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2009 H2.0 Mike Malinics & Ian Schofield

[WHITE PAPERS] The summary of work for years 2008-2009. Includes documentation on research, surveys, and company structure.

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Table of Contents

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Introduction........................................................................................ ........................3 Problem........................................................................................ ..............................4 Solution...................................................................................... ................................4 Game Basics................................................................................................. ..............5 Research.......................................................................................................... ...........6 Research: The Housatonic River.................................................................................8 H2.0’s Organization.............................................................................. ......................9 Company and Game Names.....................................................................................10 Citations...................................................................................... .............................11

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Introduction Here at H2.0, we try to combine two things: fun and learning.

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This is why we have come up with the game “Effusion.” We hope this game, set on a beautiful river, which is increasingly being flooded with trash and waste, will teach today’s youth, and the

Company Name: H2.0

Slogan:

games players the importance of having a clean and pristine environment. We have looked at what middle school-age kids

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Game: Effusion Focus: Water Pollution

actually know about the environment, and water pollution, and have tried to tie the needed learning into a good story therefore giving children an incentive and reason to play. We are hoping that these young gamers will have fun and the need to prevent pollution will be embedded into their minds.

This obvious water pollution in India is what H2.0 is trying to avoid all over the world.

Quick Fact: 1% of Earth’s water is drinkable, and pollution threatens it daily

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Photo courtesy of extinctearth.org

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Problem Jan. 1

Gaming is a great way to help kids learn about the environment and go Green

Eighty percent of our Earth is covered in water, and only one percent of that is drinkable water. Where do we get this water from? Most of this drinkable water is stored within aquifers; the rest is purified ground water. However, while water can be purified and recycled, the supply of drinkable water is threatened by pollutants ranging from oil to litter. Going Green is a growing trend, as people strive to not only save the environment from global warming, but to protect nature from pollution as the human population grows. As time passes it grows clearer that while the adults of today act try to protect our water supply from pollution, it will ultimately be a job

H2.0 can help students get involved in stopping water pollution

for the adults of tomorrow. To get across this message, we are relying on gaming to reach our audience. Gaming provides an entertaining way for children to acquire new knowledge and it leaves a lasting impact. However, while games are interesting, not all games are able to get across a message behind the entertainment. Here at H2.0, we believe we’ve found the solution to get the next generation actively involved in saving our water from pollution.

Solution Is there a simple solution to stopping pollution? No. We at H2.0 feel that while changes will take time, we need to work with the By instilling healthy habits, Effusion can next generation to make sure they don’t face even worse help gamers learn how problems than we do now. But in order to make a real difference to stop pollution and in a young child’s every day life, learning new habits needs to apply this in real world situations 234 Judd Rd. Southbury, CT 06488 1(203)-262-3200 www.knowledgeflows.com Page 4

White Papers provide fun while giving the child something they can apply to real world situations. By creating a game that provides a fun learning environment, we are helping children instill into their minds the importance of not polluting and to make proper

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choices that will save ecosystems from destruction. While most games want children to learn by providing Effusion teaches through playing, keeping the game fun yet educational at the same time

them with a long list of information which they have to read, our game is simple and to the point. By playing Effusion, our gamers learn how to save the environment through action, thus helping them understand the damage a few pieces of litter can do to the water and the environment. Keeping our game simple ensures people will want to play it over and over again, thus reinforcing everything they have learned.

Game Basics Effusion is an innovative game designed using MIT’s program “Scratch.” Our game is based on a fisherman going to his favorite fishing hole The player helps Fisherman Jones pick up pollution by dragging and dropping it into the appropriate bins

on his boat and As the game goes on, the background gets lighter and the levels get harder

discovering that it is polluted! This makes fisherman Jones angry when he’s fishing on his boat Bantz, so he decides to do something about it. Our game is a drag and drop game, where the player becomes Mr. Jones, and uses their fishing hook

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White Papers (mouse) to hook (click on) and reel in the trash (drag) to his boat. This game is simple, enjoyable, and it is appropriate for almost all ages. It starts out with a murky background, depicting the effects of pollution on the environment. As trash gets picked

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up, the background begins to lighten up, showing that every little bit makes a difference. When a piece of trash is brought aboard the boat, the pollution meter on the left changes to show how much more trash has to be picked up to move onto the next level. The game gets harder as time goes on, as the trash will start to move faster as the current speeds up making it much more difficult to grab all the trash and move it to your boat.

Research

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White Papers When it came to the making of Effusion, we felt the need for a solid storyline that would not only make the game entertaining, but educational as well. In the early stages of creating our game we thought about the type of game we wanted to make based

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on our own personal experiences with online games. We wanted to create a game that is fun and addictive, which could change the habits of our gamers to not just think Green, but live Green. We surveyed local middle school students to find out how much they knew about water pollution

The age range of middle school students and up was chosen because when children are younger it is easier to learn new facts and habits. Middle school children are also beginning to form their own ideas and opinions, making this age range opportune for understanding that water pollution needs to be stopped now. But how can an educational game be entertaining without overdoing the educational aspect?

