Games+Learning+Society 12 Conference

Environmental Attitudes in Youth-created Computer Games about Climate Change
Puttick, Tucker-Raymond, & Barnes

This paper presents findings from case studies of two girls who designed games to teach other youth about climate change. Analysis of how their environmental attitudes shaped their design decisions offers a window on how these attributes of players were integral to the content and “look” of the games. Implications for creating game design experiences aimed at learning science, particularly when the topic is as difficult and complex as climate change, are discussed.

Invasion of the Energy Monsters: A Spooky Game About Saving Energy
Horn, Banerjee, Davis, Stevens

We present a cooperative family board game called Invasion of the Energy Monsters designed to encourage entire families to reflect on how to use energy at home and to think about implications for global environmental sustainability. After briefly reviewing related work, we outline our design principles, describe our game, and share preliminary findings from playtesting sessions with families in their homes.

Game-Based Learning for Identity Change
Foster, Shah & Barany

This study examined the extent to which a game, Land Science (LS), afforded identity change opportunities as defined by Projective Reflection (PR). PR served as a theoretical lens to analyze the design of LS and existing logged and intact data for 16 high school participants. Preliminary analyses indicated that LS met the intended design goals of supporting students’ knowledge gain for urban science and scientific modeling. Identity change was partially met as impacting students' content knowledge. LS did not afford opportunities for learners to explore multiple science identities, set personal goals within the learning environment, or establish personal relevance to game experiences. Hence, it was unclear whether participants valued the experience and content as personally significant to their future goals. Implications are discussed for advancing knowledge in the field about educational gaming for changing students' science identities.