“Thammasat – Banpu” congratulates “The Last Hope” team from “Watcharawittaya School” on winning royal trophy from HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn in Thammasat – Banpu Innovative Learning Program Season 2
Throughout almost two years of incubation of all 14 high-school teams, “Thammasat – Banpu Innovative Learning Program Season 2” by the collaboration between Faculty of Learning Sciences and Education (LSED), Thammasat University and Banpu Public Company Limited, has completely equipped the students with skill sets required to become new-generation innovators through board game development that is fun, creative and reflects the social issues. The project has come to a successful conclusion and held the award ceremony to present the royally bestowed trophy from Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn and other prizes in Thammasat-Banpu Innovative Learning Program Season 2 via virtual event on July 12, 2021. The event was presided over by Assoc Prof Gasinee Witoonchart, Rector of Thammasat University and Mr.Chanin Vongkusolkit, Chairman of Banpu Public Company Limited. The champion team who won the royal trophy was “The Last Hope” team from Watcharawittaya School, Kamphaengphet with ‘Survivors from Black Snow’ boardgame. This board game presents the issue of how to remove sugarcane soot with an aim to enhance knowledge, understanding and awareness among farmers and people in the community on environmental and health care of people in Kamphaengphet province.
Thammasat – Banpu Innovative Learning Program was initiated in 2017, aiming to develop student-innovators from high-school who want to take part in solving social problems innovatively through board game design. This second season (2019-2021) received the attention of 132 teams to audition, and 14 teams could pass the process to the final round. All 14 teams had a learning opportunity to become new-generation innovators through practice with the program’s teachers and board game experts. They learned to strengthen “Design Thinking” skill and spark leadership skill to create positive impact for social change through development and production processes of boardgame which is fun, creative and to able to solve the society issue. The 14 finalist teams eventually introduced their games to public and target groups as their objectives. To come up with competition judgment criteria, qualified judges from different disciplines have prioritized games that could address and solve social problems at the heart of the issue. Award-winning games must have mechanisms that educate and raise awareness of players about social issues according to the game’s objectives while being fun to play. More importantly, game designers had to present a way-forward of how their games could be utilized and socialized in to the targeted communities.
Assoc Prof Gasinee Witoonchart, Rector of Thammasat University talked about the objective of the project, “Thammasat University, through the Faculty of Learning Sciences and Education, aims to incubated students to become quality adults which are the important factor for Thailand in moving forward. With the continuous support from Banpu for Thammasat – Banpu Innovative Learning Program, we are able to equip the participating students with thinking and mindset crucial for modern innovators. We see this as a great start to incubate the students with skill sets required to become new-generation innovators and reflect the social issues from them through their 14 boardgames. We hope that they will utilize the skills they’ve gained during this project to further develop themselves and grow as quality innovators for the Thai society in the future.”
Mr.Chanin Vongkusolkit, Chairman of Banpu Public Company Limited said, “Banpu Public Company Limited has continuously operated projects that focus on developing human capital, especially young people who are the country’s future. We want to equip them with skills that will prepare them for the 21st century. In this project, we support incubation process of young innovators through development of boardgames that communicate the social issues to be solved. This learning method aligns with Banpu’s belief that ‘Learning is the Power of Change and Development’. The results which we can see today is that the 14 teams have created 14 board games on 3 focused areas including social development, healthy living, and adolescent science with interesting aspects on the issues. Beyond that, this project was met with challenges from the COVID-19 situation, but all teams were able to adjust themselves and resolved the unexpecting problems to continue developing their board games and communicate with their target audiences as their objectives. We are very impressed that the new generation is concerned about social issues and want to take part in solving them. We hope that these 14 board games will be further developed and create a positive impact on our society.”
“The Last Hope” team of Watcharawittaya School in Kamphaengphet, the winning team who designed ‘Survivors from Black Snow’ boardgame that can convey the issue of sugarcane soot and won the royal trophy said, “We are very happy and this is beyond our expectation. Not only the success that we can communicate the sugarcane soot issue which happens in our community and province, we also have been developing ourselves in a lot of skills through this project, which is a very long journey for us. Many times, we fell and almost gave up but we went through that discouragement, focusing on our work and coming to this point. We want to thank everyone involved, Banpu Public Company Limited and the Faculty of Learning Sciences and Education, Thammasat University who organized this great program and foresaw the importance of social issues and selected us to join the program. Also, the gamer coaches who have helped us by consulting in every process of board game development. We appreciate the support from our school and teachers as well as our friends in this program who had been together for almost two years on this journey. We hope that our boardgames will be beneficial to the society in one way or another.”
There are a total of six prizes in this project, namely:
- Winning prize with HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn’s royal trophy, given to ‘Survivors from Black Snow’ by Watcharawittaya School, Kamphaengphet.
- Learning & Growth prize was given to ‘Unplugged Coding’ by Photha Watthana Senee School, Ratchaburi.
- High Quality Research prize was given to ‘Sugar Addicted’ by The Demonstration School of Silpakorn University, Nakhon Pathom.
- Creativity prize was given to ‘Lost in Eros’ by Bodindecha (Sing Singhaseni) 2 School, Bangkok.
- Community Engagement prize was given to ‘Save Health Save Life’ by Sapphawitthayakhom School, Tak.
- Gamers’ Choice prize was given to ‘Mentalism’ by Suankularb Wittiyalai Rangsit School, Pathum Thani.
The award ceremony to physically present HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn’s royal trophy to the winner will be organized when the timing is suitable and will be announced later. For more details about the project, visit Facebook Fanpage: Thammasat – Banpu Innovative Learning Program.
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About Banpu
Banpu Public Company Limited is a leading international versatile energy provider with 3 core groups of businesses: energy resources, energy generation and energy technology in 10 countries, namely, Thailand, Indonesia, China, Australia, Lao PDR, Mongolia, Singapore, Japan, the United States of America and Vietnam.
“Learning is the Power of Change and Development”
Banpu believes that “learning” is an important foundation for the development of “people”, which will drive communities and society towards sustainable development in the long term. Banpu’s CSR projects in all countries, therefore, focus on supporting and promoting continuous learning among young generations and communities in various forms, allowing them to learn from real experiences as much as from their daily lives inside and outside classrooms. They are encouraged to practice and develop their potential as well as life skills while always being curious to research, learn and discover knowledge on their own as much as with others.
