Within the COP26 Green Zone, there are many routes to a NetZero future. One vision of this future is the greater engagement of children through the gamification of the environment
This article looks at the role of games to teach children and adults alike about their impact on the environment.
I spoke with Justin Edwards (Director of Learning Programmes at Microsoft) on how games can teach us more about the environment around us.
“I work on the educational content for Minecraft. And you see behind me, we’ve developed the world which is called Climate futures. It’s actually a series of worlds that takes children through the understanding of the impact of climate change, but also the solutions that can be applied & the solutions they can apply as individuals or inside their community. And then they can take that learning as a class group back inside their communities and build out new and better worlds”.
Further information on the Minecraft Education Edition can be found at https://education.minecraft.net/en-us/homepage
So, to summarise:
Gamification of the environment is one route to a NetZero future by winning the “hearts and minds” of children and adults in our protection of a shared environment.
Sometimes it is easy for parents to trivialise games as a negative influence on young minds. However, there are roles for games to illustrate the outcomes of good and bad environmental decisions with a game, like Minecraft, being a safe area to explore our fragile relationship with our environment.
I am sure that the gamification of the environment will be further developed by Microsoft and others to help us all make wise decisions for a better environmental future.
If this article has helped to advance your understanding of the gamification of the environment, please leave a comment in the box below, if this article has help you.
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