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Serbian Youth Develop Video Games with Environmental Themes
An elementary school student recycles a can by feeding the Robot Bird. Image courtesy of oktoopus.org.
RBF grantee The Association Oktopus recognized winners of its Green Games competition at a ceremony in Belgrade, Serbia on December 4, 2012. Nearly 600 elementary and middle school students from 58 Serbian municipalities competed by developing video games with environmental themes. Winners were chosen by Serbian citizens, who voted via text message. The competition was a part of the ministry of education's national campaign, Knowledge of Sustainable Development, which uses technology to promote sustainable development, renewable energy, and clean technology in local communities.
The Rockefeller Brothers Fund's grant to The Association Oktopus for the Green Games competition reflects its goal of building a culture and practice of sustainable development by including environmental concepts and practices as part of curriculum. RBF support also went toward the development and production of the first place prize, the Bird Robot, which is an interactive recycling receptacle that runs on solar energy. When citizens "feed" the Bird Robot recyclable cans, they earn points and receive a code to access their municipality's website, where they can play educational video games to earn more points. To foster cooperation between scholars in Belgrade and Pristina, Kosovo, the Bird Robot prize was built collaboratively by students at the University of Pristina and the Metropolitan University of Belgrade, with Biljana Vickovic, its artistic designer.