Play and Act for Sustainable Development Goals - Integration of Energy Transfer Topics in a Serious Game for Pupils

With the further development of the serious game, a tool has been expanded that raises awareness of the SDGs among users and inspires and encourages children to take action for a sustainable futur...

With the further development of the serious game, a tool has been expanded that raises awareness of the SDGs among users and inspires and encourages children to take action for a sustainable future. This can be done both on an individual level and on a larger social scale. The experience of recent years in the school lab has shown that gamification elements are a very effective didactic method of imparting specialised knowledge to young people. The further development of the existing serious game therefore appeared to be a promising way of increasing the willingness of the focussed target group to take action with regard to socially and environmentally relevant topics. Another aim is to help children overcome the fear of climate change that is omnipresent in the media by conveying positive stories and solutions. Multilingualism and configuration options in relation to the selected country in the game create global awareness by immersing players in different countries. Furthermore, the project results should support teachers in introducing sustainable topics in schools.

The project was divided into three major activities over the entire duration. Activity 1 comprised the project management, including the organization of scheduling for meetings and milestones, as well as documentation of the project results. In addition to a kick-off meeting at the Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences and a final event in Lille (France), virtual meetings were successfully held to coordinate and ensure progress. Furthermore, the project results were disseminated to interested users, for example via the partner organizations' teacher and school laboratory network. Activity 2 focused on further developing the game, including creating quizzes for the existing and newly developed levels and a questionnaire for personal CO2 footprint. In addition, a guide was created to support educators in using the game in the classroom. Activity 3 focused on the continuous evaluation and further development of the game through feedback from school labs, teacher training and internal testing. This ensured the best possible result.

The central project result is the further developed serious game ‘Migratory Birds’. Level 13 was completed and level 7 was designed and developed. The levels refer to the respective SDGs according to their number. To this end, new cartoon-style videos were created in joint consultation with all project partners, which convey the knowledge in a way that is appropriate for the target group. New active playable sequences with new locations were also programmed. Another important result is the translation of the entire game from French into English and German. This includes both the written components such as buttons, explanations, etc., as well as the translation of the spoken texts in the explanatory videos of levels 7 and 13. The new version of the game was distributed to interested users via existing contacts of the partner organisations and its didactically meaningful use in the classroom was supported by a guide. All partner organisations involved are motivated and willing to build on this project and submit a further application within the framework of the cooperation partnerships. The aim is to develop further levels to expand the game.