Learning Theories

Tag: game

  • EcoChains: A Food Web Game to Teach Climate Change

    EcoChains: A Food Web Game to Teach Climate Change


    Social science research shows that teaching climate change in way that emphasizes “doom and gloom” and scary facts does not motivate people to engage in the issue, and often leads to feelings of helplessness, fear, or guilt (CUSP, 2017).  Facts alone are often not enough to get people to learn or care about the issue.

    The Need for New Ways to Teach Climate Change

    Can a game be an effective way to get a person to develop empathy, learn about, or shift attitudes through a firsthand experience?  A review of interactive media tools by published in Nature Climate Change journal found that games can be a promising approach to teach, persuade or change attitudes on the climate change and caring for the environment.

    EcoChains: A Food Web Game to Teach Climate Change

    EcoChains is a food web card game to teach climate change.  Developed by Joey Lee (game designer and educational technology professor at Columbia University) and Stephanie Pfirman (environmental science professor at Barnard College), the game is meant to be fun and work both in classrooms and at home for game night.

    EcoChains: Arctic Life is a simple two player game that involves 3 main steps:

    1. Build food chains by connecting Arctic species cards at the corners — predators eat prey.  For example, polar bear can eat ringed seals.
    2. Ensure animals have enough sea ice at the base of their food chains to survive.  Polar bears, for instance, need 3 sea ice cards at the bottom of their food chain.
    3. Carbon pollution events melt sea ice, which sometimes causes migration and death.  These cards randomly come out as events which affect all players.

    Here is a video that explains the game.

    The two player version of the card game, EcoChains: Arctic Life, is available now for about $9 at Amazon.

  • Dopamine, Games, and Motivation

    Dopamine, Games, and Motivation

    Summary: Dopamine plays a role in motivation, and this role is important to understand in the context of game design. Understanding how dopamine motivates can help game designers produce games that are interesting, effective, and ethical.

    Originators and Key Contributors: Henry Chase and Luke Clark presented a study in 2010 that suggested that dopamine was not linked to pleasure as previously understood. By studying groups of gamblers, they found that release of dopamine occurred whether there was a stressful situation presented or a rewarding one[1]. In 2012, a team of Vanderbilt researchers published a study with influential repercussions on our understanding of dopamine and its relationship to motivation. They found a difference in dopamine’s effects based on which areas of the brain expressed higher levels of it[2].

    Keywords: dopamine, motivation, addiction, game, reward

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  • Game Reward Systems

    Game Reward Systems

    Summary: The phrase game reward systems describes the structure of rewards and incentives in a game that inspire intrinsic motivation in the player while also offering extrinsic rewards. Game reward systems can be modeled in non-game environments, including personal and business environments, to provide positive motivation for individuals to change their behavior.

    Originators and Key Contributors: Many theories on intrinsic motivation, sense of satisfaction, and other reward concepts have been developed that form the foundation for current thinking about game reward systems. In the 1930s, B. F. Skinner explored reward schedules with pigeons, and his findings have influenced the design of reward mechanisms both inside and outside of the field of game mechanics. In their paper Game Reward Systems: Gaming Experiences and Social Meanings (2011), Hao Wang and Chuen-Tsai Sun analyze the main structural features of reward systems within videogames that have relevance outside videogames as well[1].

    Keywords: game, variable ratio, fixed ratio, reward, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation

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