MdBioFoundation and Hunt Valley-based BreakAway to create STEM video game for high schoolers

Science lovers have apparently heard that high school-age students like blowing things up in Halo.
The MdBioFoundation, a private charitable organization “that provides and supports bioscience awareness, education and workforce development in the state of Maryland” — and an affiliate of the Tech Council of Maryland  — is partnering with Hunt Valley-based video game developers BreakAway Ltd. to build a series of online, science-based video games, reports the Baltimore Sun.

From the Sun:

The [MdBioFoundation] sees science-based video games as a way to help improve education in the STEM fields, or science, technology, engineering and mathematics. … Survival [is] the first installment of a multipart online video game known as MdBioSphere that will be available to Maryland high school students later next year. [more]

According to the Sun, the first game will require $2.5 million to build, and the MdBioFoundation has contributed $300,000, but is looking for sponsors and, possibly, government support to held build Survival and the remaining games.
Chairman of the MdBioFoundation J.J. Finkelstein “said the goal is to develop the video game and sell licenses to education systems in other states. The licensing fees would help the foundation to continue to develop and support the game,” according to the Sun.
According to its website, BreakAway Ltd. uses “game technology to build solutions for real-world problems.” It’s a licensed developer for the Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and can claim Sid Meier’s Civilization III: Conquests as one of its published titles.