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On February 15, “The Art of Video Games” exhibition, curated by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, opened at the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, NY. As one of the first major exhibitions to explore the evolution of video games as an artistic medium, “The Art of Video Games” focuses on the striking graphics, creative storytelling, and engaging interactivity featured in video games over the last 40 years. Click here for more information. |
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The submission period for ESAF’s scholarship program, Education Challenge Grant, and ESAF’s annual grant program opens on March 15. Be sure to check for updates on these grant opportunities through ESAF’s website. |
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We hope your 2014 is off to a great start!
At ESA Foundation (ESAF), we are gearing up for an exciting year supporting a new class of grantees, helping another wave of students pursue their academic and career aspirations, and continuing to celebrate teachers who enhance classroom learning with computer and video game technology.
In this edition of the ESAF newsletter, we highlight the impactful work of two 2014 grantees: MassDiGI and the Tiger Woods Learning Center.
For more news and updates on ESAF programming and grantees’ activities throughout the year, please follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
Warm regards,
Jenny Lai
Vice President, ESA Foundation |
Grantee Spotlight: MassDiGI
 Based at Becker College in Worcester, MA, MassDiGI is a statewide collaboration between Massachusetts officials, academics, and video game industry professionals. MassDiGi seeks to advance education, entrepreneurship, and economic development through entertainment software.
With ESAF’s support, MassDiGI will work to expand interest in game design programs, and their power to enhance instruction and comprehension of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) subjects, among students and teachers across New England. As part of this effort, the organization will partner with local community members and industry professionals to host MassDiGI 101, a series of eight video game design workshops. Each workshop will be tailored to the needs of the local community where the session takes place, providing teachers and students with information about the resources available to make games, the types of game-related topics to study, the kinds of jobs available in the computer and video game
industry, and what students can do – starting in high school – to prepare for a career in video games.
MassDiGI will also leverage ESAF’s support to engage high school students in its third-annual Game Challenge – a signature competition that helps aspiring game developers in high school and college, as well as independent game developers, launch new games. The Game Challenge asks teams of developers to submit a game concept or prototype in one of two categories – entertainment games or serious games. A panel of judges will chose one winner for each category at the high school, college, and independent levels based on their games’ originality, creativity, art style, business model, and overall presentation. By involving more high school students in the 2014 challenge, MassDiGI hopes to boost their interest in STEM
topics and careers.
For more information about MassDiGI’s innovative work in New England, visit http://www.massdigi.org, follow MassDiGI on Twitter: @mass_digi, and also check out MassDiGI’s blog at The Boston Globe, The State of Play. |
Grantee Spotlight: Tiger Woods Learning Center
 Since 1996, the Tiger Woods Learning Center (TWLC) has worked to engage at-risk high school students from Southern California in STEM subjects. With a variety of afterschool programs, TWLC provides youths with unique experiences and innovative educational opportunities using its one-of-a-kind, 35,000-square-foot education facility.
This year, ESAF will support TWLC’s afterschool game design program, which offers students formal instruction in computer programming and game development. For seven weeks students enrolled in the program will develop a series of games, including mobile games, and learn about video game design and object-oriented programming using Multimedia Fusion Developer 2.
TWLC launched its first video game design class in the fall of 2009, and has since enrolled more than 400 students. Today, TWLC also offers advanced video game design classes which allow students to explore more complex programming logic. In addition to providing students with valuable 21st century skills, the TWLC game design program encourages students to explore careers related to the video game industry. Students research the careers available in the computer and video game industry, along with the skills and education required to develop games, as part of the curriculum. This curriculum has also been taught at other TWLC locations across the country, including Pennsylvania, Florida, and Washington, DC.
For more information about the TWLC game design program, click here. |
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