”A Shot for the Environment” is the Hera Group project within which we have Developed a video game in collaboration with Ammagamma, with an important objective: spread environmental culture among students, training the artificial intelligence model of the free and multi-utility app “The Refutologist”.
The project exploits the principle of Edutainment per train an Artificial Intelligence model, educate and raise awareness on the subject of separate waste collection in an interactive and participatory way, using new technologies such as the Gamification to involve young citizens.
The protagonists are students and students, involved in the development of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) framework that can Recognize a rejection based on a photo, and to be able like this use the template to develop a new feature of the “The Refutologist” App.
“A Shot for the Environment”: videogames, quizzes and AI at the service of ecology
From a practical point of view, What have the students and students done? Let's divide the project steps by points, in order to make the process clearer:
- They collected some images of objects to be recycled with a smartphone;
- have played with the video game created and developed by Dinobros, interacting with quizzes and other gamified challenges to climb the ranking and, consequently, collaborate for the production of a shared knowledge system that combines Artificial Intelligence technology with the environmental issues of separate waste collection;
- At the end of the contest all participants received sustainable gadgets (a basil plant and a sunflower plant).
The data collected within the project have been validated and processed to present to girls, boys and teachers the result and the accuracy achieved by the model.
La Video game mechanics It is expressed through A challenge which saw female students photograph waste following a method outlined by the system (background, movement, position and characteristics). When you upload 3 photos, you access A videogame lasting 40 seconds, in which one of the photos uploaded to the system is displayed at random. At this point, the player will have to choose where to throw the waste in the photo: plastic, glass, paper or unsorted? For each correctly recycled waste, a score is assigned, while for every incorrectly recycled waste, a small penalty is applied, despite the fact that it is always possible to try again and, therefore, learn.
At the end of the video game, it's time for “Quiz Time”, in which the player is asked to answer a quiz on environmental sustainability and separate waste collection, consisting of three multiple-choice questions. If the player provides the wrong answer, an in-depth panel opens on the topic covered. For each Quiz, in-depth feedback is provided on the answer.
We can therefore summarize the project in three phases:
- Taking and sending photos of the waste according to established criteria, necessary to train the AI of “The Refutologist” to recognize more and more types of waste;
- Videogame, to learn while having fun how to recycle properly;
- Quiz multiple choice, to verify pre-existing skills, those acquired and those still to be learned.
Strategy and objectives of the “A Shot for the Environment” project
The 'Eco Games', the online games of the Hera Group that teach how to do better and better
separate waste collection, have already shown and demonstrated how much strength and widespread a video game can have in training. With”A Shot for the Environment” the video game becomes part of an even larger project than environmental training and education.
When you have fun you learn better, it's the concept behind Playful Learning. Applying it to the school context through the video game with Dinobros development and creativity is a great satisfaction, especially when you combine such important and current topics as:
- playful learning
- environmental education
- Advergames
- Artificial Intelligence.
Training Artificial Intelligence through the contents uploaded by students, an immense amount of material useful for training and effectively improve the performance of the “Il Refutologo” app.
In the project, the correct upload of the images is evaluated and provides a score to those who play. A learning opportunity on two levels: on the one hand AI acquires useful information to improve the service offered by the app, on the other the user learns what is the optimal way to upload content, evaluates its quality and recognizes its value.
The initiative that on April 20, on the occasion of the digital festival “After”, involved
about 60 students and students of the first grade secondary school “Salvo D'Acquisto” of the IC “Francesco D'Este” in Massa Lombarda (RA) ended with the satisfaction of all the participants. The same video game has been experimentally presented over the last two years in other schools, always receiving great participation.
We are proud to have taken part in a wide-ranging project on environmental education And to have demonstrated how much Can a video game be inclusive and performing, especially when you want to obtain participation from boys and girls in the 11-14 age group, than for 71% is the target audience for video games in Italy (IIDEA 2023 report data).
