Board games that teach about environmental conservation
Earlier this year I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Lena Robra, a member of the staff at SwissNex here in Bangalore, to discuss a few topics of mutual interest. As so often happens, but can rarely be predicted, that conversation opened the doors to an exciting opportunity. At the time Lena told me about a group of talented young scholars based in Switzerland, India and Uganda who were joining together to teach primary and secondary students concepts related to ecology, environmental stewardship and public health in a way I found particularly interesting. Their idea was to create board games for use in a classroom setting that would take students on journeys of discovery, exploring the impacts that we humans have on the environment, and problem-solving ways to reduce or reverse the consequences of these challenges.
This international group of graduate students share a common goal of bringing awareness about the complexities of the natural world and the consequences of humankind’s actions to the classroom in ways that are uniquely accessible, engaging and scalable. The Swiss government is sponsoring their project, in which they are creating two new board games—one for a younger audience, and another for secondary students—that educate, spark discussion, and sensitize students to topics that can seem remote or abstract when simply presented via a textbook.
I am pleased to serve as the team’s guide in creating these board games. Since August much headway has been made, and playtesting for these games will begin soon. I look forward to sharing more updates in the coming weeks and months as the team works toward developing their full-fledged games. But the project does not end there. The two games will be brought to real-world classrooms, starting in India.
Please stay tuned for updates on this amazing project.