If we want a better future for our planet, sustainability is a value to be passed on to children from an early age. This is what IKEA thinks, for six times trust Olojin in the design and creating of “At home”, the sustainable house, an educational project dedicated to primary and secondary schools.
The briefing
The Swedish furniture multinational has asked us to study and implement a project that combines teaching and play, to involve teachers and children and pass on them the value of sustainability. The challenge? Talk about IKEA without commercial references of any kind, as it is a non-profit operation and dedicated to the public of schools. In addition, it was necessary to allow children to access the web platform so that their access was necessarily mediated by the teacher.
The approach
On the At home site, we created a double access: the registration provided the teacher, the only person responsible, with the main credentials, with whom to create second level passwords, only valid for a part of the site, to be provided to their students. Each edition included an educational phase, with online guide or downloadable pdf guides, and a game phase, with a final prize for the most virtuous classes. The prize contest took place in two ways: multiple-choice tests for single students, and a group submission voted by a jury or the public. Olojin also supported IKEA in drafting the rules.
The extra idea
We liked to give a different twist to each edition, not only in the themes addressed, but also in the game mechanics. From the representation of a room with recycled materials to the creation of a healthy and sustainable recipe, from the writing of a story set in a room of the house to the creation of a vertical garden, each year the group work has given expression to all the creativity of the classes.
IKEA fornitures and objects appeared in the graphics without any commercial reference, giving the project the image of the brand.
Reduce waste and recycle: protecting the planet starts at home. In the 2013/2014 edition, students learnt to safeguard resources with small everyday actions. After the multiple-choice test, whose score was calculated by an algorithm that considered participation, speed of response and their accuracy, the students challenged themselves to build the scale model of a room using only recycled materials. The educational guides contained the plans that would serve as guides to place the objects and furnishings in each room. Unleash the imagination and the creative recycling.
Food education was the theme of the 2014/2015 edition, the year of the Expo. Teaching guides, written by our editorial staff with the contribution of a nutritional biologist, not only told students how to eat healthly and balanced, but also how to respect the environment while shopping. Into the prize contest, classrooms found themselves in front of a pantry from wich they would have to chose five ingredients to compose their recipe with. Each ingredient was awarded three scores according to its degree of health, sustainability and multiculturalism, which together made up the evaluation of the " cost ", while the recipes were voted by a jury, amazed and mouth-watering.