Honolulu, HI -- (ReleaseWire) -- 03/10/2014 --Question: How do multiplayer video games in the classroom help improve academic performance in math? Answer: By providing students the academic challenge and motivation in an environment where they can team with peers of diverse ages, grade levels and backgrounds from the same school or across the country.

All of this and more, will happen during the 2014 DimensionU Hawai’i Math Games Competition, on March 13th at August Ahrens Elementary School in Waipahu. Students have been leveling-up in mathematics as they prepare to compete and represent their respective schools.

The event is co-hosted by educational video game developer, DimensionU, Inc. and August Ahrens Elementary School, using the DimensionU Multiplayer Games™ platform. The competition involves school teams from three Hawaii Complex Areas: Nanakuli-Waianai, Pearl City-Waipahu, & Aiea-Moanalua-Radford. During the energy-packed tournament, student teams will go head-to-head on common-core aligned math-skills to advance through timed video game rounds. Each student’s curriculum is tailored to his or her individual grade level, enabling a differentiated mathematics event that allows for a more inclusive range of student participation. Assisting with running the tournament are Waipahu High School Senior Volunteers, who were among the first students in Hawaii to use DimensionU.

The DimensionU program, recently highlighted in a Hawaii DOE Vision for Success story, was introduced to areas schools through the innovative efforts of Principal Keith Hayashi, at Waipahu HS, which saw its students’ interest in math explode via the game under a collaborative STEM initiative with the Hawaii DOE, SPAWAR Systems Command Pacific, National Defense Education Program (NDEP), and National Center for the Advancement of STEM Education (NCASE) and DimensionU, Inc.

VISUAL: Elementary and Intermediate school students competing in a digitally engaging, video game competition for mathematics. It will be a fast-paced, action-packed event - not your typical math tournament.

WHAT: 2014 Hawai’i Math Games Tournament.

WHEN: Thursday, March 13, 2014, from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM (HST)

WHERE: August Ahrens Elementary School, 94-1170 Waipahu St., Waipahu, HI 96797