The inventing game
Oct. 7, 2008 – The Duncan McNeill Centre for Innovation in the HP building has a posh, professional-looking frontage. You would never imagine that anyone could be spending their entire time inside musing over games.
That is exactly what Joe DeWitte does inside her office at the Centre - and NAIT is helping her to do it.
Joe is the inventor of the Terms, Drugs, EMS Challenge, Child Care Challenge, and First AID Challenge games - all of which are edutainment tools that provide enjoyable ways for healthcare providers, babysitters and first aiders to review material that are relevant to their respective fields.
Her business, EMS Edutainment Inc, is built around her inventions and is housed at the Centre which acts as a business accelerator for her company.
The EMS Challenge board game was Joe’s very first invention. It is made up of 400 questions that test the medical knowledge of players.
More than 300 Copies of the game have been sold since it went into production in 2006. Buyers have come from the United States and Canada and include schools such as Boston University, University of Oklahoma, NAIT, SAIT and Medicine Hat College.
New games
TERMS and DRUGS are bingo-type games. TERMS reviews medical terminology while Drugs reviews emergency drug dosages. Both consist of flashcards and the playing cards.
They allow an individual the option of studying with just the flash cards or playing a game with additional persons using the playing cards. Both games have been manufactured and are being sold by EMS Edutainment Inc.
The First AID Challenge and the Child care Challenge are prototypes. “We hope to license First AID Challenge and Child Care Challenge to a buyer who would manufacture them. We do not intend on manufacturing and selling these games ourselves,” she says.
“NAIT was a ‘good fit. I am really pleased that I have a partnership with this wonderful institution. I am presently a small business and it is nice to have the support of so many people that ultimately want to see you succeed,” says Joe, herself a NAIT alum.
Kanwal Dhaliwal, Manager of the Centre says “There are so many inventors and business people being nurtured within NAIT today. I am glad for this opportunity which I think allows people like Joe to share their outstanding stories with the rest of the NAIT community.”
The edutainment games are among of several inventions that are being incubated at NAIT.