Pupils’ game goes into production
The first run of a board game devised by primary 1 and 2 pupils at Lochardil Primary in Inverness has gone into production and on Friday the excited pupils gathered to receive the first delivery “hot off the press.”
Challenged by The Highland Council to come up with a game design that would help educate about litter and recycling, the pupils devised “Bin it to 2win it”. The colourful board game helps encourage recycling and litter education and is simple and fun to play. The objective is for players to move around the board to dispose of 6 items of litter as quickly as possible but the appropriate bin must be used for each item.
Once the initial drawings and rules were produced by the school, Lewis Mardon from Ardross, a graphic design student at Aberdeen College of Art, offered to help with the final development and artwork of the board game.
The local Councillors were so impressed with the work of the 5 and 6 year olds that they provided funding from their Ward Discretionary Fund in addition to money from the Council’s TECS service which has paid for Highland based jigsaw and packaging manufacturer ,House of Puzzles, to produce 500 copies.
Ward Councillor Fraser Parr was at the school on Friday to see the boxes of games unveiled. He said: “It’s great to see such enthusiasm and my fellow ward councillors and I we delighted to support this project. The talented youngsters have demonstrated that age is no barrier for creativity and innovation and I think that the Bin it to Win It game is such a wonderful fun way to learn about looking after our environment and what is recyclable. It’s a simple but effective game with a super message ”
Vice Chairman of the Council’s TEC Services Committee, Councillor Bet McAllister was also with the pupils as they unwrapped the first boxes. She said: “In the Highlands we have some great examples of creative ways of reducing the amount of waste that ends up in landfill and educating and informing people of different options is an important part of our recycling aims. The game is a fun way to learn and helps with promoting the recycling message by encouraging everyone that plays it to use a bin.”
“The first production run consists of 500 games but who knows, if a Dragons Den backer wants to help the Lochardil’s Bin it game go nationwide then we could be seeing it throughout the UK.”