The Quest

Begins Now...
Connecting children to their world and helping them
live better through video games for health.

Supporting educational video games for learning

has a broad spectrum of impact.
What if a video game could change a childs life for the
better and make our children heroes for health?
Many children dont understand where their food
comes from, the relationship between what they
eat and their health, or the importance of the
environment for providing good food.
The Cooper Institute, a nonprofit medicine
research and education organization, has recently
expanded its reach into serious video games.
In their fight against childhood obesity, the CI
team created the award-winning The Quest to
Lava Mountain, an educational web-based game
targeted at grade school children.
The Quest is an exploration-based adventure with
avatar customization that teaches children proper
nutritional habits. It has a broad impact on not
only children, but also parents, schools, and the
community.
Kids love to learn when learning is fun. The Quest
allows students to put their own health knowledge
to the test as they complete tasks and battle
monsters. The Quest provides a unique approach
by using stealth-learning to help kids understand
how to be healthy and make their world a better
place.

VIDEO GAMES BY
THE NUMBERS
68% of parents believe that game play
provides mental stimulation for education
70% of teachers say games increase
students motivation and engagement
with curriculum
50% of teachers use gaming in the
classroom at least twice a week

I play at home every night. It teaches

me to eat better food instead of junk
food.

-Iliana Ramirez, 4th grade,

as reported in El Paso Times

Through The Quest, children learn:

Healthy foods make them strong.
Hunger leads to loss of strength.
STEM (science, technology,
engineering, & math) skills.
The importance of clean water.
The benefits of recycling and
composting.
Eco-friendly food production.
The importance of being physically
active.

Corporate Impact:
Millions of hours of Safeway brand exposure.
Safeway character in game reminds player to
find healthy foods at Safeway.
Fully scalable for Safeway customers via Apple
iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Google Android,
Amazon Kindle, and other platforms.
Leader in innovative learning by awarding
customers a code to purchase The Quest for
play at home or school.

When Gaming is Good

For You!
Gaming improves creativity, decisionmaking, and perception.
People who played action-based video
and computer games made decisions 25%
faster than others with equal accuracy.
Practiced game players can pay attention
to more than 6 things at once without
getting confused.

Extending REACH Through:

Promoting health, wellness, and the environment.

Partnership in the fight against childhood obesity.
Promoting good nutrition in schools and homes.
Building a healthier workforce.
Enhancing STEM skills and careers of future workers.
Drive people to social media and website.
Maintaining customer contact through distribution
and timely promotions.

BACKGROUND

Nonprofit medicine research and education company The Cooper Institute (CI) is fighting childhood
obesity with The Quest to Lava Mountain (The Quest), an online educational computer game targeted
at grade school children. As a result, CI has the opportunity for an American multinational corporation
to increase brand exposure to the young youth market through the co-branding of a serious video game
and app.
Published by The Cooper Institute in 2011, The Quest is described as a 3D, immersive, theoretically
grounded web-based action-adventure video game that teaches elementary school children healthy
eating behaviors and promotes metacognition within the four core subject areas. With approximately
10 hours of immersive game play, The Quest brings a unique approach to health and gaming because
it uses stealth learning to help participants understand how to optimize their health. The Quest players
choose an avatar to be the hero and clean the towns water supply (so crops and non-player character
health returns) and then complete quests to advance in the game. The Quest, not unlike The Legend of
Zelda (Nintendo) and The Oregon Trail (MECC), involves creative and critical thinking and challenges
the child to learn new skills while reinforcing math, science, reading, history, environmentalism, social
collaboration, and health.
The Quest helps children understand and apply five core concepts: (1) food is fuel; (2) food and physical
activity are related; (3) healthy foods provide nutrients for optimal performance and stamina; (4) a
healthy diet includes consuming a variety of healthy foods in moderation; (5) a physically active lifestyle
helps to maintain optimal heath. An additional integral concept in The Quest is sustainable food practices
such as eco-friendly farming, composting, recycling, and use of clean irrigation water.
Dallas-based Controlled Chaos Media, a studio founded by former students of The Guildhall at Southern
Methodist University, was selected to lead the development of The Quest because of the teams
experience with popular commercial games such as Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 (Gearbox) and Call
of Duty: Finest Hour (Spark Unlimited) and because Controlled Chaos had previously shipped Pocket
Fish and Lumos for iOS platforms. For The Quest, nutrition content was incorporated into a well-storied
game, featuring the same playability elements children are accustomed to seeing in consumer games.

ABOUT THE COOPER INSTITUTE

Established in 1970 by Kenneth H. Cooper, MD, MPH, The Cooper Institute is a 501(c)3) nonprofit
dedicated to health research and education, housing one of the worlds largest databases on exercise
and health. Each year, CI courses produce engaged learners in fitness and health. CI offers web-based
tools for schools to track and report on youth fitness and nutrition: NutriGram, FITNESSGRAM and the
Healthy Zone School Recognition Program.

Connie Tyne, MS

Vice President of External Affairs

12330 Preston Rd. | Dallas, TX 75230 | ph: 972-560-2667 | toll free: 866-906-2667

CooperInstitute.org