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CALLING ALL KIDS: NEW COMPETITION AWARDS CASH FOR
YOU AND YOUR SCHOOL - JUST BY PLAYING WITH GAMES!
~ Microsoft Launches
First-Ever U.S. Kodu Cup, Invites Students to Create
their Own Video Games ~
March 2011
(Redmond, WA) -- Whoever
thought kids could become game developers at the age
of 9? Now they can with the help of a game design tool
called Kodu Game Lab, which is science, engineering
and math learning, cleverly disguised as fun.
Developed by Microsoft Research,
Kodu Game Lab lets kids create their own 3D games without
writing code. Instead, it allows kids to focus on designing
worlds visually, by dragging and dropping images and
simple icons to build characters and the worlds where
they live.
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For the first time in the U.S., Microsoft is launching
a nationwide contest to put kids' Kodu Game Lab
skills to the test. It's easy to enter.
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Kodu Cup invites kids ages 9 to 17 to submit their
game for the opportunity to win prizes in the categories
of creativity, fun factor, functionality and design.
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Prizes range from Xbox 360 with Kinect to $5,000
cash, both for themselves and for their respective
schools.
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Starting today, kids can submit their games by
visiting koducup.us.
Submissions will be accepted until May 10, 2011,
with winners announced at the end of May.
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The competition will be broken into two age groups
of 9 to 12 year olds and 13 to 17 year olds with
a grand prize winner, first and second runners up
from each age group.
Microsoft says the Kodu Cup
is designed to promote important 21st century skills
such as logic, critical thinking, reasoning and planning,
and to ignite children's interest in future careers
in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
As President Obama discussed in his State of the Union
Address in late January, abilities concentrated in STEM
are increasingly critical to remaining competitive in
the world and workforce.
According to the U.S. Department
of Labor, the U.S. will have more than two million job
openings in STEM related fields by 2014. The Kodu Game
Lab helps kids build a strong foundation in STEM-related
skills and inspires them to study and pursue STEM fields
in a way that's both fun and interesting to them. To
learn more and get a free Kodu download, visit: fuse.microsoft.com/kodu.
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