STEMing the Tide
A project proposal and prototype for a climate resilience video game for the Monarch Innovate-U OVN, created using Empathy-oriented Design Thinking.
Pitch
This prototype, designed for the Innovate-U OVN program, is a digital game designed to support climate science education and environmental literacy while also engaging students through solution-focused learning.
Problem
Climate Science and environmental literacy is needed now more than ever, but educators face many challenges in including climate change education in their curriculums. A recent NPR survey found that nearly 60% of teachers avoid teaching about climate change, with many claiming they have difficulty integrating climate education into their subject or lack confidence in their technical knowledge surrounding climate change. Additional reasons were that it is not required for their student’s age group or it does not fit into alignment with state mandates, resulting in a lack of resources to teach climate science (Kamenetz).
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Another issue is that climate change can also evoke feelings of anxiety, grief, hopelessness and anger in both students and teachers (Newberry). Climate anxiety is something many people experience and all of these emotions can be overwhelming and lead to apathy without proper resources or direction (Zhelnina), resulting in decreased engagement in environmental literacy. Because of this, it is important to approach climate science education with empathy and empowerment. Additionally, climate resilience strategies have been found to be most effective when assessed and applied at a local level (Yusuf), meaning that it could be more beneficial for students to learn about the unique challenges in their local ecosystems and the strategies being used to mitigate climate change (Byun). A climate science curriculum that focuses on local climate resilience successes would not only empower and inform students about climate challenges, but it would position them to learn about effective local mitigation and inspire them to innovate future solutions.
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During my empathy research, I heard over and over again that teachers need lesson plans and resources they can easily implement in their classroom without substantial training or development on their part. Dr. Gary Skeen, the associate Director of CEIO, noted that “Anything that takes something off a teacher's plate and provides value is going to be useful for the classroom.” Tirzah Sarro, the Program Administrator for the Maritime Engineering and Environmental Studies Academy (MEESA) also noted the same, calling attention to the fact that many teachers need resources to build curriculums and a game that can be dropped into a curriculum would be popular with both students and teachers. With all this in mind I have developed a digital game prototype that will help support educators in teaching climate science in their classroom. The game can also be combined with a number of STEM activities to create a curriculum that meets a number of educational standard requirements.
Prototype
The game is modeled after the Smithsonian’s Aquation game and strategies used in Ndemic Creations mobile game Plague Inc. The goal of the game is to teach students about climate resilience strategies and waterway restoration in our area through ‘bite-sized’ research conclusions and goal oriented gameplay.
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The game map consists of the Chesapeake Bay, including watersheds and tributaries, broken into the watershed regions such as the Susquehanna River Basin, North Bay, East Bay, Lower Bay/South Bay. The students will click on each region to show the challenge markers for issues that region is facing. Each challenge marker will open a section that provides information about that specific issue. Students will have to ‘conduct research’ within the game by exploring different climate resilience strategies presented for the region and then they will need to spend game points to implement a strategy that they feel will help with the issue. Students can move onto different regions once that region has had all the challenges completed. In-game actions such as ‘form partnership’, ‘apply for grant’ or ‘write a politician’ will give students the opportunity to gain more game points. The ‘form a partnership’ action will provide information about local ecological organizations working to tackle these issues. The ‘apply for a grant’ will unlock more partners and ‘write a politician’ will unlock more funding but be a time-limited option. Additional research and partnerships will then unlock more climate resilience strategies for ecological solutions in each region. As students play there will be a news ticker banner that has headlines about climate resilience strategies that have been successful in local communities to help give hints to students about what their game goals should be.
Map of Watershed Regions
Focused Regional Map with Trouble Spots Highlighted
Educational Blurb With Climate Resilience Strategy Options
The variability of the game allows for it to be played more than once to reinforce concepts through repetition. Additional activities can be combined with this game to create an entire curriculum for teachers, such as constructing a model of an Oyster Reef; modeling and testing of flood mitigation barriers and erosion prevention; watershed investigations and monitoring; and Climate Fresks. Most of these activities are also able to be adapted for different age groups and K-5 students can have a curriculum with more kinesthetic and creativity based activities that also align with the game. Please see the resources section for more information.
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This game gives students the opportunity to learn about different climate resilience strategies that are being used in their area and approaches climate science from a point of success, with the goal of empowerment and inspiration. It also gamifies learning, which is a popular medium for students. This game would be compatible with a curriculum being developed for MEESA, where students will be challenged to design a strategy for the community to help reduce their environmental footprint. The game could initially be designed for these students, with additional learning modules that follow so they can further explore the concepts introduced in the game. The students would then be able to go out into the community to discover how these strategies are being implemented or where they think they could potentially be useful.
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The benefit of initially targeting highschoolers with the game is that it could then become a challenge for students in the Computer Science Academy to redesign the game for younger audiences. This would allow for them to learn about UX development strategies and while also creating an educational component for the K-5 STEM Academy at Booker T Washington. For younger audiences, the strategies within the game can rely heavily on graphics to aid students with reading comprehension (Guo).
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MEESA is also currently working to partner with local ecological groups who would be able to provide additional resources since many of the climate resilience strategies being implemented locally are associated with these groups. Additionally, the Chesapeake Water Watch (CWW) is a citizen science project that is currently using the smartphone app Hydrocolor and water samples to aid in calibration of NASA’s water quality monitoring satellites. The CWW is currently working to expand to the South Bay and would be an excellent partner for this game by encouraging students to be active participants in waterway restoration. Through CWW, students would be able to gather samples, submit their results to Fieldscope and compare their game maps to CWW’s data collection map.
Value Proposition
By combining the game with a STEM based curriculum, learning materials can reinforce the concepts taught in the game and help educators explore concepts of environmental literacy in the classroom without adding an additional burden of curriculum development or another professional development requirement. In this digital age, it's more likely that students will want to engage with the material presented through a digital game instead of other resources that are available such as presentations and readings. The game is different from similar games available, such as Ship-Tec, Aquation and Nasa’s Climate Kids series, because it focuses on local ecosystems and climate resilience strategies that students can see for themselves in their communities. Partnering with local ecological organizations will give students the opportunity to speak with the scientists working on these strategies and make these concepts a reality. Additionally, many climate science games are problem-focused instead of solution-focused, which can have an effect on perception and motivation.
