The classroom is buzzing with excitement and energy! Students at "Vardanants Aspetner", Yerevan basic school No. 106, glance periodically at each other and grin, as they eagerly play the Super David e-game. Each of them is busy competing for the highest score in the game.
The Super David e-game has been designed by the Dasaran educational platform for a very practical purpose: to help raise awareness among children about natural disasters and to equip them with the basic knowledge and readiness for emergency situations.
“Nowadays you can motivate and engage children through e-games,” says Alina Sahakyan, the children’s tutor. “It creates a sense of competition, so that they become immediately focused and start learning enthusiastically. We have several class hours dedicated to addressing the topic of natural disasters and this game is a wonderful tool for us.”
The e-game consists of a range of questions and challenges dedicated to eight types of natural disasters: earthquakes, fires, lightning, landslides, floods, storms, rain deluges, and rock falls. By correctly answering the questions, students can earn stars and, after completing all eight stages of the game, they win the “super” award. The game is designed for students from the first-grade up.
Samvel Babajanyan, an eighth-grade student, is a highly active player. With his classmate Louisa Manukyan, they formed a team and quickly answered each of the game’s questions. After passing each stage of the game, they jubilantly shared the news with everyone else in the classroom. Earning 63 stars, the maximum number, Samvel won the super title.
“I found it easy to answer the questions on lightning and difficult to get through the queries on rock falls,” exclaims Samvel. “By the way, when you win, Super David gives you a 911 helicopter. It’s fun!”
The implementation of the e-game project was led by Rima Sargsyan. She says that the prototype for David was the character “David of Sassoun” in Armenia’s national epic poem, “Daredevils of Sassoun”. Like David of Sassoun – who overcomes challenges to help people – Super David guides students in preparing for natural disasters. In the e-game, “Qurkik Jalali”, David of Sassoun’s horse, and “Tur Ketsaki” (Bright Lightening Sword), his sword, are represented by knowledge, skills and the ability to quickly figure things out in various challenging situations.
“The character of Super David was introduced by the Ministry of Emergency Situations (MES) to school students across Armenia, so we decided to keep his characteristics and make him a little bit more modern,” says Rima.
