Janan Behzad, Secretary General of the Kuwait Environment Protection Society, affirmed that “educational games help in creating interaction between the individual and the elements of the environment for the purpose of learning and developing personality and behavior. Play represents an educational means that brings concepts closer and helps in understanding the meanings of things, and helps in activating mental abilities and improving creative talent in children.”.
Behzad noted that she held a meeting with German educational expert M. Sebastian Frisch, representative of the German organization «Black Forest Solutions», to develop the detailed guidelines and implementation frameworks for launching the «Environmental Educational Games» project, which is being implemented through joint cooperation between the association and the German organization within the framework of the «Green Schools» awareness program, which the association has been offering annually for nine consecutive years.
She explained that one of the benefits of the play-based learning method is that the student participates in the group learning, learns cooperation, respects the rights of others, respects and adheres to the law and rules, and strengthens his belonging to the group. She added: “The association partnered with Upcycler Lab, a social enterprise that aims for a profit to use play-based education to change mindsets about the environment. It does this through our award-winning products, which include puzzle games and riddles on concepts such as waste separation and ocean conservation.”.
“We believe that children can be powerful agents of change and can influence the adults in their lives,” she said. “Studies already indicate that more than 70% of learning takes place outside the classroom and that play-based learning helps retain information for longer. We want to incorporate these facts into powerful products that can align with environmental goals.”.
The Secretary General of the Environment Society stated, “Black Forest Solutions is a company specializing in environmental services that improves waste management strategies for its clients across the environmental, operations, and consulting sectors. In collaboration with the Society, they are implementing play-based learning tools as part of the Green Schools program. Through these educational tools, children will learn how to separate waste in a fun and engaging way, and they will learn how to translate these lessons into real-world activities. In addition to waste management, children will also learn about endangered animals and the reasons for their vulnerability. These activities are part of a larger program that trains students on the Sustainable Development Goals and various environmental objectives, preparing them to be responsible citizens in the future.”
Janan Behzad stated that the educational and awareness program «Environmental Educational Games» in cooperation between the association and the German Foundation achieves many of the efforts concerned with the Kuwait Environment Protection Society, which is keen to provide many guidance and instructional sessions for the sectors of mentors, teachers and students in all areas of environmental work in its educational and awareness aspects. She pointed out that the «Environmental Educational Games» project will be launched on an initial experimental basis with private sector schools through 10 schools between the kindergarten and primary stages, and children and students will be trained during it on 5 environmental educational games, with each game including 4 students, so that the total is 40 children in each kindergarten and primary school.
