College Students Compete for $25,000 Prize for Best ''Teaching'' Video Game
AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE via COLLEGIATE PRESSWIRE)--Aug 31, 2004--The Liemandt Foundation, a nonprofit family foundation committed to promoting technology-enabled education, is once again hosting a college student video game development contest with a twist -- students are challenged to build entertaining games that ''secretly'' teach middle school subjects.
In the contest`s first year, over 60 students competed nationwide. Five finalist teams came to Austin, Texas in June to present their games to a panel of expert judges. A highlight of the trip was dinner at gaming legend Richard ''Lord British'' Garriott`s mansion, complete with a personal tour by the Ultima creator himself.
The winning team, a group of four students from University of Central Florida, took home $25,000. Their game, an online robot battle game that teaches properties of physics and chemistry, is in the process of being polished for future distribution. Other finalist teams from Cornell, University of Southern California, Pomona College and University of Wyoming took home additional prizes as well as experiences that some attribute to helping attain post-graduation job offers. Many competing teams also received college credit for participation in the contest.
The contest, which can be found online at www.hiddenagenda.com, focuses on the notion of ''stealth education'' in gaming, pushing students to create entertaining games that subtly teach middle school science and math topics such as forces, statistics or the periodic table. This year, students will have until December 2004 to enter the contest with a rough concept idea, and then will have until May 2005 to build their games.
Final judges for the 2004-2005 contest will once again include Richard Garriott, educational game visionary Marc Prensky, instructional design and game experts from the Digital Media Collaboratory (DMC) at the University of Texas, and middle school teachers and students.
While all submitted games must fulfill teaching and technical requirements to be considered, final judging will be based on 70% entertainment and 30% educational value. ''The uneven split in judging criteria is crucial,'' explains program director Lauren Davis. ''In the past, educational games have failed because no matter how well they taught, kids just weren`t motivated to absorb information. Children will only learn from the games they want to play.''
About The Liemandt Foundation
The Liemandt Foundation is a nonprofit family organization with a focus on improving education through technology. The goal of the Foundation`s Stealth Education Project is to facilitate the development of video games that rival the quality and game-play of today`s top sellers, while ''stealthily'' teaching K-12 scholastic information along the way. The Project plans to make possible the creation of student-built games through the ''Hidden Agenda'' contest, but also to facilitate, test and promote similar games in the future. Once stealth education is proven possible for middle school subjects, the Foundation sees no end to the effect that the educational games will have on children throughout the world.
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