Meta!Blast: The Leaf, a video game application developed by an ISU research team headed by GDCB Professors Eve Syrkin Wurtele and Diane Bassham, received the People’s Choice Award in the 2013 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge Winners, as announced on February 6, 2014 by the magazine, Science.

To select the 2013 winners, staff committee members from NSF and Science screened the 227 entries from 12 countries. The criteria for judging included visual impact, effective communication, freshness and originality. Nearly 2000 people voted via social media for their favorites for the People’ Choice awards.

“The winners made scientific data beautiful and brought their new ideas to life, while at the same time immersing the viewer in science,” said Monica M. Bradford, executive editor of Science. “The award recognizes this remarkable talent for creating thought-provoking videos and visuals.

Meta!Blast: The Leaf is a game that immerses the player on and in a leaf (play the game).  Intended as a supplement to in-class instruction, it lets high school students pilot a miniature bioship across a strange landscape, which features nematodes and a lumbering tardigrade. They can dive into individual cells and zoom around a chloroplast, activating photosynthesis with their ship’s search lamp. By conveying the complexity and visual interest of a biological system, Dr. Wurtele and her team seek to increase student engagement with science and encourage a strong foundation in STEM.