From Players to Game Creators: Promoting Environmental and Sustainable Education through game-creation activities

Abstract

Creating engaging opportunities for young people to know more about nature can act as a trigger for environmental awareness and internalization of the importance of preserving nature and the balance of ecosystems. As recent work in the field of educational research establishes a relationship between students’ involvement in the creation of games and an increase in the interest about the addressed themes, this paper introduces the Gamers4Nature+ project - an Erasmus+ project that aims to raise young student’s awareness on the importance of environmental and biodiversity preservation through the creation of digital games. The project articulates in three axes: teacher training, students’ involvement, and dissemination by students. 12 upper-secondary teachers and more than 120 students from four different countries were involved in the game-creation activities. Results indicate that the Gamers4Nature+ project’s approach can support the different educational stakeholders to develop digital games addressing environmental and sustainable issues, thus leading to a greater awareness of the importance of protecting nature and the environment