Saving Nature: A Mixture of Science, Art and Game

USERN Spring Event Brought Together Hundreds Of Students In A Variety Of Disciplines With A Good Cause: Saving Nature. Days after the World Week of Earth and in a Flourish Spring Afternoon in Tehran’s Andisheh Park, Student Group Tried To Answer the Mystery of a Fisherman’s Village with an Unknown Liver Disease

USERN Spring Event was the result of a collaboration between USERN and Tehran Municipality, a well-planned event held in the Andisheh Park of Tehran on Thursday May 2^nd. The morning events consisted of four lectures from USERN Advisory Board Members, Dr. Faridbod, Dr. Amidi, Dr. Takian, Dr. Bozorg Hadad, and Dr. Mahvi, on the environmental hazards that were the topic of the evening game, water supply shortage, trash, and global warming. Applicants for the serious game were encouraged to take part in the morning events to get some clues about the game and also be able to answer a set of theoretical questions designed by the invited lecturers. 

Evening events started with each of the 11 competing groups entering an escape room to answer the environmental question designed as a serious game inside the rooms. The scenario explained a fishermen’s village were fish had become a delicacy as fishermen were unwilling/unable to work due to an unknown liver disease that would later reveal to be a result of microplastic in the fish that comprised main meal of fishermen. There was also a scenario taking place in earth in the year 2500 where unknown genetic syndromes had been observed secondary to acid rain increasing the nitrate content of certain crops. Conforming to the multidisciplinary nature of the game and the event, the winning group consisted of math, biotechnology, chemistry, and environmental engineering students who won a grant to the 2019 USERN Congress in Budapest. 

Source: Ali Pourebrahimi , USERN Deputy of Events