Global Warming Sim Is Very Hot!
Forgive the bad pun. I spent an hour or so last night playing with some of the edugames linked from 26 Learning Games to Change the World (which I found in a recent David Warlick post). The best of the lot that I tried has to be Globalwarminginteractive.com. What a great way for kids to learn about the problem of sustainability. You play three roles - policy, economic, and science adviser - to the leadership of Brazil over a 100-year span between 1960 and 2060. The player manipulates tax rates, budgets, and policy in an effort to keep the economy going without burning out the environment. The player is presented with just enough data to make those decisions as he or she proceeds through 10-year “turns.” It’s enough data to understand the underlying systems without over-simplifying this very complex issue. And the data are not just numbers: it’s presented in a very rich but clean Flash interface which includes graphs, text narratives, and brief movie clips. This will engage kids, give them something to think about, and help them to understand this pressing problem. One minor drawback: I would have enjoyed seeing the actual data on how these numbers changed in the “real” Brazil.
