NCSU Researchers Visit Environmental Literacy Center to Test Environment-based Learning Game

Guest post by Deja Smith, N.C. Office of Environmental Education and Public Affairs Summer Intern

A group of researchers from North Carolina State University Department of Computer Science recently visited the Environmental Literacy Center to test their prototype video game, “Future Worlds.” The scientists collaborated with a group of middle school summer campers from the Museum of Natural Sciences’ Investigate Lab camp to test the prototype. The principal investigators on the project are Jonathon Rowe, James Lester, Brad Mott, Eleni Lobene, James Minogue and Marc Russo. 

Future Worlds is an interactive cyberlearning tool explores the causes and effects of different factors on environmental systems and how human actions can have negative and positive effects on the environment.  The layout is planned to be in “Sim City” style where the participant is an outside user controlling different environmental factors and examining those effects on the environment.

The campers worked with a paper prototype of the game as well as a Microsoft Surface 40” multi- touch computer table.  Phrases such as “This is awesome!” “Wow this is so cool!” “I can’t wait to show my friends this” and “I learned a lot, but still had fun” were heard throughout the room. Future Worlds is still in its beginning stages and is expected to be completed in 2013. It is set to be an interactive exhibit in the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences the same year.   

The Environmental Literacy Center is operated by the N.C. Office of Environmental Education and Public Affairs and is located on the 3rd floor of the Museum of Natural Sciences Nature Research Center in Raleigh.  The center is open to educators by appointment to use for environmental education-related research, small meetings and other work sessions. Contact the N.C. Office of Environmental Education for details.