BILD: Andrea Linerstad, kulturarvspedagog och Maria Nelenius, lärare. Del av spelet till höger.
“The Game of Consumption” was developed by researchers at KTH and Linköping University for Mistra Sustainable Consumption. But now, a museum educator and a middle school teacher are making their own version for secondary school students.
“The Game of Consumption” is a so-called megagame. Åsa Svenfelt, a researcher at KTH and Linköping University, developed it together with researchers Magnus Persson and Ola Leifler from Linköping University as a way to reach new audiences for research on sustainable consumption.
Simpler version
In the search for a game for the new exhibition “The Earth” at Vallby Open Air Museum in Sweden, a trial run was conducted earlier this year with a high school class in the Swedish town Västerås. It was the first time Andrea Linerstad, a cultural heritage educator, and Maria Nelenius, a technology teacher at Fryxellska School in Västerås, tested the game. They felt that it could also be played with middle school students. So, they created a slightly simpler version so that the students could keep up.
Additionally, they made the game a bit more local with a map of their landscape Västmanland, bringing it closer to the students’ everyday lives. Maria Nelenius explains that it fostered good team building in the class as they had to negotiate with each other.
Visual emissions
– The students were very engaged in making changes. For example, they found it very difficult when they received a lot of black tokens representing emissions, says Maria Nelenius. The black tokens (centicubes) were a new idea to make the emissions more visual.
The game took place at the museum as part of the exhibition “The Earth.” It is intended as an ongoing workshop and educational program linked to the exhibition. Were two hours without a break on how to transition to sustainable consumption too much for a group of 19 middle school students?
– They were very positive. They didn’t want to stop playing, says Andrea Linerstad.
Read more about the role-playing game here.
Read more about the exhibition “The Earth” at Vallby Open Air Museum homepage.
CONTACT
Ola Leifler
Associate professer, Linköping University
+46 13-28 16 97
ola.leifler@liu.se
