Experiences with a Serious Game Introducing Basic Knowledge About Renewable Energy Technologies: A Practical Implementation in a German Secondary School

Abstract

In this article, we describe a practical implementation of a serious game to facilitate knowledge acquisition about renewable energy technologies among youngsters, using the game Serena Supergreen and the Broken Blade. We present the quest design and an evaluation study on the research questions: (a) Did youngsters who played the game have more knowledge about renewable energy technologies compared to those who did not play the game? (b) How did students perceive the game? (c) What did the students recall from the game 11 months after playing it? The study was conducted at a German secondary school ( n = 82). Youngsters who played the game had more knowledge on renewable energy technologies compared to the control group ( n = 31). In a second round of data collection, 11 months after playing, a majority of students still remembered the game quests. Our results indicate that serious games are a promising approach for introducing basic knowledge about renewable energy technologies.

Engaging Young People in Climate Change Action: A Scoping Review of Sustainability Programs

“…Ten of the studies were longitudinal, examining ongoing impacts of interventions. Ernst et al [20], Reimer et al [66], Spangenberger et al [23] and Young et al [39] followed up with participants within twelve months of program completion. Dann et al [46] analyzed pre-and post-surveys of campers at the Great Lakes Camp from 1999-2012.…”

“…Two studies were ongoing throughout the school or university year and aimed to include local communities to increase civic action through working groups and presentations [57,61], and one involved students in research for disaster preparedness in their community [65]. Four studies created interactive games or apps to enhance knowledge on renewables [23,30,35,51]. Three studies created projects related to sustainable fashion, two of which included the creation of a "fashion library" for students to swap and rent out clothing along with lectures on sustain-able consumption [49,60,62], and one study utilized blogging as a technique to encourage fashion students to write about their experiences with buying less over a 10-week period.…”

TVET SI: Renewable Energy Technologies: How technical curricula could enable a brighter future

“…Students' dispositions towards the occupation are likely to be shaped by their practical learning experiences, observing others, and making judgements about the value of concepts and practices and how these can be reconciled with what they experience (Billett, 2018). Opportunities to engage in practice tend to motivate students, but when such opportunities are not readily available, students' engagement through gamification and simulation is recommended (Spangenberger et al, 2020).…”

Investigating the Environmental and the Energy Saving Behavior among School Principals through Classification Algorithms

“…Another critical environmental and energy courses service is providing quality education to curb societal challenges for sustainable rural development. In this context, the teaching of technical courses should serve: a) rural schools and remote communities in developing countries through microgrids (Chatterjee et al, 2019) b) practical implementations to build up knowledge on renewable energy technologies through gaming (Dorji et al, 2015;Spangenberger et al, 2020) c) the educational provision at offering enrichments programs scheduled for talented high school students (Bayles et al, 2007).…”