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While rote learning methods are lagging behind, two-thirds of students say that learning through gamification is more motivating and beneficial than traditional courses or institutions. Arkerobox, which produces educational board games for children over the age of 5, aims to bring 6 new cultural heritages to children from all over the world with the support it will receive by starting a crowdfunding tour on Kickstarter in the first week of January.

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TURKEY - While traditional learning methods based on rote are lagging behind, learning tools by experience and playing are taking their place. According to data released by Finance Online, two-thirds (67%) of students say that learning through gamification is motivating and beneficial. Learning through playing not only makes it easier for children to learn, but also instills in them the value of cooperation and strengthens their ability to organize and make decisions.

Arkerobox, which produces educational board games for children over the age of 5, brings a new perspective to education. With its educational archaeological excavation kits, it not only raises children's awareness of cultural heritage, but also enables them to experience and create their intellectual knowledge. The domestic initiative, which was deemed worthy of many international awards in this field, created a new campaign after the investments it received. Getting ready to launch on Kickstarter, a crowdfunding platform where creative ideas are supported, Arkerobox will add 6 more cultural artifacts from all over the world to its collection with the support it will receive from here.

It will go into its 3rd funding round after the New Year

Arkerobox Co-Founder and CEO İlker Vardarlı stated that children who experience educational board games gain awareness of cultural heritage at an early age and want to see the works they discovered on site, adding, “Educational board games contribute to children's learning processes by developing skills such as mapping, research and writing-reading. Therefore, we think that these games should have information-filled, instructive and developmental qualities for children. With the archaeological excavation kits we produce with this mission, we not only raise children's awareness of our cultural artifacts, which are destroyed over time due to environmental factors, but also enable all children to experience and create their intellectual accumulation. We continue our efforts to reach more children in different geographies of the world. We successfully completed the second crowdfunding round, which we started with 1,200 investors in the previous period, by collecting 4 million TL. Next is the crowdfunding round on the Kickstarter platform, which will take place in January and February of 2023. With the support we will get from here, we will add 6 more cultural heritages to our collection.”

Gamification of the world's cultural heritage

İlker Vardarlı shared the following information about his new games: “With the support we will receive from Kickstarter, we will add to our collection of 12 artifacts, which include different immovable cultural assets of the world such as Göbeklitepe, Nemrut, King Suppiluliuma and Orkhon Inscriptions, the Mayan city Chichen Itza from Mexico, the Inca ancient city Machu Picchu from Peru and Petra Ancient City from Jordan, which are among the 7 wonders of the world. We will also gamify the Mount Rushmore Monument from the USA, the Terracotta Army from China and the Moai Sculptures from Chile. In this way, we will accelerate our global activities and increase our social impact. We will expand our global business network and diversify our portfolio in order to reduce the destruction of the world's cultural heritage, reach more children and raise awareness of cultural heritage for future generations in a practical way.”

They obtained 30% of their turnover from exports.

Underlining that they have touched more than 30 thousand children to date, Arkerobox Co-Founder and CEO İlker Vardarlı said, “While we sold a total of 15 thousand games in the 2020-21 period, we reached the same figure in the first half of 2022. We expect to close this year with a turnover of 2.5 million TL, 30% of which is from international sales. We aim to make a quick start to 2023. In addition to the Kickstarter campaign, we will increase our global cooperation by participating in CES23, an innovative technology event where brands abroad come together in January, and Spielwarenmesse 2023, the world's largest toy fair, in February.

Developed an education model from SDGs

Noting that excavation kits increase children's interest in cultural heritage, İlker Vardarlı pointed out that educational board games will also be supported through mobile applications, and said, “We have developed a new education model by blending some of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and presented an alternative, applied learning method suitable for our age. In addition, we enabled children in different countries to get to know our cultural heritage as they dig with our kits by learning by experiment. We had the chance to represent our country abroad by winning the Social Impact Award 2020 in Turkey with our education model. In 2021, we won a silver medal at the independent toy competition in London.”