BLOG

TEACHER: Misty May DETROIT: Detroit SCHOOL: Brenda Scott Academy SUBJECT AREA: STEM, Multimedia Production Arts YEARS PARTICIPATED IN THE PROGRAM: 2 Misty May is a 2-year Student Challenge cohort teacher hailing from the ‘Motor City.’ Last year, Misty’s students at Brenda Scott Academy

An evil robot army is on the march, and it will take top-tier teamwork between humans and their canine companions to save the day. Such is the premise of Companion Rescue, a frenetic educational video game built last year by a Detroit high schooler. It was

TEACHER: Luna Ramirez TEACHER COHORT: New York City SCHOOL: Thomas Edison High School SUBJECT AREA: AP Computer Science, Web Design, Graphic Design YEARS PARTICIPATED IN THE PROGRAM: 3 There are 75,000 teachers reaching over 1 million students across the five boroughs of

The 2021 G4C Student Challenge competition is officially open for submissions! Students across the country can now submit their original social impact games and compete to win awesome prizes, including a $1,000 Grand Prize Scholarship, generously provided by Take-Two Interactive! This year, we are thrilled to

How does designing and developing impact games affect the development of key 21st-Century Skills in students? This is the key question we seek to answer in the assessment portion of the G4C Student Challenge program. Now in its sixth year, this program has provided increasingly

The G4C Student Challenge has entered its 6th year! Over the program’s history, it has reached over 32,000 students across the US and taught them the game design skills needed to create  2,931 original social impact games. This year, the program has

John Landa is a 3-year Student Challenge veteran, teaching computer science and game design at an all-girls school in Los Angeles. In 2020, John was the recipient of G4C’s Leadership Award, a distinct honor awarded to an outstanding program educator each year (check-out his

NEW YORK (October 15, 2020) – Games for Change has officially launched the 2020-2021 G4C Student Challenge, a national game design program and competition that has reached over 30,000 students to date, and bridges their

Public middle and high school teachers in NYC, Los Angeles, Atlanta and the greater metro area, and Detroit and the greater metro area, are invited to learn how to use game design and game-based learning through the Games for Change Student Challenge, a game design program and

The 2020 G4C Student Challenge program and competition was the most successful to date, with a record 1,600 middle/high school students submitting nearly 1,000 original games related to this year’s social impact themes.  Through a rigorous, 3-round jury process involving professional game designers, theme

Games for Change is excited to introduce a new blog series written by diverse members of our community. In this series we will be discussing the different ways they are using and thinking about games to adapt to the COVID-19 crisis. Authors will be sharing resources they are using

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is the second largest school district in the country, serving over 650,000 students each year. It is also the second largest employer in LA County, with a workforce of nearly 30,000 teachers! Within this massive school district is a remarkable

In response to guidance given by health officials and the World Health Organization regarding the outbreak of COVID-19, many school districts and educational institutions have closed their doors and are currently relying on remote learning.  Keeping students engaged in a remote learning environment can be challenging

Online gamers have been historically portrayed as awkward or loners, riddled with social anxiety, and drawn to lives of social isolation from the rest of society. Part of this is due to the fact that online gaming spaces themselves are branded as “pseudo communities,” as

A significant percentage of Americans are currently dissatisfied with both political parties in the United States, with statistics showing increasing public support for the establishment of a third political party, especially among younger voters. This issue is the focus of one of the 2020 G4C Student Challenge

Each year, G4C works with cohorts of teachers in ‘spotlight cities’ across the country – and provides educators with the training, curriculum and tools to bring game based learning into their classrooms. Over the last five years, we have had the pleasure of working with an incredibly talented pool

Games for Change has opened the 5th annual Competition to ALL students!  Students across the country have been working hard all year to design digital games focused on social impact themes, and now we want to see them! Through April 29th, middle and high school students

Games for Change (G4C) is excited to announce the launch of the 5th Annual G4C Student Challenge in New York City, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Detroit – and this year we are reaching more schools, teachers and students than ever before! The

Games for Change (G4C) is now recruiting educators in NYC, LA, Atlanta and Detroit to participate in the 5th Annual G4C Student Challenge.  The Challenge program empowers teachers to use game design as a teaching tool to build 21st century skills, expose students to work-related STEM opportunities and engage

Games for Change is thrilled to announce the winners of the 2019 Games for Change Student Challenge – and to recognize all competitors for their impressive games and innovative approaches to tackling social impact themes. This year, students in NYC, LA, Detroit and Atlanta were challenged to design and code

