Help us congratulate our 10 teacher and librarian winners! Playnormous gave away custom iMac computers to public and private pre-K teachers, K-12 teachers, school librarians, and public librarians in the U.S. during the 2009-2010 school year. New winners were announced each month. Read all about our winners who now have a Monster iMac in their class, library or home!

How We Judge Entries

Playnormous has gathered some of the top minds in behavioral science, medicine, learning and technology to determine our winners each month. Tell us what you like about our games and how our games have impacted your class or library by writing to us, blogging about us, or telling your story in the media format of your choice. Entries will be judged based on game use, creativity, story and overall entry. Only completed entries will be sent to the judges. Entrants must be legal residents of the United States and be employed as a full-time private or public K-12 teacher, school librarian, or public librarian in the continental United States during the 2009-2010 school year. Computers will only be delivered to verifiable school and public library addresses. Sorry, homeschool parents are not eligible for this giveaway.

Download the Contest Poster

Teachers and librarians! Use our free handout to tell your kids how they can help your class or library win a Playnormous Monster iMac.

Janice Baranowski, MPH

Mrs. Baranowski is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in Behavioral Nutrition at the Children’s Nutrition Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine. Her research focuses on understanding fruit, juice and vegetable (FJV) consumption, obesity prevention and promotion of physical activity in multi-ethnic groups of children and their families. Mrs. Baranowski’s experience in computer-based interventions for health includes Escape from Diab, Nanoswarm: Invasion From Inner Space, Squire’s Quest and Boy Scout 5-A-Day.

Andre Blackman

Mr. Blackman is a health communications expert with an extensive background associated with science, technology and public health, conducting research at institutions such as the Naval Research Lab, NASA and WESTAT. His interests include the role of new media, mobile and other emerging technologies as it relates to health communications and public health. Mr. Blackman records his thoughts on the intersections of health and technology through his blog, Pulse+Signal, Twitter and the collaborative blog healthGAMERS.

Cliff Dacso, MD, MBA, MPH

Dr. Dacso is the John S. Dunn Sr. Research Chair in General Internal Medicine at The Methodist Hospital and Distinguished Research Professor for the College of Technology at the University of Houston. He is also Director of the Abramson Family Center for the Future of Health, a joint program between The Methodist Hospital Research Institute and the University of Houston College of Technology. Dr. Dacso’s current research focuses on the use of video and video game technologies to empower cancer patients.

Tony Elam

Mr. Elam is Principal of Elam consulting with over nineteen years of experience in the Information Technology Industry and twelve years in Higher Education Research Management. He has served as Executive Director of Strategic Initiatives at Baylor College of Medicine as well as Associate Dean of Engineering and Executive Director of CITI at Rice University. Mr. Elam has strong knowledge and interest in the use of serious gaming technology in education, training and business applications such as decision support. He also has one of the largest non-electronic game collections in the United States.

Ernie Medina, Jr, DrPH, CHFI

Dr. Medina is a preventive care specialist who has spent the last 13 years working at Beaver Medical Group in Redlands, California, helping patients of all ages overcome lifestyle-related diseases such as obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. Dr. Medina is the originator and co-founder of XRtainment Zone, a first-of-a-kind center combining the latest in exergaming equipment and professional programming for total wellness in the family. He recently incorporated exergaming into the Zone’s Family FitZone class, a pediatric and family weight management class.

Leslie Miller, PhD

Dr. Miller is a Senior Research Scholar at the Center for Technology in Teaching and Learning at Rice University. Her current research focuses on the use of technology in education, in particular, envisioning new ways to use multimedia to improve learning among adolescents. Dr. Miller has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities for projects including CSI Web Adventures and MedMyst.

Cynthia Phelps, PhD

Dr. Phelps is an Assistant Professor of Health Informatics at the University of Texas Health Science Center School of Health Information Sciences. Her research focuses on the use of technology in teaching and learning and the creation of technology-based learning environments. The first Playnormous game, Food Fury, was created for Dr. Phelps, funded by the Aetna Foundation.

Debbe Thompson, PhD

Dr. Thompson is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and a Scientist/Nutritionist for the USDA/ARS. Her research focuses on the design, development, and evaluation of interactive multimedia programs, including web-based and videogames, for obesity prevention in youth. She is also interested in health message design, theory and measurement of models of youth diet and physical activity behavior.

Irmi Willcockson, PhD

Dr. Willcockson is an Instructor and Director of Certificate Programs at The University of Texas Health Science Center School of Health Information Sciences. Her research focuses on how games work to produce learning, especially for science and health related topics for children. She has worked as the content expert and evaluator for the LEARN project, Medical Mysteries and Brainsrule.

Stephen Yang, PhD, MS

Dr. Yang is an Assistant Professor at the State University of New York College at Cortland Department of Physical Education. His research focuses on the effectiveness of using exergames and electronic games or egames for healthy benefits. Dr. Yang is the author of Exergame Lab @ SUNNY Cortland, a blog that details his research interests in the use of Electronic Gaming Activities for Movement Enjoyment.