Grim FATE: Learning About Systems Thinking in an In-Depth Climate Change Simulation

Abstract

Background. Simulations of complex systems have a long history of use for the study and promotion of systems thinking, yet more can be done in identifying games that promote development of systems thinking. Aim. This study is an exploration of the hypothesis that FATE OF THE WORLD, a challenging and complex climate change simulation, can promote systems thinking about climate change. Questions. This article analyzes players’ engagement with FATE OF THE WORLD using three key questions: 1. In what ways does the game support thinking about climate change as a complex system? 2. Does the game correspond to players’ a priori model of climate change? 3. How do players relate to FATE as an artifact they embrace, critique, and tinker with? Method. 33 participants were matched into control and test groups, and experimental participants were assigned to play a full game scenario of FATE OF THE WORLD. Experimental and control groups were compared using pre-and-post intervention concept maps. Post interviews were conducted with the test group. Results. Concept maps revealed statistically significant differences between the control and test groups. Interviews revealed diversity in learning outcomes and the ways in which acceptance of the game’s model of climate change influenced learning. Conclusions. FATE serves as proof-of-concept for the power of complex simulations to promote systems thinking as well as in-depth reflection on key social challenges. However, simulations like FATE are unlikely to serve well as stand-alone educational tools, which highlights the importance of effective teaching to accompany the game.

Gaming Green: The Educational Potential of Eco – A Digital Simulated Ecosystem

“…Overall, our findings add to the growing body of research suggesting that educational games constitute a promising and novel way of learning (Wouters et al, 2013), also mirroring the research done by previous sustainability researchers utilizing games (e.g., Schaal et al, 2018;Waddington and Fennewald, 2018). One of the central findings from our study is that Eco has been shown to reinforce and contextualize our respondents' overall level of environmental literacy and systems thinking.…”

“…Enjoying environmental gameplay is theorized to have a significant effect on the subsequent learning outcomes from playing (Fjaellingsdal and Klöckner, 2017), thus lending support to the study's findings. Another study revealed that individuals who played Red Redemption's Fate of the World, a simulation revolving around a 200-year period of societal and environmental impacts (Klöckner, 2015, p. 198), showed a higher degree of environmental systems thinking than a control group (Waddington and Fennewald, 2018). Systems thinking -the ability to understand the complexity of all the individual parts of an interconnected system (Aronson, 1996) -is crucial in the understanding of ecosystems.…”

“…Systems thinking might increase knowledge about how ecosystems function (Frick et al, 2004). It has been shown that simulations and games are highly suitable for teaching about the complexity of systems, and that some games have been developed specifically to address environmental topics such as climate change (Waddington and Fennewald, 2018).…”

“…Aside from their use in entertainment (Sweetser and Wyeth, 2005), videogames are also used in education as so-called serious games (Wouters et al, 2013). For decades, researchers have shown interest in utilizing such games to educate the public about sustainability issues (e.g., Sandbrook et al, 2015;Waddington and Fennewald, 2018).…”

The need for simple educational case-studies to show the benefit of soft operations research to real-world problems

“…Most soft OR university courses are found in a geographically limited area (i.e., UK), so it is not surprising that soft OR has not reached a critical mass of users to gain widespread usage within the global OR community (Mingers, 2009(Mingers, , 2011. There does exist educational trainers (Waddington and Fennewald, 2018), but these are limited in number. Without the necessary soft OR educational courses being readily available, "there is a powerful argument that training young OR analysts only in (mathematical) techniques, without giving them an awareness of realities of the organizational and management contexts [i.e., problem structuring], are doing them a huge disservice" (Mingers, 2011).…”