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The Best School Day Ever !
Teaching Sustainability and System Thinking by Pervasive Game playing.
Anders Nordby, Kristine Oygardslia, Ulrik Sverdrup, Harald Sverdrup
Presented by
Anders Nordby and Havard Vibeto
a
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What we wanted to do
*In a 2"! year game technology class
on System Thinking we wanted the
students to create a Pervasive
Educational Game to teach
Sustainability and Systems Thinking
to elementary school children Je See
* Then we wanted them to playtest it
on 5th and 7th-graders on a local eS 3 '
elementary school Sey
* What we wanted to study the
5 j Refugees otto earn Earthworm
children’s digital game ‘ioital dels digital game
* Motivation
* Learning outcomes
¢ Other skills, such as creative
problem solving
e Ability to understand svstems
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Pervasive Games?
¢ Games that blend reality and games, often
cross-mediated
* Including (but not limited to):*
. Why So Serious?
- Alternate Reality Games locasie Foalley Comme
- Urban Adventure Games 10 million people,
75 countries
- Treasure hunts
- Street Smart Sports
TO BE ANNOUNCED ¢
PacManhattan Mystery on Fith Avenue
(Street Smart Sports) (Treasure Hunt)
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The Pervasive Game
* The story starts with a
video showing the
storyline; a refugee fleeing
from his country because
of war and lack of food
cased by climate change
¢ The goal was to find out
what happened to the
environment in his country,
and how the pollution and
climate change could be
prevented
* Throughout the game
there are clues and actors
leading the players in the
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The pervasive game CLD’s
The CLD shows how the mini-games are integrated with each other and the pervasive game.
¢ For example the Worm game has to be played and won to have food resources for the
island game, and the refugee game has to be resolved to have workforce for the fabric and
the power plants, also in the Island game.
¢ The Treasure in the Pervasive game has to be found to be able to buy things in the Island
game. The CLD also shows how the pollution, war and food/resources are the reason for
the refugee escape.
The Gardiner
Improves the sod
= 4
Fodd production
in the Island game
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‘Consumption and the
Human Support System
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Refugees in Cae Refugees
Je rdan
a
” E
‘Quality of
“Soll System
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Actors and clues
Conversations and riddles from
different actors (students) gave the
children information about
sustainability related subjects
including:
* a King Earth Worm talking about
soil ecology and pollution,
* a Gardener talking about forests
and ecological diversity,
* a locksmith talking about
recycling,
* amerchant talking about trade.
Playing the Game
The 16 children were divided into
two groups of 8.
Both teams got one backpack,
containing:
- A walkie-talkie,
- A treasure map,
- A notebook
- Passwords and some clues
We assigned one student to each
group to help them, but they were
exhausted in 30 minutes
The children basically solved the
game alone in 2+ hours....
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- 07:30 - 08:30: Prepare
location
- 08:30 - 11:00: Playing game
- 11:00 - 12:00: Break
- 12:00 - 13:00: Diary
- 13:00 - 14:00: Systems
Thinking session
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The Diary
- After the pupils had finished the
game, they were given a
workbook, made like the diary of
the refugee from the introduction
video.
- This repeated the main points that
the pupils should learn while
playing the game.
- It also contained several questions
that could be used to assess the
learning outcome.
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The System Thinking Session
- The school day concluded - This worked very well, and the
with a systems thinking children understood the enforcing
session. and balancing factors better than
many adults do.
- Here, the children discussed
what they had learned - Some of the students felt that this
throughout the day, and tried was the best part BE the whole day.
to see how different
variables would affect each
other (example):
- pollution leading to
climate change,
- leading to drought,
- leading to people having
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Some observations
Learning Motivation
* The game gave students who usually do - The children really enjoyed playing the
not like school a chance to shine! game, and expressed that they wanted more
- The combination of pervasive games, schooldays like this.
systems thinking and digital games - Some of the children who normally didn't
seemed to be more fitted for children enjoy school very much, especially enjoyed
today than traditional learning methods. this game since it was closer to their
- Although many of the children already preferred way of learning.
knew a lot of the content we tried to - After playing the game, some of the
teach them, the game provided a way for children borrowed books from the school
them to tie everything together, and library to learn more about sustainable
understand how everything was living.
connected.
Creativity °
- "Hacking" onto the other team's walkie-
talkies
- Speaking in German to hide information
from the other team
- Solving a quest by making the actors talk to
another through the walkie-talkies to trade
goods
Blenendialetive EER memdlinnec ce hima asneoinec
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The Teacher Education
After this project the teacher education adopted the strategy and we
now teach a 2 courses in Games, Animations and Learning (154+15
ECTS).
In these courses we let the teachers create Pervasive Games including
digital games in simple Gamer Engines like Kodu, Gamestar
Meachanics etc...
esir - Alternative Reality
Game. That each the children about
recycling of waste
Operation Overload - Treasure
hunt. Two classes 1000 km apart
collaborate.
The mystery of Agatha Hanssen -
Urban Adventure Game in Namsos
during the Second World War
Questions?
