Project NATURE: Serious Games for Natural Resources Management concerns the design of a digital learning game for the management of natural resources, such as forests, water, soil, and biodiversity.
The game developed is a city builder game, where users manage scenarios involving natural resource management inspired by real life.
The game offers a very flexible environment for scenario planning, including a rich library of urban fabric composition objects, such as residential, industrial, small business, parks, industrial buildings, schools, cultural buildings, and others, objects related to the natural environment, such as trees, forests, flora and fauna species, and landscaping tools and the creation of mounds, volumes of water, and other formations.
Using this library, faculty and other stakeholders can design rich scenarios that encourage students to achieve development goals alongside responsible environmental management goals. For example, students may be called upon to manage a city by building housing, running businesses and industry, and providing public services by addressing needs such as electricity supply and access to water as well as quality of life goals such as education, health, and others. To develop the city, students must exploit available natural resources, such as trees, forests, or minerals, that must be managed responsibly: trees must be replanted, pollution must be addressed, biodiversity must be conserved.
The research project is funded by the Erasmus+ program. It is implemented by the University of Thessaly and educational organizations from Latvia, Estonia, Spain, and Portugal.
The audience had the opportunity to reflect on the importance of natural resources management, to understand the objectives, activities, and outcomes of the NATURE project, and to use the NATURE learning game with educational scenarios related to natural resource management.
The event was delivered in hybrid mode and was attended by over 250 individuals from all over Greece, of which 40 with physical presence, over 90 through Webex®, and the rest through YouTube®.
The audience received dissemination material with the project and Erasmus+ logos.
Event program
11.00 – 12.00 Registration
12.00 – 12.30 Project NATURE: Serious Games for Natural Resources Management
Hariklia Tsalapatas, Instructor, University of Thessaly
12.30 – 12.45 Demonstration of NATURE serious game
Olivier Heidmann, Technical Lead, University of Thessaly
13.00 – 14.30 Workshop on NATURE serious game
Olivier Heidmann, Technical Lead, University of Thessaly