Who are we?
OPTA is a multidisciplinary team that believes in the power of education, that's why we chose UN's Sustainable Development Goal number 4 to work with.

Why are we doing this?
Because this is going on; newest generations are born without good prospectives for the future, which is both paralyzing and terrifying. We also learned that 72% of the Brazilian public education high school students' know an insufficient level of Portuguese and maths. At the same time, it is expected that a student in this age range is fully capable of linking causes and consequences, as well as understanding natural phenomena such as tsunamis, earthquakes, global warming and its effects (according to the Brazilian National Common Curriculum Basis).

NASA's efforts and studies throughout the years might be a rich tool in teaching these - but the data can be complex and inaccessible to many; we know the problems are not restricted to Brazil. Our goal, then, is to help teachers around the world help their science students make sense of information that might look strange, even intangible. All of which will be done in a manner that will show the students alternatives to build a better world through their daily choices, helping them getting over the fear and turning it into action.

Ok but... how are we doing this?
Through OPTA, a gamified webapp to be used by teachers during class. Gamified? Why is that? Because we also learned that gamification might help reducing school evasion. The webapp will pose the students the following question: "How do you expect your life to be like in 10 years?" and then ask them to make choices in some categories, such as "moving in the city", "buying clothes", "food habits" and more.

Through our calculations using data obtained in (but not limited to) these (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12) links, we were able to estimate the carbon footprint each of the choices would leave to the world - and in the end, have a sum of the total amount of CO2 producted, showing how well each studend did. The choices' summary will be displayed and explained, pointing their impact on the environment (calculated based upon this and this) and ways of making them better. Ta-da! No complicated charts, no dense amounts of numbers - just the essential, in a way that is visually attractive to the age range and encouraging from a teaching perspective.

Although we chose carbon footprints as a starting point, OPTA is not limited to this subject. We can also use information NASA provides about exoplanets, demographics and many, many other topics - the choice tool will turn them into interactive and interesting experiences.

Then again, we believe knowledge is power - the power we need to change the world.

Want to see what OPTA looks like from the point of view of a student?
Please check our live prototype!