Click on photo to learn more about any species, not only your own.
How the Build Your Colony game works
This game is intended to turn the school playground into a virtual wild bird and animal habitat where threatened species can survive and thrive. Each child using Charopy has been randomly allocated a single species to "look after" for the week, but the name of this species is only unlocked once the child returns their first container for recycling in the week of the game. Once unlocked, this one single bird or animal will not survive long just on its own as it needs two things in order to continue to prosper.
Firstly, each species must find others of the same species to form a colony. It is the child's job to search the playground over the course of the week to find as many students who have unlocked the same species and together they will "form a colony" by writing down the four digit code from the inside of that child's wristband.
Secondly, our threatened species need a clean, natural, pollution free environment in which to live. By returning single use drink containers for recycling we will make a big impact in reducing litter; any reduction we can make in litter across the state is a big step in the right direction and we will be tracking the amount of recycling done per colony as part of this game.
Getting started
From the day the game commences (Monday 16th September), the initial handing in of an eligible drink container for recycling will unlock that childs' designated species. At this point the child will be given a card similar to the ones shown here, where their individually allocated species appears on the the front, and the back of each features 15 empty boxes.
At each break, the students will be able to walk around the playground trying to find as many children as possible holding the same species to form a colony. When your child finds another holding an identical card they should show the code from the inside face of their Charopy wristband and write down the four digit code from the other child's wristband on the back of their card.
Recording your growing colony
After a few days of building a colony, your child's card will probably start looking like the example here. Given the cards have a glossy finish to make the bird or animal on the front side look better, some pens will not write too clearly on the card. A soft pencil, a non smudging texta (permanent marker), or a pen with smooth flowing ink seem to work best, but the good thing is that even when writing with a dry pen or a hard lead pencil during testing it made enough of an indentation on the card that it was still readable afterwards.
If your child loses their card they can check for spares at the canteen, or they can simply write the wristband numbers of other children in their "colony" that they find on a piece of paper. There is no requirement to actually use the original card as part of the game, so if you child finds more than 15 matches, he or she can write the extra numbers down anywhere.
Entering colony details at home
When your child returns home after school, a great activity to do together is to enter the four digit numbers from this card into the Charopy balance page. This is the website where parents regularly view transactions on a Charopy wristband. If you have forgotten how to do this, please click here to read the detailed instructions for accessing this page. If you can't use NFC on your phone (most older iPhones can download an NFC reading app to access this feature), and if you didn't receive an email from Charopy when first registering or when subsequently doing an Add Funds transaction on Qkr that contains your unique link to this page, please email help@charopy.com.au and we will ensure you have access to the balance page in order for your child to enter the wristband numbers of the identical species that they have found for their colony.
The winning colony at the end of the week will be the species that as a group have found the most of their same species, combined with the colony that has done the most recycling in the week. The main objective is to raise the awareness of children about various threatened species in New South Wales, but we all love a good competition, so the winning team, to be announced during school assembly and/or in the school newsletter, will be calculated in the following manner. Each species will be ranked from highest to lowest on the two metrics - size of colony and amount of recycling returned. So if Species A has the biggest colony and was ranked fourth in terms of drink containers recycled that week, then it will get one plus four points, so a score of five. If Species B ranks second for size of colony and also second in recycling, Species B will get a score of 4 points. The lowest score wins, making Species B the winner. In the event of two species being equal on points at the end of the week, then the tie-breaker will be the species that has done the most recycling.
We hope that your children have a lot of fun learning about threatened species in this state, whilst also learning more about the importance of regular recycling.