Water Champions
Students playing the Water Champions game
The year is 2200 and the Blue Planet is no more. Generations of ignored warnings have left the Earth with little fresh water, and that, which remains, is polluted, toxic and unusable. To fix it you will need to travel back in time and be a water champion for the planet.
That is the proposition a new educational board game – named Water Champions – is making to high school students in Indonesia to help teach them about urban water management. The innovative learning tool was created by students in 2018 as part of a MSDI-delivered unit in completing a Master of Environment and Sustainability (MES) degree.
What started as an idea is now, after 12-months of further development, helping to engage a community of young people who live in informal settlements in the heavily polluted region of Bogor, south of Jakarta.
The initial project came about through a partnership between MSDI, award-winning social enterprise Ecofun Indonesia, and the Australia-Indonesia Centre.
Stathi Paxinos, who works at MSDI currently as an Assistant Lecturer, was one of the students who co-created the game.
Stathi explains that the aim of the unit ENS5910: Interdisciplinary industry project, was to match teams with outside parties, who were seeking help and collaboration on addressing real-world challenges.
“It was daunting at first because none of us (Justin Lichtblau, Rizqi Ciptayukas and Puthea Khon were the other team members) had experience in creating games.
“But we came together and drew on our childhood memories to produce a game that we were all so proud of”.
As no-one in the team had formal design experience, a team of volunteers of fellow MES and Monash Arts, Design and Architecture (MADA) students collaborated to put the design elements of the prototype together.
It was this spirit of innovation and collaboration that Ecofun founder, Annisa Hasanah Arsyad, valued immensely.
The collaboration and learning for me was so rich as the team involved members from different backgrounds and cultural differences. We were continually exchanging knowledge and practices and learning from each other.”
Annisa recognized the prototype’s immense potential and, with MSDI, gained funding in 2021 through the Australia Awards Alumni Grant Scheme to have it professionally produced.
A team, led by Annisa, that included Stathi and Dr Jane Holden from MSDI, and original project members (Justin and designer Lin Abdul Rahman), updated the prototype and conducted further testing with almost a hundred students taking part.
The final product will be used in the Ecofun workshop at the start of 2023.
Annisa shares that she is so passionate about her job when she sees the excitement and level of interaction from students.
I see their joy and…wow! These students who live next to the Ciliwung river know the importance the river plays to the capital city of Indonesia in terms of flood control and as a water source. They are so enthusiastic about learning more.”