President Barack Obama announced Monday in a White House press conference a partnership with the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) to inspire children to pursue math and science courses by way of video games.
The program is called STEM, an acronym for science, technology, engineering, and math-focused education, and includes several ESA-sponsored initiatives involving PlayStation 3 systems running LittleBigPlanet in libraries and game design challenges.
While other forms of media are included in the plan, such as a partnership with Sesame Street and other TV networks, the inclusion of video games in a White House education push is notable. Not often are games portrayed in a positive light by politicians, President Obama included. Earlier this year, he directly linked the sedentary lifestyles and slacking education of children to over-use of the “TV or with that Xbox.”
The LittleBigPlanet portion of the plan is called Game Changers and is funded by the MacArthur Foundation. Over 1,000 PlayStation 3 systems and copies of LBP will be donated by Sony to libraries and community centers across the country. The hope is that young children will become interested in game design’s fundamentals: math and science.
The aforementioned game design challenges are being dubbed the STEM National Video Game Competition, intended to focus on “historically underserved populations including girls and minority students,” according to an ESA press release. The prize for these browser-based titles is $300,000 and the winner in each of the three age groups will receive the amount. The winners will be showcased at E3 2010 in June.
Mr. Obama also announced an annual science fair at the White House, saying, “If you win the N.C.A.A. Championship, you come to the White House. Well, if you’re a young person and you’ve produced the best experiment or design, the best hardware or software, you ought to be recognized for that achievement, too.”
“Scientists and engineers ought to stand side by side with athletes and entertainers as role models, and here at the White House, we’re going to lead by example,” he added. “We’re going to show young people how cool science can be.”
This is very exciting news for the video games industry, though it will be interesting to see how these new methods of teaching and inspiring better education are implemented. More details on the program and the contests will be announced in 2010.
