A group of high school students from the Experimental High School of the University of Macedonia won this year’s “Junior Achievement Greece” student competition for inventing a mind-training game based on symmetries, and will represent Greece at the European-level Junior Achievement competition in Istanbul in July.
The group of 17 students, who received the Odysseas Kyriakopoulos Grand Prize, created e-business “Isometrics” and through it the game “Wizzle”, which uses mathematical rules and aims at cultivating creativity and mind training.
Speaking to media sponsor of Junior Achievement Hellas Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA), students Korina Malassidi and Fay Katsanou said the game “is very innovative and is addressed to everyone, regardless of age.” The girls said that the game is based on the concept of symmetry. “Symmetries help us understand the world, and they set us apart from all other beings, so we incorporated them in the game,” they explained, adding that the game promotes better comprehension of geometry and improves other skills too.
The game has been reproduced through 3D printing and is available for sale at the MOMUS museums of modern art network. It is being used at the “Anagennissi” Rehabilitation Center in the northern Greek capital and will be used in two research projects by the Hellenic Alzheimer’s Society to determine its benefit for people with Alzheimer’s and related disorders.
The Junior Achievement Greece competition recognized other schools in the same category (General Education), as well as in categories such as Audience Prize, and Company Junior (including grade school students).
ANA-MPA President and General Manager Aimilios Perdikaris handed out one of the audience prizes to a group of Athens College high school students for the “De-light Traveler” platform, which allows people to travel lightly by renting clothes and equipment at their destination.
SOURCE; ANA-MPA
