Skip to main content

CIROH_Hydrolearn: CRES401_501 Serious Gaming in Water

Serious Gaming in Water


CIROH_Hydrolearn
View Course

Problem Statement

Serious games were developed to test environmental regulations and natural resources crises in the 1970s. Serious water games were developed nearly 40 years ago by Harvard University's Program on Negotiation. Serious water games come in many forms, ranging from role plays, board games, computer-assisted board games, online games, and escape room games. Serious games are typically interactive and provide realistic virtual environments in which players attempt to simultaneously “juggle” growing food, growing cities, sustain the environment, and make a profit. Serious gaming, or games with a purpose beyond pure entertainment, can bring back the fun and recruit others to join in developing, protecting, and managing water resources.

Module Overview

This module will provide the learner with learning activities and tools needed to use and design Serious Games for specific geographic settings and hydrologic scenarios that integrates the nexus between formal science, popular science, and political science that water professionals may encounter in their day-to-day business through simulations, board games, and to have fun with family and friends.

Topics Covered

  • Definition of Serious Games;
  • Applications and uses of serious games;
  • Types of serious games used in water;
  • Modification of existing games to specific concerns;
  • Designing a new game for a current problem such as drying lakes;
  • Where to buy game pieces; and
  • Communities of Practice for testing games.

Prerequisites

A desire to share the fun of working in water resources.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this module, learners will be able to:

  • Illustrate various types of serious games in water;
  • Through play and analyzing case studies, the learner will be able to appraise the soft skills used in the water business and produce a story map of a hydrologic situation as the foundation of developing a serious game; and
  • The learner will demonstrate the application of serious gaming by creating a serious game in a specifc geographic setting and hydrologic situation.

This will be accomplished through activities within each section.

Suggested Implementation

If this module is used in a classroom setting, providing the game rules to the learners ahead of the scheduled meeting time will permit more time dedicated to playing a game by preparing the learners for the hydrologic situation addressed in the serious game.

Course Authors

Course Staff Image #1

Todd Jarvis

Todd has over 35 years of experience in the groundwater engineering industry. He works at the Institute for Water and Watersheds at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon, one of the 54 Water Resources Research Institutes distributed across the United States and US territories. Todd has professional licenses as an Oregon-Certified Engineering Geologist and Oregon-Certified Water Right Examiner. He is also a professional mediator with 20 years of experience in dispute prevention and conflict resolution for groundwater, aquifers, and water well construction, and is an instructor in Environmental Conflict Resolution at the University of Oregon Law School.

todd.jarvis@oregonstate.edu
Course Staff Image #2

Wasim Hassan

Wasim is a postdoctoral research fellow in civil, construction, and environmental engineering at Marquette University. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Pakistan. His research focuses on understanding and modeling the nexus between water governance and society within the context of coupled human-water systems, aiming to develop sustainable solutions for water management and policy interventions.

wasim.hassan@marquette.edu

Target Audience

Anyone interested in applying games to their professional work in water resources

Tools Needed

A printer and scissors for the game pieces if the games are not purchased from a vendor, where available.

Expected Effort

The module developers estimate that this module will take between 12 to 15 hours to complete.

  1. Course Export

    Export Link

    To customize this course for your own needs, export a copy and import into a new empty course inside Studio. Requires a HydroLearn instructor Studio account.

  2. Course Number

    CRES401_501

  3. Classes Start

  4. Estimated Effort

    12 to 15 hours
Enroll