Games Can Be Educational

The winning ideas and projects in the 3rd KOD Awards for math and science games were announced in the awards ceremony held online this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The annual competition is organized by the Turkish Informatics Foundation.

Sponsored by the Eczacıbaşı Group, the KOD Awards aim to showcase and demonstrate the contribution of digital games in education and to play a key role in supporting the development and implementation of educational games at the primary, middle and secondary school levels. Organizers also hope the event will inspire and motivate future generations to develop in these fields.

The competition is open to creators of digital games or of ideas for digital games that promote math and science learning. Winners in both categories are awarded cash prizes, Pocket Gamer Connects tickets, as well as a Robincode’s certificate.

Games are the most effective way of boosting productivity in remote learning
Faruk Eczacıbaşı, President of the Turkish Informatics Foundation, underlined the importance of remote learning during the pandemic and asserted that educational games were the most effective way of ensuring that remote learning was productive. He said, "One of the main objectives of the KOD Awards, now in their third year, is to be widely accepted by educational institutions and educational regulators as a respected authority in the field of educational games."

Success Stories from the KOD Awards
This year’s award ceremony shared several success stories from previous years. Bilgen Demirdaş, the winner of the 2nd KOD awards from the Ideas category, won first place in the 2019 International Educational Game Competition, held in Denmark, with his “Master of Numbers” game. Flat Games, a finalist from the 1st KOD awards, received an investment offer soon after the competition.

Award Winning Projects

Games Category
In the games category, the creators of the game “Interscientific”, Burak Kağan Gür, Ömer Bahadır Karabulut and Naci Sayıcı were awarded first place. Second place winners were Halil Onur Yazıcıoğlu, and Mehmet Can Güler with the game “Alchemists' Castle”. In third place was Baki Şahin Yimencioğlu with the game “Mathematic Legends”.

Ideas Category
In the Ideas category, first place winners were Bahattin Aydın and Kevser Aydın with “Number Arrangements”. Coming in second place was Elif Çilek with “Mysterious Elements” followed by “Prof. Element” in third place by Münir Nuran, Onur Çağatay and Necdet Tuna Başsaka.