The Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), a public research university located in São Carlos, a Brazilian city and municipality part of the Aranquara mesoregion and the São Carlos microregion in the interior of the state of São Paulo, has developed and launched an educational video game aimed to teach elementary school students (grades 1 to 5) the culture and history of indigenous peoples of Brazil, as required by national law.
Since 2008, the study of the history and culture peoples has been compulsory in the country’s primary and secondary schools, and the project led by Professor Maria Silvia Cintra Cintra Martins from the Department of Literature at Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), was launched in response to a request from primary school teachers to be used as high - quality classroom material on the culture and history of indigenous peoples for their classes.
The game is developed with extensive research and collaboration with indigenous communities to ensure cultural accuracy and authenticity, and providing an immersive experience into their worldview.
The video game is a 2D platformer with main character a boy from the Yanomani tribe, an indigenous people of about 35.000, living in roughly 200 - 250 villages in the Amazon rainforest along the Brazil - Venezuela border, known for their distinct culture, languages and traditional way of life living in large, circular houses called “shabonos” and threatened by illegal mining and deforestation, and the boy fights against evil creatures to protect the tropical forests of the Amazon,
Professor Maria Silvia Cintra Cintra Martins said that as a teacher who teaches preschool educators, she understands the need for teachers to have additional materials to be able to comply with the law.
This is the third video game in the university’s series of educational projects designed to support teachers and the Professor points out that, before creating the game, extensive research was carried out to faithfully represent the culture of the Yanomami.
Link
