Abstract
There is a digital divide in America that starts in public school and extends through the workforce. This paper describes a new approach to bridging that divide by introducing novice students to Computer Science through the use of a Physics-based 3D Game Design course using Blender, a free and open source tool for Modeling, Animation, and Game Design. The complexity of the Blender interface is moderated by the use of Gamekits which are complete games together with a lesson that encourages students to explore one particular aspect of the game system. In the process of learning to create games, the students also gain experience working with an Agent-based programming model and an Object-Oriented coding environment with local variables and message passing. Experience using this approach in five courses over the past five years indicates that most undergraduate novice programmers are able to use this Professional Game Design system to create sophisticated games and to build a solid understanding of the Blender visual programming model.