Stuart Country Day School of the Sacred Heart, Princeton, recently announced that two teams of Stuart eighth graders were winners in the 2012 National STEM Video Game Challenge. 

The winning Stuart team members include, Julia Weingaertner, Sarah Lippman, Chloe Mario, Madeleine Lapuerta and Emma Froehlich. The students are among the 28 middle and high school students from across the country who were selected as winners for their original game designs. The Stuart students are the only girls to receive awards.

The winners were honored at an event May 24. Scheduled to be on-hand to congratulate the winners was Brian Aslspach, executive vice president and general manager of Gamestar Mechanic at E-Line Media, one of the National STEM Challenge presenting companies.

Both teams were awarded prizes in the PBS KIDS Ready to Learn Category of the National STEM Video Game Challenge.This annual competition seeks to motivate interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) learning by tapping into students’ natural passion for playing and making video games. The competition is inspired by President Barack Obama’s Educate to Innovate campaign to promote STEM education. 

Seventeen games created by individuals and teams of students, in eight subcategories, were selected as winners of the Middle School and High School Categories from a group of more than 3,700 entries.

The girls from Stuart Country Day School of the Sacred Heart designed and programmed their video games as part of the required coursework in their Grade 8 Computer Science class with instructor Alicia Testa.

Under the leadership of Dr. Fagin, Stuart has focused on elevating STEM education, beginning at the earliest grades, to show girls that science, technology, engineering and math can be fun and can open doorways to countless opportunities. The School strives for every graduate to comfortable and confident in basic STEM skills, or ready to pursue a career in a STEM field if she chooses. In January of this year Stuart announced the formation of a STEM Advisory Task Force made up of some of the nations leading thinkers to help conquer the so-called “girl gap” in the science, technology, engineering and math disciplines.

Weingaertner and Lippman worked together to design and create a video game called “Animal Inequities” which uses animated sharks and fish to teach the math concepts of greater than and less than.

Lapuerta Mario and Froehlich developed “Math Racing Mania” in which plays get to choose a cool racing car to drive through roads with the correct answers to math problems on the screen.

The Stuart students and Testa, traveled to Washington D.C. where they were honored at an event sponsored by Microsoft at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Each winner was awarded an AMD based laptop computer, travel to and from Washington DC, and subscriptions to Brain Pop magazine and Gamestar Mechanic. Each team will also be awarded $2,000 for their school.