Chondrosarcoma Awareness: Engaging Education Can Make A Difference by Shereen Koul

I’ll never forget the day in third grade when we learned that Katherine Johnson, the brilliant mathematician that played a critical role in the success of the Apollo mission, and her famous quote that would have a lasting effect on me: “Like what you do, and then you’ll do your best.” Katherine Johnson may have been a mathematician, but she taught me a psychological lesson. That people will always engage well with information when it is something they are interested in.

This same philosophy is what motivated me to develop an educational game that would capture the interest of people. Throughout high school, I have met many people interested in pursuing a career in the medical field. However, due to the wide variety of branches in the medical field, countless students found themselves lost and confused. And with the many stressors of high school, few seemed interested in finding such tools on their own.

That is why I wanted to develop a game that made education engaging for people of all ages to help educate themselves. I specifically wanted to create a game on a rare disease that would be difficult to discover educational resources for and provide learners with meaningful ways to contribute.

That is why I created a Charity for Chondrosarcoma. In this game, the player clicks on the spacebar to jump over obstacles as well as collect hearts and coins. When a player collects a coin, the score increases and a pop up screen displays a fact about Chondrosarcoma. Similarly, when the player collects a heart, a pop up screen appears and lets them click on a link to donate to a sarcoma nonprofit. The goal of the game is to continue playing for as long as possible without bumping into obstacles.

Small steps in learning about a rare disease may appear insignificant, but each little contribution adds upon the other, and soon the actions of one can have profound impacts on whole groups of people. To learn more and make a difference, access Charity for Chondrosarcoma at the following link: https://koshurblogger47-commits.github.io/Cancer-Awareness-Game/

Shereen Koul is a high school student who created the Chondrosarcoma Awareness Game and created the content and the game controls.