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This innovation was developed to address a common problem in environmental education: students often know what should be done, but this knowledge does not always turn into daily behaviour. Children may understand the importance of saving water, using energy efficiently, recycling waste and protecting nature; however, these ideas can remain abstract unless they are connected to repeated, visible and meaningful actions.
Eco-Hero Cat was designed to close this knowledge–behaviour gap through a digital game-based behavioural rehearsal model. In the game, students control a cat avatar and complete daily-life environmental tasks such as turning off a tap, switching off unnecessary lights, sorting waste correctly, choosing to walk for short distances and avoiding actions that harm nature.
The main innovative component is the impact counter. When a student makes an environmentally responsible choice, the game does not simply give a score. Instead, it immediately visualises the real-world meaning of that action, such as the amount of water saved, waste recycled, carbon emissions reduced or energy contribution achieved.
In real life, the results of environmental behaviour are often delayed and invisible. This game compresses time and makes those effects concrete for children. Therefore, students experience sustainability not as an abstract message, but as the measurable result of their own small choices.
In practice, our innovation works as a digital learning environment where students do not only hear about environmental problems; they make decisions, see consequences and adjust their behaviour. In the game, each student controls a cat avatar and moves through mission stations based on daily life: turning off a running tap, switching off unnecessary lights, sorting waste into the correct bin, choosing to walk for short distances and correcting actions that harm nature.
After each responsible choice, the impact counter is updated immediately. Instead of receiving an abstract score, the child sees the concrete meaning of the action: how much water was saved, how much waste was recycled, how much carbon impact was reduced or how much environmental contribution was made.
In classroom use, the teacher first measures students’ environmental behaviours over the last seven days. Students then play the game through water, energy, waste, transport and nature modules. At the end, they are assessed again, and the transfer from game tasks to real-life behaviour is examined. In this way, the innovation is not merely a game activity; it becomes an evidence-based STEM learning model combining behavioural rehearsal, instant feedback, measurement and reflection.
The "Environment Hero Cat" application was launched in September 2025. In the initial phase, the game was tested as an in-class pilot application and reached 94 students in 2025. During this process, students were enabled to experience environmental decisions through themed tasks on water, energy, waste, transportation, and nature. Based on the observations obtained, the game flow, task structure, and impact counter feedback were improved. In 2026, the application was rolled out to a larger group of students and implemented again with 257 students. Moving beyond the initial pilot class level, it evolved into a digital sustainable living model that can be tested, measured, and disseminated across different student groups. In total, it reached 351 students directly.
Teachers who want to try out the application can ask their students not just to play the ready-made game, but to design their own mini sustainable living games using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, following a similar logic. First, students choose environmental behaviors: turning off the tap, switching off the light, separating waste, preferring to walk, or protecting nature. Then, they create the game screen with HTML, the visual layout with CSS, and the character movement and task logic with JavaScript. At a more advanced level, they can add a cat, a child, or a local animal avatar using HTML5 Canvas. A simple condition is written for each task: if the player touches the correct object, the impact counter is updated. For example, results such as "+500 ml water saved if the tap is turned off", "+0.05 kWh energy contribution if the light is turned off", "+1 recycling point if the waste is thrown into the correct bin" appear on the screen. The teacher can divide students into small groups: one group designs the interface, another the character, another the tasks, and another the impact counter. At the end of the process, the game is tested, bugs are fixed, and students explain the real-life equivalent of the behavior they coded. In this way, the activity shifts from game consumption to game production.
