About
I’m a lot like you. I care about the education of children.
I never thought I would find myself being concerned about this, but I am.
I’m a “crazy” environmentalist. Being more sustainable is not just a passion but a way of life for me. And in my opinion, being sustainable requires people to be educated to achieve this outcome. The consumers of five, ten or fifteen years time are the students in your hands right now!
In February 2008, I exhibited at the inaugural Green City Festival - an event showcasing sustainability to the community. I participated with two stands, each totally different - one required people to stop and read, the other was about playing on a giant board game.
It was fascinating to observe the difference. It was as if no one wanted to read; they just wanted to play.
Even though I thought I had an important message to get across, if I couldn’t catch their attention, I’d lost them. It left me perplexed!
Not long after these observations, a friend handed me the book “Remotely Controlled,” by Dr Aric Sigman. Amongst other things, he highlights the challenges of communicating with an over stimulated, overloaded audience.
Whatever my objectives were, I needed to catch, or should I say grab and hold tightly my audiences attention.
A few months further into 2008, I again had to exhibit, but this time at the Eco-living expo. With what I’d learnt earlier, I created a new plan of action. I was not going to waste my time and effort; I needed to engage with people, to get their attention, and to keep it as long as possible!
In an area of 3 metres by 3 metres, I made a game where you need to land a disc on a target. Here’s a short video that shows you how it all worked. I attracted crowds. I had participation like never before. I worked, played and talked with hundreds and hundreds of people over those two days.
Kids were captivated and even adults were playing. The kids kept the parents at our stand and several parents joked we should set up a child minding service.
The Wilderness Society across the aisle was very impressed; we are working on developing a game for them to promote, in an active way, preservation of natural habitat and protection of animals.
And here’s where serendipity came along.
Amongst all this, I was approached by teachers who enquired if the game was used in schools. I’d never thought of it and had no intent for this to happen. They told me how the game develops gross motor skills and had a number of other desirable educational outcomes.
They were enthusiastic by what they saw that day and I could see it.
In the following months there was this niggling, churning thought - perhaps this game and others similar, would help educate children.
And if I created the right game content…to educate for sustainability.
