Students entering the 2021 Australian STEM Video Game Challenge have been commended for persevering throughout a challenging school year.
Nearly 2800 students in Years 5-12 from schools around Australia entered the competition to design and build an original video game to address this year’s theme of ‘scale’. Winners in six categories defined by age group and game design platform were showcased at gaming convention PAX Aus Online over the weekend (8-10 October).
Established in 2014, the Australian STEM Video Game Challenge aims to engage students with science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Challenge manager and ACER Foundation Director Lisa Norris said this year’s entries showed incredible resilience and resourcefulness to complete their games in such a disrupted school year.
“Several teams mentioned in their submissions the challenges they had to overcome to collaboratively design and build a video game during a pandemic,” Ms Norris said.
“The fact that two of the six winning teams are from Melbourne, where there have been extensive periods of remote learning, demonstrates the problem-solving, creativity and collaboration skills that students can develop through game design.”
In their last biennial report on gaming in Australia, ‘Digital Australia 2020: The Power of Games’, the Interactive Games & Entertainment Association (IGEA) and Bond University found a quarter of parents surveyed in 2019 said their child had developed video games in school as part of their formal education. ACER’s Professor Pauline Taylor-Guy says since then, the move to remote learning created more opportunities for the use of digital technology and games in education.
“This year we have seen remarkable ways in which teachers and students have adapted to remote learning,” Professor Taylor-Guy said.
“While this has undoubtedly been challenging, digital technology and critical and creative thinking on the part of both learners and educators have generated major changes in the way we think about the where, what and how of learning.”
“The educational benefits of the past 18 months include greater flexibility in curriculum implementation, collaboration within and across schools, an increased appetite for innovation, and recognition of the potential of digital technologies, including games in education, to provide a more individualised learning experience.”
The Australian STEM Video Game Challenge is coordinated by the charitable arm of the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), the ACER Foundation. Sponsors and supporters of the 2021 Challenge include BigAnt Studios, Creative Vic, IGEA, Roccat, Scienceworks and PAX Aus, as well as universities, corporate partners and game developers.
With ACER
Nina Alvarez is a writer and content producer. Her interests include writing, particularly about different forms of digital communication and the many ways it can impact the flow of information through varying demographics.
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