Development of “Trash Hero: Help Me” Board Game to Promote Waste Sorting Knowledge and Skills

Abstract

The objectives of this research were: 1) to synthesize the development process of a board game, and 2) to develop and evaluate the quality of the “Trash Hero: Help Me” board game designed to promote waste sorting skills in  accordance with the standards of the Department of Health. Using a Research and Development framework, data were collected through in-depth interviews with 5 experts and quality evaluation by 11 specialists. The findings revealed that the development process successfully integrated academic content with a Hybrid Board & Card Game mechanism. The expert evaluation indicated that the board game's overall appropriateness was at the highest level (= 4.76, S.D. = 0.41). The highest-rated aspect was media components and graphics (= 4.91), followed by game outcomes (= 4.88). There was a statistically significant improvement in knowledge achievement after playing the game (= 17.80) compared to before playing the game (= 11.45) at the 0.05 level, with a p-value of 0.002. Furthermore, the overall assessment of waste sorting skills, based on observed player behavior, was at a very good level (= 10.50 out of 12 points). These results confirm that this board game is a high-quality innovation that effectively promotes waste sorting knowledge and skills through experiential learning, making it a suitable tool for fostering contemporary environmental awareness.