Nutrient cycling in a youth mobile game

Fun and facts, toilets and chicken rally, in an entertaining yet educational format

Baltic Sea Action Game is an unconventional and fresh way to raise the awareness of the youth about vital nutrients. It is a mobile game where a player has nutrient balls which are meant to be recycled via tilting of the gaming device. If the player drops the nutrient balls from their track to the sea underneath, the water turns murkier, indicating the worsening state of the sea. Successful playing rounds make the sea clearer and give points for the players. The amount of educational information has been balanced in order to keep the entertainment value high.

“In the beginning one needs to concentrate on keeping the nutrient balls on their track. After some usage a player starts to take notice of the obstacles on the track and starts to understand the nutrient cycle. Each new playing round increases the knowledge and thus likelihood of success. This makes the game also addictive”, says the game designer Teemu Jäppinen, and points out that it is quite new to use these kind of games as educational tools.

Baltic Sea Action Group, BSAG, is an independent foundation, which works to find solutions and right actors to restore the ecological balance of the Baltic Sea. The objective of the mobile game was to make the connection of our food cycle and the Baltic Sea more visible. BSAG has worked for several years with raising the awareness of sustainable nutrient usage and nutrient recycling. Schools have been interested to get educational material about the Baltic Sea and its protection.  The mobile game is a modern answer to that need.

“Nutrients, especially phosphorus and nitrogen, are a bases of our food production and such essential for our life. However, when much nutrients leach in to the waterways they create serious environmental problems, says the secretary general of BSAG, Mathias Bergman. “Phosphorous is a scarce resource and production of nitrogen is very energy-intensive and demands a lot of fossil fuels. Wasting the valuable nutrients to the sea is both ludicrous and harmful,” Bergman continues. “Closing the leaching from the nutrient cycle helps to save the Baltic Sea and increases our opportunities to produce enough food for the growing population of the world.”

The Baltic Sea Action Game can be downloaded from android and apple application stores for free.

More information:

Pieta Jarva / 050 338 1096 / pieta.jarva (at) bsag.fi