On Monday October 8th, the four Landscape Architecture students from the Nature @ Play seminar attended the 2007 annual American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) national conference in San Francisco to receive the prestigious Student Collaboration Honor Award on behalf of the class-team.

The award recognizes collaborative projects brought about through a team effort among students from landscape architecture programs along with students from allied & complementary disciplines.

The purpose of the seminar was to explore ecological education by means of video games. Why? Because at the heart of the project was a genuine passion to make the Earth a healthier place, and the students recognized that reaching & engaging today's youth is an important part of this process.

But how? Getting today's youth interested in & building their understanding of, ecosystems, by connecting them to the natural world through a medium that is second nature to them.

The resulting product? An educational video game entitled, Navigating Nature, which utilizes a compelling storyline, animated characters & different game play techniques built upon natural laws to challenge children to restore ecosystems - by giving them an active role in the restoration process. When kids play games, they are thinking critically & exercising logic; simply put - they are learning.