Cambridge 6th grader wins national video game competition

Cooper Kelley was honored at the Smithsonian American Art Museum along with other winners of a national video game design contest. Submitted photo.

By Brock Parker, Town Correspondent

Cooper Kelley, a 6th grader at the Maria L. Baldwin School in Cambridge won top honors at a national competition for designing video games earlier this month.

Kelley won the category of “Scratch & Playable Game Incorporating STEM Themes” for grades 5-8 in the National STEM Video Game Challenge.

The Challenge seeks to encourage interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) by tapping into students’ passion for playing and making video games, according to the Challenge's web site.

Kelley's victory came in a competition in which kids use programming language called Scratch to make a video game. He won with his game called “Mechanical Dragon.”

Twenty-eight middle school and high school students from across the United States were selected as winners for their game designs. The winners were announced at The Atlantic’s Technologies in Education Forum in Washington, D.C. earlier this month and the students were honored at an event sponsored by Microsoft on May 21 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Game highlights for each of the youth winners can be found at here.