7th Graders Aanya and Ria Mehta create innovative new card game on the environment
Aanya and Ria Mehta, 7th graders at Vaels International School, have developed a new environment-themed card game that can be played in multiple ways. The Environment Game cards are a part of the Arya Play catalogue, which are designed to empower individuals, families and groups by providing deeper insights into themselves that in turn enable proactive life choices.
The twins came up with the idea for The Environment Game after noticing numerous environmental concerns during casual beach outings. These included the clutter of plastic waste as well as finding the body of a dead turtle. Motivated by the desire to raise awareness and to make a difference, Aanya and Ria Mehta began innovating on a new card theme for Arya Play, which was founded by their parents, Sameer and Rochana Mehta.
Working independently, the twins set about doing research across age groups. They also participated in a model United Nations program on renewable energy. Their research enabled them to come up with 92 different concepts for how people can make environmental conservation a part of their daily lives, out of which they shortlisted 50. These were selected so as to provide a mix of high-impact and low-impact, high-effort and low-effort, and high-cost and low-cost activities.
Each of the 50 cards features a unique artistic design as well as detailed but simplified information about the positive environmental impact that each concept will have. The cards can be played in various ways, including the “Let’s Win It” style and the “Truth or Dare” style, with the ultimate goal being that people will be able to see how easy it is to inculcate daily habits and lifestyle changes that sustain the environment. The Environment Game will soon have versions in Gujarati, Hindi, Tamil, and a special app is also being developed.
The Arya Play games are currently in use by psychologists at a number of local and global companies, including Atlas Global Investments and Dr. Mehta’s Hospitals as an individual assessment and team diagnostic tool. The games have been refined over thousands of hours of play by people across nationalities and fields, including social anthropologists and human behaviourists. Other themes in the catalogue include The Values Game, The Energy Game, The Entrepreneurs Game, The Culture & Team Game and more. The games can be played using physical cards as well as mobile apps.
Speaking on Arya Play and the new environment-themed cards, Sameer and Rochana Mehta say, “The entire Arya Play catalogue is built around the concept of values, communication and insights into human behaviours. The Environment Game created by our daughters’ adds a vital component to the catalogue, about human interaction with nature and our responsibility towards conserving the planet.
Speaking with the game creators, Aanya and Ria Mehta “We wanted to design games that are fun, make us think about how our behaviours impact the environment, and make simple changes that are easy and low cost, which over time may add centuries to our biodiversity and planet.
