The New Mexico State University Media Productions team, responsible for projects with more than 40 universities, agencies and nonprofit groups nationwide, has recently received multiple awards for interactive media programs.
Producing revolutionary media over various platforms for campus-wide, statewide and nationwide platforms, the Media Productions team was awarded with six Gold awards and two Professional Skill awards at the Association for Communication Excellence Conference earlier this summer in Portland, Oregon. They received the Best in Show award from the Serious Play Conference in Los Angeles for their work on Gate, a Web-based game.
“Gate is part of our Math Snacks suite, an entirely NMSU operated program,” said Barbara Chamberlin, director of the Learning Games Lab at NMSU. “Math Snacks is a partnership, grant-funded by the National Science Foundation, where Media Productions develops the games, but is led by College of Education faculty, in partnership with other departments. It’s an example of lots of different strengths in our university coming together.”
Math Snacks includes Gate: Teaching Number and Place Values, and Ratio Rumble an iPad game that guides second through seventh-grade level players to understand equivalent ratios as established by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, in a fun, collaborative way.
“Arming people with mathematics is a social justice,” said Jeanne Gleason, director of Media Productions. “If we have a way for all people, of all economic groups to have this basic math understanding, it will make such a difference.”
The two Professional Skill Awards accounted for 20 percent of ACE’s top awards this year. NMSU was recognized for Ratio Rumble, part of the Math Snacks suite, and Don’t Wash Your Chicken, a campaign for Drexel University. The campaign counts for half of the Gold awards received this year.
Virtual Labs, in partnership with North Dakota State University and South Dakota State University, is the other winning app that helps students practice the methods and fundamentals of laboratory techniques. It is available for purchase on iTunes or online.
“What we’re most proud of is where we got the outstanding Professionals Skill awards, because those show that we really are innovative,” Chamberlin said. “It shows we’re one of the states pushing the buttons.”
For more information on the Learning Games Lab, contact Barbara Chamberlin at 575-646-2848, or by email at bchamber@nmsu.edu.
Information from NMSU