Green Carnival 2014 from ICAT, Chennai

As part of the World Environment Day celebrations, the Game Development students of ICAT, Chennai joined hands with the faculty members in hosting a variety of carnival games for the public. The students developed games with an effort to create awareness on environmental conservation. The games were presented to the public on 6 June, 2014, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Marina Beach. The games drew in an eager crowd of around 450 people belonging to the age group of 5 to 50. The event was graced by the presence of Inspector and Members from the Chennai Police Department, who also participated in the games with exuberance.

All the games were based on the theme, ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’ and were designed with the purpose of educating people on environmental issues, rain water conservation, reducing pollution, methods of growing plants and the use of eco-friendly equipments.

The games presented at the event were:

• Blind Sense
• Crawl and Roll
• Drip Irrigation
• Eco Fishing
• Hit and Heal
• Memory Cubes
• Pour and Pour
• Rain the Grain
• Trash it
• Tin to Bin

During the event, rule books for each game prepared by the students were placed at the respective game stalls for public display in order to help the participants understand the concept of the game, the point system, game play and the rewards. Participants were keen on understanding the concepts of each game and gained new insights on environmental issues and solutions. The essence of each game was made memorable to the public by gifting eco-friendly rewards like potted plants, paper bags, cloth bags and seeds. Feedback forms were filled in by the participants that helped students make further improvement to their games.

Press coverage of the carnival was done by RAJ TV, who actively involved the public during the event, interviewed students who presented their games as well as the faculties on their motive for this event. With its ‘edutainment’ factor, the Green Carnival was well received with a series of positive reviews from the public who felt encouraged to plant more trees, control pollution and acknowledge their duties of protecting the earth and environment.

Public Feedback:

"The project titled 'Drip Irrigation' is outstanding and indeed a creative concept for the 21st Century." A. Sathish Kumar:

"It is nice idea to create awareness among people. Big thanks to ICAT." G.A. Maha Siva Sankari

"The experience was very good. Such events should take place every year here on." Ballabh

"All the concepts were very unique in creating awareness." T. Dilip Kumar