How can we learn new and complex concepts? For some, it can be best to learn by doing and experiencing new things. Our experiences can help us turn difficult concepts into day-to-day and actionable knowledge. Some concepts are abstract, and sometimes detached from our realities; yet once we have experienced something that resembles the concept, we can then start to make sense how the concept unfolds in real life. Traditional classroom learning can be limited in terms of allowing students and teachers alike to explore different potential decisions, consequences, and interactions.
Serious games create spaces where players can experiment with different choices, experiences consequences, see different outcomes, and discuss alternative ways forward. There are no real-world costs for making mistakes within the game, which allows players to explore difficult questions that might otherwise be uncomfortable or impossible to test in practice. Serious games can improve understanding of complex systems while also encouraging discussion, collaboration, creative forms of solutions, and critical thinking.
The reflective learning happens after the game. The conversations that follow, or more commonly known as debriefing sessions, allow players to compare experiences, explain their decisions, reflect on their game experience, and question each other’s assumptions. Playing the game creates a shared experience that helps people make sense of complexity together. As you work through this learning kit, we encourage you to treat the game as an opportunity to explore why different people make different decisions under uncertainty.
Our serious game focuses on how compound weather events can impact the agriculture sector. We gamify concepts of compound weather events, collaboration, resource sharing, and role of science for day-to-day farming. The game can be complex to play at first with all the interacting and surprise elements. But is reality not even more complex than a game?
The game allows players to experience how to make decisions under uncertain situations. What might happen if farmers make new farm decisions? What might happen if farmers decide to collaborate or protest against new policies? What might happen to existing collaboration if water or other resources are depleted during the most moment of the planting season? What might happen if a heatwave happens right after a long drought?
If you are interested to explore other climate-related serious games, here is a list of games that our group played and found useful to create our own game: