In a continuing effort to keep kids of all ages engaged during the lull created by the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, Major League Baseball on Tuesday announced its participation in a new digital education initiative called EduCup Challenge 2020.

This first-of-its-kind education challenge is a multi-league digital effort designed to engage young people via platforms powered by EVERFI, one of MLB's digital education partners.

MLB is working alongside Major League Soccer, the National Football League, National Hockey League, National Hockey League Players' Association, National Lacrosse League and Premier League to bring the EduCup Challenge to homebound K-12 students throughout the U.S. and Canada.

The EduCup Challenge is a two-week scholarship contest as well as Instagram and Twitter challenge that will harness the spirit of competition to encourage students to engage in learning and healthy habits. The challenge will run from May 18-29.

"At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we worked quickly with EVERFI to expand access to Summer Slugger and ensure that youth across the U.S. and Canada could utilize our math and literacy course during an unprecedented time of widespread remote learning," said Melanie LeGrande, MLB's vice president of social responsibility. "The EduCup Challenge is an exciting opportunity to work with our clubs and the other leagues to challenge and motivate students to keep up the hard work. We wish the best to all students during the two-week stretch and beyond."

Students will experience the digital courses co-created by EVERFI and the professional sports leagues and submit responses to a series of questions about the course(s) in order to be eligible to win an academic scholarship and other prizes.

Participants can access EduCupChallenge.com to find information about each course topic, daily social media challenges, and scholarship and prize entries submissions. In addition, students will receive instructions on signing up for the appropriate EVERFI courses.

Each league will bring a uniquely developed, curriculum-aligned resource to students and parents that will be the foundation of the challenge. MLB's contribution will be from its "Summer Slugger" program, a free baseball-themed and gamified education course that focuses on math and literacy skills. Since the program's launch in 2017, MLB clubs have introduced more than 140,000 young people ages 8-11 in the U.S. and Canada to the program, with thousands more accessing the platform at home.

Summer Slugger's focus in the EduCup will be on math and literacy skills for upper elementary school students.

The rest of the breakdown is as follows:

• MLS' "Actions Matter" addresses leadership development and bullying prevention for middle and high school students.

• The NFL and United Way Worldwide's "Character Playbook" aims to build character education and foster healthy relationships for upper middle and high school students.

• The NHL and NHLPA's "Hockey Scholar" teaches science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills for middle school students, and "Healthier Me" educates upper elementary students on making smart health and wellness decisions.

• The National Lacrosse League's "NLL Digital Scholars" includes digital citizenship for middle school students and mental wellness for high school students.

• The Premier League's "Premier League Primary Stars USA" includes Ignition, a digital literacy curriculum for middle school students, as well as "Compassion Project," a unique program that teaches empathy and compassion, and "Healthier Me -- Elementary School Health Curriculum," both for elementary school students.

"Sports leagues have a long history of working with EVERFI to provide educational opportunities to students," said EVERFI founder and president Jon Chapman. "As schools around the world began to close as a result of COVID-19, these leagues were leading from the front ensuring that students had access to important educational courses. The EduCup Challenge supports youth education and engages students in a little friendly competition to inspire and motivate them through online education."

The EduCup Challenge will divide students by region based on their geographic location -- north, east, west and south. Students will be asked to complete as many of the league-sponsored programs as possible within the two-week challenge period. Once they have taken a course, they will have the opportunity to answer questions related to their educational experience throughout the challenge.

During the competition, each region will seek to have the most students complete the educational programming.

In addition to completing courses, students are invited to participate in a social media challenge to share their progress. New challenges will be shared on social media and the EduCup Challenge website daily, with each league having a specific day to present questions to students based on the program they sponsor through EVERFI.

Students will respond to the challenges and questions using predetermined EduCup Challenge hashtags. A few students may find their social media posts being shared by the sports leagues and featured athletes.