Junior high and high school students from throughout the state recently gathered to share their interests and knowledge of the tech world for the SPARK Game Jam coding competition. 

The SPARK event -- “Invention and Eats” -- was hosted by the Town of Gilbert and Arizona State University’s Fulton School of Engineering. It was the first SPARK App League event held in conjunction with the Smithsonian’s Washington, D.C. event designed to help students engage in the invention and gaming process. 

"Invention and Eats" encouraged students to rethink how food is grown, prepared and consumed while involving gaming. 

“An event like this is important to the Smithsonian in that we’re interested in getting kids involved in technologies and helping them to learn about new ways to create, new ways to invent, and new ways to be innovative,” the Smithsonian’s Tim Pula said in a press release. 

The <div>ergent team from Desert Ridge High School won Best Overall Game with “The Hunger Games,” which focused on world hunger and featured gamers fighting off evil food monsters to collect food to share with the world. 

Other SPARK winners included Best Game Design by the Nerds team from Gilbert High School for “SPARK Lunch Box Designer” and the Dream Makers from Highland Junior High for “Chef Jeff’s Sandwich Adventure.” 

Winning Best Technical Game was the Nochael home school team for “Cheeseburger Madness."

The Model Citizen Award was awarded to Dream Meme Team from Gilbert Classical Academy for “Deliver for Me.”