A competition co-sponsored by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop was announced by President Obama today (Sept. 16) at the White House, according to a press release from the center. The National STEM Video Game Challenge is part of the administration’s “Educate to Innovate” campaign. The contest aims to motivate interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) via students’ passion for playing and making video games. “I applaud partners in the National STEM Video Game Challenge for lending their resources, expertise, and their enthusiasm to the task of strengthening America’s leadership in the 21st century by improving education in science, technology, engineering and math,” the president said.

Penn State Public Broadcasting’s interesting online series, “The Geospatial Revolution Project,” went online Wednesday (Sept. 15) to explore how geospatial information transforms lives. As the site says: “Geospatial information influences nearly everything. Seamless layers of satellites, surveillance, and location-based technologies create a worldwide geographic knowledge base vital to solving myriad social and environmental problems in the interconnected global community.” The first of the four episodes focuses on how the technology aided first responders during the Haitian earthquake relief efforts. The 13-minute video explains how it all works, gives a brief history of the evolution of mapping, and ends with the practical application of crisis mapping and crowdsourcing used after the earthquake.

Public Media Corps (PMC), the New Media Institute’s initiative to extend broadband adoption into underserved communities, has been plugging along since its launch in June in Washington, D.C., reports the MediaShift blog. The 15 fellows and their institutional partners are working in four neighborhoods of predominantly African American, Latino and immigrant communities. Part of the effort focuses on “Cool Spots,” or mobile Internet access hubs, said Jacquie Jones, executive director of the National Black Programming Consortium, which is overseeing the work. “The fellows set up [Cool Spots] at block parties, festivals and outdoor markets and events where the public uses netbooks onsite to complete online surveys and learn more about the PMC,” she said.

The HistoryMakers, the largest archive of African-American recorded interviews in the world — many airing as PBS specials — is celebrating its 10th anniversary by partnering with schools nationwide. Starting Friday (Sept. 17) dozens of personalities included in the interview archives will be visiting their former classrooms to discuss their lives and stress the importance of education. Participants include former U.S. Senator and Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun, returning to her Paul Robeson High School; former Ohio Congressman Louis Stokes, speaking at the former school that was renamed for him and his brother, Carl and Louis Stokes High School; and actress Marla Gibbs (“The Jeffersons”) going to Angela Mesa Elementary School in Los Angeles.

A new morning newsmagazine will debut on Pasadena’s KPCC on Monday (Sept. 20) —The Madeleine Brand Show, airing weekdays at 9 a.m. Brand, a former NPR correspondent and Day to Day co-host, will helm a one-hour program that covers news “using story-telling techniques familiar to radio listeners, but mixed together in a new way,” according to a news release. The show team includes Kristen Muller, who joined KPCC from CBS; Sanden Totten, previously a reporter and producer for Minnesota Public Radio’s In the Loop; and, Steve Proffitt, who was senior producer on Day to Day, one of two Los Angeles-based programs that NPR canceled last year.

The opening of a KAET gubernatorial debate earlier this month — in which current Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer repeatedly stumbles over her words and then simply stops speaking — is approaching 2 million hits on YouTube. KAET g.m. Kelly McCullough told Current that someone saw the debate, posted the minute-long portion on YouTube, local TV stations took note, then CNN, MSNBC and Fox followed. By that time the clip was the fourth most-watched on YouTube, and McCullough was hearing from folks as far away as London. “It’s a good example of the multimedia nature of the world,” as McCullough noted.

A PBS NewsHour producer has helped a Haitian amputee receive a prosthesis, says the TV Newser, a blog in the MediaBistro network. Dancer and choreographer George Exantus lost his right leg below the knee while trapped in rubble following January’s devastating earthquake in Haiti. After viewers saw his story on NewsHour, they wanted to assist. Producer Merrill Schwerin got Freedom Innovations to donate an artificial limb and now Exantus is dancing again.

Launch of Tampa’s new all-classical station WSMR has been delayed due to technical problems at its tower site, according to the Bradenton Herald. “We are very disappointed about this,” says Joanne Urofsky, general manager. WUSF Public Media, which acquired the license to broadcast on 89.1 MHz in Sarasota this summer, didn’t delay the format switch for its FM station in Tampa, which now devotes its daytime grids to news programs and nights to jazz. The classical service debuted today as an HD Radio channel of WUSF and as an Internet stream. Urofsky hopes that engineers will put WSMR-FM on the air within the next couple of days.

A new Pew research report reveals that while 35 percent of U.S. adults have apps on their cell phones, only 24 percent actually use them. “The Rise of Apps Culture” released Tuesday (Sept. 14) by the Pew Internet & American Life Project and Nielsen also shows that app use scores at the bottom of a list of what people do with their phones, just 29 percent. Taking photos is atop that list, at 6 percent . Other cell-phone uses include texting, 72 percent; accessing the Internet, 38 percent; and sending or receiving e-mail, 34 percent. Games, news/weather, and mapping apps are most popular.

Big changes are under way at KIXE in Redding, Calif. Philip Smith, who came on as g.m. in July, is restructuring the station and has done away with the positions of corporate support, production manager and community affairs coordinator, reports the local Record Searchlight. Smith plans to immediately hire a development director to handle the corporate support and community affairs duties. The production manager’s position will be redefined to include work that is much broader than traditional TV production, Smith told the paper; that new hire is several months off. In a programming change in August, KIXE dropped Democracy Now!

The Federal Communications Commission is now offering a searchable online license database, the commission announced today (Sept. 15). FCC License View lets users peruse more than 3 million FCC licensees, around 2 million of which are active. Search by licensee name, call sign or FCC registration number to reveal interesting facts such as: WGBH holds 58 licenses.

The Independent Television Service is bringing the PBS film “Pushing the Elephant” to Capitol Hill Thursday (Sept. 16) to raise awareness of violence against women and girls around the globe, according to ITVS. Speaking after the film will be its subject, Congolese refugee Rose Mapendo, who escaped from the genocidal war in the Democratic Republic of Congo in February 2000. PBS President Paula Kerger also will address the audience on the network’s role in bringing new and underserved voices to viewers. The event, at 8:30 a.m. in the Rayburn Office Building, is in cooperation with Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.), Rep.

Carol Pierson, former president of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, will receive the Everett C. Parker Award at the United Church of Christ’s 28th annual Parker Lecture in Ethics and Telecommunications on Sept. 29 in Washington, reports Broadcasting & Cable. The event was created in 1983 to recognize the media activist’s work as an advocate for public rights in broadcasting. Presenting the main lecture this year is FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. Pierson is being honored for her 30-year career in public broadcasting and her work to help ensure that pubcasting serves people of color and other underserved communities.

The first of three hearings to decide the fate of the New Jersey Network are under way today at the statehouse, reports the Bergen Record. Gov. Chris Christie (R) has proposed ending the state’s $11 million subsidy and transferring NJN’s operations, licenses and equipment to a nongovernmental entity, most likely an independent, nonprofit (Current, July 6, 2010). So far, Democrats are emphasizing the need for a statewide television network; Republicans agree but are stressing the state’s fiscal difficulties.

The Charlotte Observer, American Public Media and the Charlotte Viewpoint website last weekend (Sept. 11) launched its citizen-sourced Carolinas Public Insight Network. It’s a confidential database of volunteer news sources, according to the site. “You connect with our newsroom through the Web, and then agree on occasion to receive an e-mail asking for your insights and expertise,” explained Observer editor Rick Thames. Longtime Observer editor Cindy Montgomery is heading up the effort.