Green Games

Green Games competition for the best video game with an ecological message, intended for elementary and high school students of Serbia, is organized by the Association of Octopus, as a part of the campaign "Knowledge for Sustainable Development". School children, forming municipality teams, under the supervision of teachers, had an opportunity to win great prizes for their towns, by creating and realization of video games that will best describe the importance of environmental protection, through the application of informatics, artistic and musical knowledge.

587 competitors, forming 58 competing teams, took part in Green Games competition. They have posted 58 video games. This was an establishment of social responsible programming in practice. All students’ video games are available at the official website www.greengames.rs.

The winners of Green Games competition were determined by SMS votes of Serbian citizens. Money, collected of text messages from Telenor operator, went to the Fund and it will be given to the winning teams to help further education of talented students.

10 500 students have been involved in playing Green Games and over 650 000 citizens of the Republic of Serbia have been notified or indirectly involved in the project during the voting, what contributed to environmental education of various age groups. About 5 500 students have become interested to proceed the development and they have signed up for Green Games online workshops of making video games (in 2012/13).

This national competition, which began in May 2012, is finished on October 31st. After counting the votes, the first prize, consisting of an socially beneficial robot art for public space, with tin recycling function - the Bird Robot, donations from Rockefeller Brothers Fund, personal awards for the competitors and the prize money of Telenor, went to the municipality of Bor, that won 12,358 votes. The municipality of  Knjaževac took the second place (with 4058 votes) and the municipality of Sokobanja took the third place (4040 votes). These two municipalities are awarded with ArtEco robots for recycling, also donated by Telenor, and personal awards for the competitors. All the winners, and the fourth and fifth place contestants will be awarded with a certificate of Metropolitan University professional commission.
Special Award - ArtEco recycling solar-powered robot will be awarded to elementary school “Milinko Kušić” from Ivanjica attended by children with cerebral paralysis, who were included in the competitive part of the program due to mentoring activities of Svetlana Glavinić (Chairman of the Society for Cerebral paralysis of Ivanjica) and Dubravka Ivković (school psychologist).

Green Games Prize Award Ceremony will be held on December 4th , in Belgrade municipality of Vračar, when the awards will be given to winner municipality presenters.

Within national campaign "Knowledge for Sustainable Development"  it will be organized more actions in the next two years, with an aim to improve the quality and to develop policies, that will be an educational system assimilation to the needs of the knowledge society development.

About donors and partners of the competition

The aim of the national campaign "Knowledge for Sustainable Development" is in accordance with the leading initiative of Lisbon Treaty and strategy Europe 2020. about innovations and efficient use of resources, along the achievement of present prosperity and preservation of the future one, which supports the implementation of social change through intersectional action, participation of NGOs and individuals.
     
Green Games competition for the best video game with an ecological message of the campaign "Knowledge for Sustainable Development" is supported by donors: Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF), U.S Embassy, Belgrade and U.S Department of State, USAID and Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC), Telenor Company and Ministry of Energy, Development and Environmental Protection; and by strategic partners and collaborators: Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, OSCE Mission to Serbia, UNOPS - European Partnership with Municipalities – PROGRESS, Standing conference of towns and municipalities (SKGO), Metropolitan University (Faculty of Information Technology - FIT), University in Belgrade (Faculty of Civil Engineering, School of Electrical Engineering and Innovation center of School of Electrical Engineering), Pedagogical Society of Computer Science of Serbia and Association of Cerebral Paralysis Patients of Ivanjica.


Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) supported the realization of the national campaign "Knowledge for Sustainable Development" and Green Games competition by donation for the prize Bird Robot, in line with the objectives of the Western Balkans program. RBF Grants Fund tends to encourage the cultivation of healthy democratic process, support regional initiatives, aimed to come down the existing myths and prejudices and also to encourage an unfettered development of civil society.

„Telenor Company, as a partner of this project, combines several of its major commitments, such as investing in young people, their education and environment. We hope that we will encourage young generations by this support and prizes for the best teams to create games, so they could adopt positive environmental habits and continue to express their creativity through the use of new technologies”, says Ivana Vranjican, manager of Foreign Affairs Telenor.

U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) supports the Green Games competition through the program “Civil Society Advocacy Initiative” under jurisdiction of Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC).

All information about the campaign is available at oktoopus.org/greengames