Abstract for: Meeting the Challenge of Global Climate Change: NASPAA’s 2nd Student Simulation Competition

Learning in the 21st century is shifting from the traditional model of a teacher standing at the front of the room sharing knowledge to an active and engaging experience for students and teachers. This teaching method can be harder for the teacher, but the learning that students experience is far greater than that of a traditional static teaching model. Recently, in public affairs graduate education, there has been an increase in using experiential learning in the classroom – through case studies, capstone experiences, internships, etc. (HBS Publishing, 2015; Sterman, 1994; Sterman, 2014; Sterman, 2006). To support experiential and peer teaching and learning, NASPAA embarked on a two-year demonstration project to host an annual Student Simulation Competition. This competition was designed to increase visibility of schools of public affairs, increase student engagement, and advance pedagogy in public affairs education. This paper focuses on the second and primarily the third goals of the competition and the development of competition materials and use of Climate Interactive’s, system dynamics based, En-Roads simulation model.