Abstract for: Games for a New Climate: Leveraging Immersive, Situated Learning Experiences for Climate Change Education and Decision Support

As the challenges brought by climate change grow, so too does the need for tools that enable citizens and decision-makers to understand, respond to, and innovate in the climate and energy space. It is now clear that simply delivering information about climate change science does not create an informed public or effective policies to address its causes or effects. We argue that new tools are needed to foster the construction of robust mental models of climate change and the human systems that interact with it. In this workshop, we introduce a set games and interactive demonstrations that aim to meet this goal. These interactive tools range from a complex role-playing game to simple interactive demonstrations of stocks, flows, feedbacks, and delays involved in climate and human systems. Workshop participants will be given access to all materials used, as well as training on facilitating and de-briefing games. These tools can be brought to settings that range from middle school classrooms to advanced graduate degree programs, community meetings or events, high-level policy exercises, or municipal or corporate decision-making.