshops is on the STEM Challenge website.
You can also follow the contest on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
