EnviroQuest: A Closer Look at
Green Behavior
EnviroQuest is a fun, interactive game that teaches users environmental responsibility. Teams of students, co-workers, and friends of all ages compete to practice green behavior and accumulate points. The platform is simple to use: create an account, choose a character, and start your EnviroQuest!
The Problem
The degradation of the environment is the single greatest challenge currently facing our global community. For generations, we have destroyed the planet without a second thought for the impacts of our individual and collective actions. At EnviroQuest, we want to not only teach people what green behavior looks like, but inspire them to genuinely care about the environment and demand future change.
The Product
EnviroQuest is more than just an educational or motivational tool- it’s an exciting, fun, and competitive game!
The platform is intuitive and simple to use. A group of up to 20 students, co-workers, or friends create a team account, which every user can access on their personal device. Each team member picks a character, which they print out and carry with them as they go about their day. Every time they demonstrate green behavior, they take a picture of it with their character in the frame.
Photos are then added directly to the site, where users get automatic points for each image they upload. The person with the most points wins, but the team as a whole works together to level up.
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To see EnviroQuest in action, log in to our example account using the following info (with spaces and capitals as shown):
Team Name: The Green Team
Password: expofest
The Evidence
To test the effectiveness and functionality of our product, we designed a research study with student volunteers. The control group was not given any details about EnviroQuest, and during the experiment received a lesson on an unrelated subject. The experimental group received two lessons about the environment and green behaviors, and used EnviroQuest for a full school week.
When students from both groups arrived for their lessons, we provided them with a water bottle. At the end of each lesson, we asked them to “throw out their trash” as they exited the room. We recorded how many students from each group put their water bottles in the recycling bin, as opposed to the trash or floor. The goal of this experiment was to see if EnviroQuest was effective in teaching and enforcing green behavior.
We also conducted a field test, where we rolled out the finished EnviroQuest product to large groups of students in order to test the functionality of the app on a large scale.
A Closer Look
With EnviroQuest, we’re taking a closer look at how one’s individual actions contribute to their greater environment. We know that the solution to climate change lies in reforming policy and industry on a macroscopic level, but we will never make those large-scale changes unless we can agree that we all have a responsibility to protect the environment. Small behavioral changes lead to constructive discourse, which turns into collective action, which makes a difference. EnviroQuest understands that the biggest movements begin with inspired individuals.
Mel DeBlasio is a current high school junior at Metropolitan Business Academy, studying health and science. This is her second appearance at ExpoFest. Mel led the development and art teams in creating EnviroQuest, made the product website, created the logo, and wrote all of the EnviroQuest code.
Rasha Abuhatab is a high school junior attending Metropolitan Business Academy, studying science and health. This is her second appearance at ExpoFest. Rasha created the EnviroQuest LaunchPad profile and led one of the research studies.
Kenny Delgado is a current high school junior at Metropolitan Business Academy, studying business and health. This is his first appearance at Expo Fest. Kenny helped develop the research study and wrote parts of the executive summary.
Ross Jacobson is a current high school senior at Metropolitan Business Academy, studying art and game design. This is his first appearance at ExpoFest. Ross designed the EnviroQuest characters, and came up with the initial product idea.
Richard Cabrera is a current high school junior at Metropolitan Business Academy, studying health and science. This is his first appearance at ExpoFest. Richard led one of the research studies, and wrote parts of the executive summary.
Jayvell Gray is a current high school junior at Metropolitan Business Academy, studying technology and design. This is his first appearance at ExpoFest. Jayvell made the EnviroQuest characters digital, and helped make the product website.
Kiadara Spruill is a current high school junior at Metropolitan Business Academy, studying health and science. This is her second appearance at ExpoFest. Kiadara helped create the EnviroQuest logo.