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  • Robotics merit badge gets official within Boy Scouts of America, Wall-E approves emphatically

    Yours truly knows exactly how determined one has to be to achieve the honor of Eagle Scout, but it's getting a heck of a lot easier for the more modern offspring of this world. This month last year, we saw the Video Games belt loop sashay into the Cub Scout ranks and make all of the others seem inadequate, and now, there's yet another award that'll likely have your nerd-of-a-child clamoring to suit up in blue or brown. The Robotics merit badge was just made official within the Boy Scouts of America, falling nicely into a sect that promotes science, technology, engineering and math. Officials are purportedly expecting some 10,000 or so of the nation's 2.7 million Scouts to earn this badge within the next dozen months, with those who choose to do so required to "design and build a robot while learning about robot movement, sensors and programming." Thankfully for aspiring Ben Heckendorns, we're told that "even some video game controllers can be considered robots," proving that we're just one leap of faith away from a bona fide Hacking badge. Hey, they want us to Be Prepared, right?

    Darren Murph
    04.10.2011

  • Activision Blizzard contributing to Obama's STEM initiative

    Through the corporate-backed "Change the Equation" program, Activision Blizzard is aiding the science, technology, engineering and math initiative enacted by the Obama administration. A press release this morning announced Activision's participation, with chief public policy officer George Rose adding, "STEM literacy is a business imperative for our nation's economic excellence, success and citizenship. Our collaboration will not only help students, but will revive our economy, fuel our competitiveness, and ultimately empower our nation." Change the Equation (CTEq) plans on working with "top companies" across "multiple sectors" with the intention of stimulating STEM literacy among youth, countrywide. Activision specifically will be "using video games to promote student interest in science and technology," which we have to imagine doesn't mean sending out leftover copies of Guitar Hero: Van Halen to middle schools. At least, we seriously hope not.

    Ben Gilbert
    09.24.2010

  • Obama launches national STEM game design challenge

    Announced late last year, the National STEM Video Game Challenge is now underway. The challenge asks both established developers and middle schoolers to come up with a video game design that incorporates STEM concepts (science, technology, engineering and math) and encourages learning in its areas of study. The youth competition offers a prize pool of $50,000, while the developer prize pool offers $100,000 in seed money -- $50,000 for the best developer submission and $25,000 each for the best graduate and undergraduate submissions. Both competitions will begin accepting submissions on October 12. Hit the source links below for more information on both the developer and youth prizes. [Image credit: Pete Souza]

    Richard Mitchell
    09.18.2010

  • ESA partners with Microsoft & Sony for STEM initiative, launches game creation competitions

    The Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the game industry lobby group, today announced two new game creation contests meant to support President Obama's STEM initiative (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math studies). A partnership between the ESA, Microsoft, Sony, the Information Technology Industry Council (ITIC), and the MacArthur Foundation will help to fund and run a series of STEM-related game design competitions. Details of the first two competitions – "Game Changers" and the less creatively titled "STEM National Video Game Competition" – are scant at the moment, though the former will involve Sony donating 1,000 PS3s and copies of LittleBigPlanet to libraries and community-based organizations in low-income districts, with plans to share the winning levels free to the gaming public. When asked, an ESA representative told Joystiq that more information would be revealed in "the coming weeks."

    Ben Gilbert
    11.23.2009

  • NASA MMO hopes to awaken a stale engineering workforce

    We're guessing the interest in a NASA career is dying down after the last hype wave during the Space Camp years. So now the government space agency is looking for a fresh way to get young people interested in reaching for the stars, by following through with their earlier-reported plans of creating a NASA MMO. Hey, the online career-promotion thing worked for America's Army, didn't it? The NASA MMO, still being in the infant stages of searching for an actual developer, is interested in making this the first educational MMO using the "STEM discipline". This promotes Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics within the game to get people interested in these subjects, and help them better understand how to pursue a career incorporating these skills. If you think about it, many MMOS already use this system, but the trick is disguising it in a thin veil of fun. That is the biggest challenge to creating a government-sponsored online game that aims to educate a particular target audience. But with the recent insane growth of games like EVE Online, we don't think the target audience will be a problem.

    Shawn Schuster
    05.01.2008
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