DENVER, June 1, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- In response to the growing concerns about poor sportsmanship on and off the sports field, Learning Through Sports in partnership with the Mountain West Conference, is sponsoring a grant program to award STAR Sportsmanship to a Colorado school. STAR Sportsmanship (www.learningthroughsports.com) is an interactive learning program for children that teaches them good sportsmanship and decision-making skills for on and off the playing field.
Elementary public and private schools in Colorado are invited to submit a short essay describing their vision for how STAR Sportsmanship could be used in their school, summer-school, after-school program, or athletics programs. The winning school will receive free access to STAR Sportsmanship which may be used by their school staff, parents, students and affiliated programs for one year. Funding for the contest is made possible by the Mountain West Conference.
"The Mountain West Conference sportsmanship initiative is dedicated to helping youth learn positive behaviors on the field and good sportsmanship," said Craig Thompson, commissioner of the Mountain West Conference. "We look forward to putting STAR Sportsmanship directly in the hands of the winning school."
STAR Sportsmanship is a web-based, role-playing computer program for elementary students (www.learningthroughsports.com). With STAR, children are taught to STOP before making an unwise decision, THINK how their actions affect themselves and others, ACT promptly to demonstrate good sportsmanship and REPLAY how they handled the situation and learn from it. Also included are motivational messages about good behavior from sports celebrities. The program is easily accessed from the Internet using any standard web-browser.
STAR Sportsmanship, which recently won the 2005 Best Educational Software Awards (BESSIE) sponsored by the ComputED Learning Center in San Diego, Calif., was conceived by founder and CEO of Learning Through Sports, Brian Shulman, a former captain for the 1988 SEC champion Auburn football team.
"Today our children see poor sportsmanship and bad behavior acted out in pro sports and in school sports," said Mr. Shulman. "Through this contest, we hope to award STAR Sportsmanship to a Colorado school who will find good use for it and teach their children how to make good choices, how to play fair and how to respect themselves and others." To enter, public and private schools or groups associated with a school may submit a short essay (no more than 500 words) stating how they would use STAR in their program, how many students would be affected, and their goals. In addition to the essay, entries must include a contact name, email address, phone, school/program name and address by June 30 to contest@learningthroughsports.com. More information at www.learningthroughsports.com/contest or by calling 205-980-8970.
About Learning Through Sports
Learning Through Sports (www.learningthroughsports.com) is an education publisher using interactive sports games to teach core subject areas and behavioral skills development for grades K-12. The company publishes Kid's College, a Web-based math and language arts/reading program, STAR Sportsmanship, a Web-based role-playing program for youth teaching how to make good decisions on and off the playing field, and provides Edugaming services for corporations and athletic organizations teaching youth a variety of skills utilizing highly engaging, custom branded online sports games.
The Learning Through Sports logo is available at: http://www.primezone.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=1651