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Not for an American Idol, not even for a pro athlete. Would you believe kids are going nuts for fellow elementary and middle school math students? But this isn't your traditional pencil to paper math competition, it's MegaBowl, a math video game competition.

"This is sort of like a 21st century spelling bee for mathematics, it is a multiplayer, immersive world called Dimension M where students go in, compete and collaborate with one another while they're doing math and deploying different strategies to compete against another team of students. The mathematics in Dimension M range from elementary up through Algebra II," said Tabula Digita organizer Steven Hoy.

The game is being tested as part of everyday curriculum at a handful of school districts around the country, including some in the Big Apple, the Dallas area, and in Ft. Lauderdale.

As you can imagine, organizers of the event and teachers tend to agree with students who say learning math from a video game gets them just a bit more pumped up about the subject rather than if they were learning from just a textbook alone.

"Playing it out and then at the end seeing if you get it right or get the points and then after you actually win something for all that hard work, it's really exciting," said Wilson Hinh, a student at P.S. 63 William McKinley School.

"A lot of times I'll introduce a topic before we even cover it and they get so into the video game aspect that before we even get to the lesson they're like, 'oh, we're already familiar with that, that's what we do in the video game, we do that, that, that'," said Jemal Graham, a math teacher at M.S. 113.

It's anecdotes like that which have convinced the New York City Department of Education to ponder a day when video games might soon become a natural part of any and every classroom.

"We're working on our evaluation, we're following Florida in their evaluation where they saw a double digit improvement in their math scores," said Troy Fischer of the New York City Department of Education. "We're looking at this for math, science, social studies, we want immersive environments where students can really take control of their own learning."

As for the winners of the three regional MegaBowls, this time around that's as far as it goes. Organizers say for next year, though, they're working on a giant coast-to-coast virtual championship tournament.