Enercities

Subject:   

Level: Junior and senior

Duration: 20-45 minutes

Description and goal: EnerCities offers an online e-learning game for young people (12-16)  to experience energy-related implications. EnerCities is about building your own city and learning more about energy. The goal of the game is to create and expand virtual cities dealing with pollution, energy shortages, renewable energy etc. This game can be played individually or in groups. The game is web-based.

Play here: http://www.enercities.eu/

Connection to curriculum: Students learn how to build a sustainable city and what kind of investments they can do in order to create a balanced economy and a metropolis that can stand the test of time.

How to integrate this game into your science lesson: This game can be coupled to the three aspects of sustainability: People, Planet and Profit. Embed the EnerCities game experience in a learning unit about energy and the role of energy in our society. Before starting the game give your students the task to collect opportunities for saving energy and innovative ways to use renewable energy. The game experience will stimulate the students’ awareness of these topics.

Floodsim

Subject:  

Level: Senior  

Duration: 60 minutes

Description and goal: The serious game Floodsim is an interactive and stimulation solution to create awareness of the increasing risk of flooding. It highlights measures and policies, and can be used to gain more insight in flood management education.

Play here: http://playgen.com/play/floodsim

Connection to curriculum: With this game students will learn about the damaged caused by floods and learn what measures can be taken in order to protect residents against water.

How to integrate this game into your science lesson: First let your students have a look at this video to give them a broad idea of how the game is played. Next, ask students to play the game themselves and let them experience the situation in Great Brittain. After students played the game, ask them to map the current situation in their own area (city, province or country). Students can focus different policies of the (lokal) government and different measures that are taken to prevent flooding. This will raise awareness of the potential dangers of floods in the area where students live. On top of that, ask students to present their findings to the rest of the class and let them prepare an advice for policy makers. They can present their findings via infographics, Edmodo or other forms of Social Media that can be used for presentations.  

Stop Disaster Game

Subject:   

Level: Junior & senior

Duration: 1 hour (for 2 games and evaluation).

Description and goal: Disasters triggered by natural hazards destroy lives and affect millions of people every year. Your goal in this game is to plan and construct a safer environment for your population. You must assess the disaster risk and try to limit the human physical and financial costs. This game teaches students to understand the risks of different natural hazards such as floods, wildfires, tsunami’s earthquakes and hurricanes. Furthermore, they learn to apply different methods of prevention and mitigation and experience the investments and cost effectiveness of these measures.

Play here: http://www.stopdisastersgame.org/en/playgame.html

Connection to curriculum: With this game students will increase their understanding of the effects of climate change and mitigation measures that can be taken by governments.

How to integrate this game into your science lesson: Ask your students to make a list of natural disasters and a corresponding set of suitable countermeasures for each listed disaster. Afterwards students can map the potential risk of disasters in their own environment. Also ask them to find out what measures are taken by the (local) government to minimise the damage and casualties. 

Eco Villa 

Subject:    

Level: Junior & senior

Duration: 30 – 60 minutes

Description and goal: Eco Villa is a serious game that gives students information on the sustainable design of houses and ways to reduce energy (electricity, gas and water). The main goal of this game is to transfer a normal house into an energy efficient one. During the process, students find out what measures can be implemented in a building in order to lower the monthly bills.

Play here: http://www.gamesvooronderwijs.nl/games/ecovilla/

Connection to curriculum: With this game, students will gain more insight in the idea of long term investments in energy reducing measures that can be applied in houses/buildings (sustainable design).

How to integrate this game into your science lesson: 1. Ask students to get familiar with the game first. Next, give students the assignment to ‘scan’ their parents’ house and write a short advice on how they can reduce energy. Ask students to present their advice in the classroom. 2. Make sure to focus on both benefits for the environment (CO2 reduction) and long term financial benefits for house owners. 

Flowerpower Lite

Subject: 

Level: Junior

Duration: 30 to 60 minutes.

Description and goal: Grow flowers and harvest them to make money in Flowerpower Lite. Many attractive and mathematically-interesting plants can be grown in the garden.Students need to use their fractions and decimals knowledge to correctly order the blooms in the garden, and then harvest mature stems and sell them. Develop more interesting varieties by growing simple flowers and leaving them to pollinate and seed.

Play here: https://www.mangahigh.com/en/games/flowerpowerlite

Connection to curriculum: With this game students will enhance their maths skills with regards to fractions and decimals.

How to integrate this game into your science lesson: Set up a classroom competition and ask students to collect as much money as possible. Ask high scoring students to present their ‘strategies’ to the rest of the class. Possible strategies:

• Think about which whole numbers a bud is between. For example, 2¼ are between 2 and 3.
• Think about whether a fraction part of a number is greater than or less than a half. For example, ¾ is greater than ½.
• When you have a mixture of fractions and decimals, either think of them all as decimals or all as fractions. You need to be able to change numbers from fractions to decimals and back to do this. For example, ¾ = 0.75 and 1.25 = 1¼.
• It’s useful to know what some standard fractions are as decimals: 1/10 = 0.1, 1/5 = 0.2, ¼ = 0.25, ½ = 0.5
• A good way to compare two fractions is to use a common denominator. For example, if you are trying to compare 11/12 and 5/6 use the common denominator of 12 – 5/6 equals 10/12 and so 5/6 is less than 11/12. After these strategies are shared you could play another round and see if people can score higher.

EnvKids

Subject:    

Level: Junior

Duration: 1 to 2 hours. 

Description and goal: EnvKids is a serious game for students that aims at the students' understanding of the concept of environmental sustainability. It consists of educational activities that are designed as a series of simple steps that children can follow easily. The aim is to raise awareness of environmental sustainability. This game helps students understand how everyday practice affects the environment on three different levels (home, town and planet) and introduces environmental-friendly solutions for this, such as: solar energy production, turning off idle electronic devices, water consumption etc.

Play here: http://ohmpro.org/envkids/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=133&Itemid=133 and choose the option "my town". 

See the MASS website for more information about EnvKids

Connection to curriculum: With this game students will learn about urban planning, environmental sustainability,the relation between these concepts and their own behaviour.

How to integrate this game into your science lesson: Ask students to simulate / rebuild a part of their own city. They can use satellite images of Google maps for a good overview. Next, ask students to think of solutions to make their own city greener.