St Francis Xavier girls win Asia Pacific ICT prize

A lifesaving computer game developed by three students from Saint Francis Xavier Convent School in Bangkok has brought victory for the trio in this year’s Asia Pacific ICT Awards.
The computer development brought the girls into competition with students from a dozen schools throughout the Asia Pacific region.
The Thai team consisted of Sojirath (Gain) Thunprateep in Mathayom 3, Tansinee (Fa) Laoveeratam in Mathayom 5, and Chattinee (Augaig) Sookyinh in Mathayom 6, who spent two months together developing the game.
To gain entry to the international competition, they first won recognition in the local Thai ICT awards. Then they became representatives of Thai students at APICTA 2012 in Brunei, where they earned merit awards.
Their development was a computer game called ‘The Rescue’, an “edu-tainment” project. The concept of the game is to educate students to learn how to give primary treatment for victims of accidents before they can get medical help.
“Our passion is to motivate and encourage students to learn proper rescue techniques. We developed the interactive multimedia game for those interested in studying basic first aid for the victims of accidents,” Tansinee said.
The app teaches players about basic first aid, which they can then apply to help other people and themselves in their daily lives.
“If players are not interested in studying basic first aid, they won’t gain knowledge about lifesaving from the game. They may be shocked and not be able to help victims when an accident occurs – one reason there’s a high percentage of people who die from accidents.
“But if people play our game, they can increase their knowledge and confidence and apply the information in their daily lives,” Tansinee said.
Taking part, players will enjoy and learn basic first aid, acquiring thinking and problem solving processes while playing the game.
“We focus on stimulating players to have a sense of moral compassion, of public mindedness, tolerance, and being prepared to solve problems,” Tansinee said.
Moreover, they would be encouraged to help other people willingly. And this may decrease the rate of deaths from accidents. Further, the game contains many different styles of playing to inspire players to learn various computer skills, such as drawing lines, controlling the keyboard, finding items, and choosing correct items to use in the game.
In ‘The Rescue’, Tansinee and Chattinee developed the graphic animation while Sojirath coded and programmed. The three girls really love computer work and say they’re addicted to it. They spend their free time to practising coding, programming, and developing graphic animation.
“I do coding everyday, spending at least an hour on it. I began coding when I was in Mathayom 1 and at that time I was the winner in a coding competition,” Sojirath said.
Similar to Tansinee, she spends an hour in the morning before class and about three hours in the evening practising developing graphic animation on most days.
Sojirath said that participating in the TICTA and APICTA competitions gave her a lot of valuable experience that she could not find in the classroom. She said students should find what they love or are happy doing and then practice and develop their skills.