AMD and Learning Games Network today announced the A-HA Moment video contest, a competition for students to demonstrate how video game play can result in serious learning.
The contest, open to U.S. students age 13 and older in middle school, high school and post-secondary school, consists of two main categories. The "A-ha Moment" category asks contestants to create a video explaining how playing video games reinforced something they had first learned elsewhere. The "My Dream Assignment" category asks them to describe a game that could be "required playing" for a class at school. The contest is open now through May 31.

"Digital game play as an entertainment vehicle is undisputed, but we believe games can also serve as valuable educational tools," said Andrew Blanco, Director of Program and Business Development for the Learning Games Network. "This contest encourages students to exercise their creativity while sharing their perspectives on games' potential."

"We live in a visual age where gameplay - and game development in particular - can motivate students to learn in ways that can't be matched by non-visual learning mechanisms," said Allyson Peerman, vice president of Public Affairs for AMD and President of the AMD Foundation. "Inspiring youth through social game development is the mission behind AMD Changing the Game and this contest is another vehicle to help advance that mission."

AMD Changing the Game, the signature education initiative of the AMD Foundation, is designed to take gaming beyond entertainment and inspire youth to learn critical education and life skills by equipping them to create digital games with social content. The program's purpose is to promote the use of youth game development as a tool to inspire learning, improve science, technology, education and math (STEM) skills. The initiative is rooted in AMD's commitment to and experience in supporting education and the company's passion and expertise in the graphics processor and gaming industries.

First-place contest winners in each age group will be eligible to receive a 16 inch HP Pavilion dv6 series notebook, powered by an AMD Turion X2 Ultra Dual-Core Mobile Processor ZM-84.

For an entry form and full contest details and rules, please visit www.aha-moment.org.

Launched in June 2008, AMD Changing the Game has funded four non-profit organizations that teach youth game development; explored social issues in Teen Second Life and created a video interest area for students and teachers to use to explore how to create video games; sponsored the 5th Annual Games for Change Festival; funded an online toolkit to help non-profits create games on social issues; launched an AMD Changing the Game page on Facebook; and funded the development of a youth game-development curriculum with PetLab and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. The curriculum is currently being piloted in five U.S. cities and is expected to be available in mid-2009 for other organizations to use.