To

create this perfect balance, leading members of H2.0 journeyed to Rochambeau Middle School in Southbury, Connecticut to conduct a survey. Within this survey, students were asked multiple choice questions which briefly addressed questions such as “Who does water pollution affect?” and “Which issue is more important?” Rather than just ending the survey with these quick questions, we had our participants expand on their choices to give us an idea of how well they understood the concepts of water pollution and global warming. It turns out that in fact all of the students surveyed had witnessed some form of water pollution and many had ideas of how to stop it. Thus, with these facts in mind, the game design team at H2.0 decided to create a game where the learning 234 Judd Rd. Southbury, CT 06488 flows.com

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White Papers would take place through interaction rather than just reading. This visual learning experience helps create habits

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we hope to instill within our gamers throughout their lifestyle, while providing a moderately fast pace gaming experience.

Research: The Housatonic River The Housatonic River is one of the main water arteries in the state of Connecticut, and when the state was being founded in the early 1600’s it served as a magnet for townships due to the ease of life it brought. Later The Housatonic has been polluted over centuries from local Danbury hat-making businesses

in America’s history these towns become Mill-towns, with huge cloth making factories using the water power to run the machines. This may have helped bolster the economy, but it did no favors for the river; it was now polluted. One major contaminant that poses a serious health risk to humans is the mercury that seeped into the river out of the Danbury hat making businesses, which still lingers in the water today. In a study undertaken by Wesleyan University they found that “The Still River sediment samples have Hg concentrations that range from 1000 to 60,000 ppb (parts per billion) Hg. The highest Hg concentrations are found in fine-grained, organic-rich sediments past the town of Brookfield, which was a secondary hat-making center after Danbury. A core from the northern sector of the Still River shows a Hg pollution profile with values

The river is polluted with a large amount of mercury

up to 100,000 ppb” This problem is really put into perspective when told that the average mercury pollution elsewhere in Connecticut is a mere 200-500 ppb. While the Mercury problem may seem bad, there are still

GE had to pay for worse things in the Housatonic River, such as polychlorinated biphenyls, polluting the Housatonic, which went Rd. Southbury, CT 06488 1(203)-262-3200 www.knowledgetowards234 the Judd EPA and for flows.com Page 8 contamination clean-up

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more commonly known as PCB’s. For years General Electric (GE) dumped these harmful chemicals into the Housatonic River from its manufacturing plant in Pittsfield Massachusetts. However, in September 1998, GE was forced to pay for its crimes, to the tune of 200 million

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dollars. That money will go primarily to the Federal government’s The Housatonic shows that pollution is everywhere, whether we want to believe it or not

Environmental protection agency, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service, for cleaning up the contamination, and replacing the damaged organisms. What does the polluting of the Housatonic River have do with H2.0? The river helps demonstrate that pollution is everywhere, and that water pollution can have a great impact on the environment. People often like to put issues aside that do not seem to affect them directly, but the polluting of the Housatonic helps people understand that water pollution is a large issue and it must be stopped to save the Earth for future generations.

H2.0’s Organization While most of our competition has one leader and the rest of its members are followers, H2.0 tried something different this year. H2.0 meets once a week, but its leaders meet on Mondays to make huge decisions at the Officers’ meeting

In past years, Pomperaug High School’s CTIA companies have been organized like the rest, and have seen many problems come along as they tried to complete their products. To remedy many of the problems, this year a new hierarchy of leadership was created. At the top we have our President, Phil Simmons, who oversees all of the company meetings, assigns tasks to other members, and makes sure that everybody is staying on track with our goals. Our Vice President, Tim Baird, oversees all of the company’s meetings as well, and takes over in the event that our President is absent. H2.0 also has a secretary, Joe Addonizio, who writes important information that comes up

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White Papers during the meetings. Our treasurer, Zack Sniffen, oversees our funds as we try to promote our company. We then have our department heads: Lucas Landaeta (Head of Game Design), Kori Taylor (Head of Marketing), and Michael Malinics (Head of

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Research). The rest of the members of our company have set Phil Simmons: President

roles, but often find themselves doing tasks for several departments. All of the members of H2.0 meet on Thursdays,

Tim Baird: Vice President

where important issues are brought up, and essential work is

Joe Addonizio: Secretary

done during our work days. Because we have so many people,

Zack Sniffen: Treasurer Kori Taylor: Marketing

we often find that we can not come to a consensus. To solve this, every Monday there are Officers’ meetings where the President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary, and Department

Lucas Landaeta: Game

Heads meet to discuss the important issues within the company,

Mike Malinics: Research

set deadlines, and make final decisions that could not be made at a general meeting.

Company and Game Names At the start of our company’s meetings, we first began by having all of our members write reports researching major green themes. We then voted on all of these, and came out with the topic of water pollution which we began to focus our project on. Because our company is trying to tie the Web 2.0 theme and ideas with preventing water pollution, we combined the formula for water, H2o and Web 2.0 to create H2.0. After searching through Google, Yahoo!, Ask, and MSN search engines, we concluded that this name was not patented and was available for our use.

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Citations Binninger, Jerry. "What on Earth Do You Know About Water?". EPA. 11/14/2008 . Jallow, Billo. "MERCURY IN HOUSATONIC RIVER AND STILL RIVER SEDIMENTS: A LEGACY OF DANBURY (CT) HATMAKING". Weslyan University. 3/26/2009 . Baver, Jay. "Save the Housatonic". On the Water. 3/26/2009 .

"GENERAL ELECTRIC AGREES TO $200 MILLION SETTLEMENT TO CLEAN UP THE HOUSATONIC RIVER". United States Department of Justice. 3/26/2009 .

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