More environmental games for sustainability
Renewable Power Kids – Sustainability Inspired Games for Schools/Camps
Methodologies in sustainability teaching are broadening out and radically changing in schools. Education for Sustainability is no longer just taught as one single discipline but lessons on our impacts are taught across a whole range of topics and subjects as the way we treat our earth affects every aspect of our lives. Similarly, learning about an individual country’s progress on sustainability potentially cuts across its economy, political system, geography, history and social studies.
Online resources and AI Chatbots are featuring as the preferred interactive tools over traditional learning tools, and a new games discipline - ‘Serious Games’ is emerging as the new learning paradigm. Games that go beyond entertainment and encourage learning and behaviour change are considered serious games. Rather than being serious, the irony is that lightening up the context may help to drive home the serious message, as a more soothing and optimistic messages can open up the consciousness. More serious messages conversely can close us down, in our view. Environmental games not only help with learning, and lifting awareness but also drive thinking towards solutions.
This article by The Decision Lab provides a detailed analysis of the immense direction that Gamification is heading in, the applications and benefits of online games with sustainability themes.
This is also an excellent article on the ‘top 20’ Online Games - which range across Waste Management, Ocean Pollution, Climate Change, Wildlife, Global Management and Environmental Education. ChaosTheory is an amazing resource site for the ways games can tap in to the conscious mind of our youth to foster a change of behaviour. These can be played at Outside School/holiday programmes, School Camps, in the home as well as in the classroom.
For the comparative luddites or those teachers or parents going off the grid : here is a more traditional “hands on” game to get the environmental Juices flowing in the classroom:
Each student in a class-room selects a particular country.
EU zone and UK countries could be the focus for Renewable Energy uptake and reforms. Students do their research on how much electricity is being generated by Wind power (eg U.S, Scotland, Portugal, Germany, Spain, Denmark, South Australia), or Solar/Photovoltaic Power (Germany, Italy, China).Each country competes to take out Gold, Bronze, Silver medals.
Instead of solar and wind power, the group could focus on eco-tourism (which country has resorts offering water filtration vs plastic bottles, Electric Vehicle transportation etc), national campaigns to improve treatment of livestock animals, or Cash for Container Schemes, or changes to laws and projects to reduce air and marine pollution. Some groups might be more interested in the styles of environmental campaigning being tried across the countries studied.
Next: design interesting Infographics around the results compiled. Graph drawings could be in the shape of sea and land mammals – with results depicting Germany with the best environmental credentials as a Whale, the next best country Denmark as a Polar bear, the next best country as a Sea Lion and descending in size according to the mammals' green cred.
The element of competition between the countries represented by each student can increase the element of suspense and memorability of the exercise helping to build on a true environmental spirit and collective consciousness within the group.
In our Environmental Ed Slide Shares, we suggest classes hold their own Sustainability Olympics whereby students compete on behalf of each country to debate over which ones are the greenest, of all.
More games and online environmental game sites are being added regularly in to our Education pages.