“Stickier” learning through gameplay: An effective approach to climate change education

Abstract

As the impacts of climate change grow, we need better ways to raise awareness and motivate action. Here we assess the effectiveness of an Arctic climate change card game in comparison with the more conventional approach of reading an illustrated article. In-person assessments with control/reading and treatment/game groups (N ¼ 41), were followed four weeks later with a survey. The game was found to be as effective as the article in teaching content of the impacts of climate change over the short term, and was more effective than the article in long-term retention of new information. Game players also had higher levels of engagement and perceptions that they knew ways to help protect Arctic ecosystems. They were also more likely to recommend the game to friends or family than those in the control group were likely to recommend the article to friends or family. As we consider ways to broaden engagement with climate change, we should include games in our portfolio of approaches.

Impact of gameplay vs. reading on mental models of social-ecological systems: a fuzzy cognitive mapping approach

“…Also, future studies are needed to understand the impact on learning of participant familiarity with games and potential pre-dispositions to learning from them. The recruitment language used in this study solicited people "to help with the development of a new educational game" (Pfirman et al 2021).…”

“…For this, we use an illustrated article-representing a more conventional approach to learning. The game under evaluation (EcoChains: Arctic Crisis (EcoChains)), was designed by Joey Lee and Stephanie Pfirman, under the project Polar Learning and Responding: PoLAR Climate Change Education Partnership, to teach players about climate change through the lens of the Arctic marine ecosystem (Lee 2020, Turrin et al 2020, Pfirman et al 2021. The "control" article was written so as to contain similar content to the game (see Methods for details.…”

“…Thus, while respecting the complexity and "messiness" inherent in social-ecological systems, systems thinking is mostly about distinguishing systemic relationships within systems (White 1995, Kok 2009. METHODS Adults from the general public were invited to participate in a research study in Boston (see description of recruitment procedures in Pfirman et al 2021). Fifty participants were recruited, and due to no-shows, 41 completed the study (game: n = 21; reading: n = 20).…”

“…Questions regarding the experience were displayed on a slide, and the facilitator concluded the session by reading a script explaining the purpose of the study and noting that there would be a followup survey and a more detailed debrief of the full study (Pfirman et al 2021). Note that because we wanted to replicate the informal educational setting of playing or reading at home with family and friends, rather than a classroom, we chose not to conduct a content-oriented debriefing immediately following the in-person session as is recommended to enhance learning from games in formal educational settings (Petranek 1994, Kriz 2010, Wouters et al 2013, Meadows et al 2016, Flood et al 2018, Waddington and Fennewald 2018.…”

“…We also collected data on existing knowledge of and attitudes toward climate change and the Arctic, and repeated these questions in the post-intervention survey, so as to test changes in attitudes and perceived knowledge. These data are analyzed in Pfirman et al (2021). Additionally, we conducted a follow-up online survey 4 weeks after the intervention.…”