Video Games for Sustainability Teaching
This study will design, develop, test, and release a video game addressing complex concepts related to sustainability.
This is a collaborative project between Collin Hover (http://collinhover.com/) and me.
Below is a description of the project by Collin:
The core goal of the project is to design, develop, test, and release a web-based video game that measurably improves learning of complex biological concepts, academic engagement, and student confidence. The initial target audience for this game is elementary school students, ranging in age from 8 - 12, who may play games casually or not at all. After playing the game, students should understand what the terms plant, herbivore, carnivore, and omnivore mean, be able to classify an organism based on their role in the food chain, and be able to draw a simple food chain.
The game itself is an upbeat 2D puzzle-platformer following a crash-landed space explorer and her crew as they save an alien world. The player plays as the first mate of the spacepod, Evelyn. As the first mate on a ship is largely responsible for crew safety and cargo, it is up to her to rescue the crew and recover all the parts of the spacepod. Meanwhile, Evelyn will be antagonized along the way by the second mate and navigator of the ship, Rupert, who is looking to make an easy fortune by harvesting the planet’s energy, through the use of the dark matter and without a thought for the planet’s environment.
The core game mechanics are mimicry, where the player may scan and copy the characteristics and abilities of various creatures on the alien planet, and utilizing the player's biological knowledge to solve puzzles that unlock pathways, abilities, crewmates, and other goal items. A player will only be able to progress once they've mastered the biological concept local to that area of the game world, with the hope that by the end of the game the player will have learned a whole set of concepts without realizing they were actively learning and be much more interested in the sciences as a result.
More information about this project will be coming soon.