The G4C Student Challenge competition is currently open for submissions – and students now have more time to create their digital games! The G4C Student Challenge is a game design competition that challenges middle and high public school students in NYC, LA, Atlanta

It’s that time of year again! Games for Change is excited to announce the launch of the 2019 G4C Student Challenge Competition. Students across the country have been working hard all year to design and code digital games focused on social impact themes. Starting today through

If you played Assassin’s Creed, Minecraft, Candy Crush, Monument Valley, Fortnite, or any other video game in the last year, you are among the estimated 2.1 billion people around the world who also play video games. Almost half of those players are female, but less than 20% of the

Games for Change (G4C) and partners are seeking experienced game designers, technologists, innovators and digital media professionals in New York City, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Detroit to provide mentorship for public school students participating in the G4C Student Challenge – a program in which middle and high school students

G4C is excited to launch the fourth annual G4C Student Challenge in NYC, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Detroit – and to share the opportunity to participate with educators across the four cities. Middle/high public school teachers are invited to apply via the Teacher Application Forms at the

Games for Change is thrilled to announce the 28 winners of the 2018 Games for Change Student Challenge and to recognize the partners, organizations, educators and students who contributed to making this year’s program a resounding success.   Competition Results

Student game designers, take note – we have two big competition announcements about the 2018 G4C Student Challenge!   GRAND PRIZE: $1,000 SCHOLARSHIP G4C is thrilled to announce that each student on the Grand Prize winning teams will earn a $1,000 Scholarship – generously provided by Take-Two Interactive,

At the start of the school year, 22 teachers from 19 LAUSD and affiliated charter schools met at Skylight Studios in Los Angeles to participate in a teacher training for the third annual Games for Change Student Challenge. They learned how to teach game design

Games for Change (G4C) is excited to partner with CS4All and the NYC Department of Education to launch the CS4All Hack League. Over 60 public middle and high schools from across NYC are invited to participate in a bracket-style competition where students create

Games for Change is thrilled to announce the expansion of the third annual Student Challenge to Los Angeles for the 2017-2018 school year! The expansion to the west coast is a product of G4C’s new partnership with Annenberg Foundation

We are pleased to announce the 18 winners of our second annual Games for Change Student Challenge in NYC, Pittsburgh and Dallas! Over 2,000 middle and high school students participated in the 2016-2017 Student Challenge, learning game design in public schools and at local game

The 2nd annual G4C Student Challenge closed on April 12th, 2017. We thank all participating students, and congratulate you on submitting a game to the competition! From our three participating cities — NYC, Dallas and Pittsburgh — 748 students submitted games! We received nearly 400 submissions, quadrupling

Did you miss our April 12th deadline? Don’t worry, there’s still another opportunity for you to submit your game to a national game design competition! The National STEM Video Game Challenge is open to all students in 5th–12th grade in the United States, and

On Saturday, March 11th, over 50 middle and high school students gathered at Grand Central Tech’s Microsoft Reactor Hub for the NYC Games for Change (G4C) Student Game Jam, supported by Take-Two Interactive. Students met leaders from Take-Two, including

Deadline Extension to April 12 for Student Challenge Submissions by Stephanie Lato NYC, Dallas and Pittsburgh students participating in the second annual Games for Change Student Challenge now have until April 12th at 11:59pm EST to submit

G4C Student Challenge Game Jams in Pittsburgh by Ryan Coon and Arielle Evans We’ve hosted a couple of Game Jams in Pittsburgh as part of our local Student Challenge. The Game Jams have been a great way to expand participation in the Student Challenge beyond the classrooms of teachers who

2017 G4C Student Challenge Open For Submissions!   By Sara Cornish Games for Change has opened the submission portal for the second annual G4C Student Challenge. Games must be submitted by April 1, 2017. Middle and high school

2nd Annual G4C Student Challenge Launches in Three Cities! October 4, 2016 Games for Change (G4C) is proud to announce the launch of the 2nd annual G4C Student Challenge in NYC, Pittsburgh, and Dallas for the 2016-2017 school year. This year’s programs features three new themes – Local Stories

Make games with us at our NYC Student Challenge Moveable Game Jams! Starting October 15, Games for Change will host a series of four Moveable Game Jams, with support from the HIVE Digital Media Learning Fund, as a part of our G4C Student Challenge in New York