GEOQUEST TROPOMAG DIGITAL ADVENTURE PATH: WHEN SCIENCE IS A GAME

Abstract

Game is a powerful educational tool able to involve students and keep their attention high, promoting cognitive development, discoveries, reasoning, and thinking. It is also an effective active form of learning which consolidates the acquired knowledge and carries out an authentic assessment through reality tasks and immediate feedback typical of the use of the digital games. Our gamy-learning experimentation focuses on new methods and practices of science communication, with the aim to face the challenge of educating about natural risks and climate change. The goal is to facilitate the automatic choice of good practices, by stimulating mind, intuition and logic in the perspective of team building in school-based civic education. The proper application of technological tools is a valuable aid for conscious communication for the next generation. A Computer Supported Collaborative Learning Education is experienced, in order to test the efficacy of our GeoQuest TROPOMAG digital adventure, and pave the ground for the implementation of the storytelling in an integrated table game. Our climate change role-playing videogame explores phenomena related to the possible effects of changes in the Earth's magnetic field on the atmosphere. The virtual adventure path is played on smartphones and follows alternative paths chosen by the players to develop the storytelling. As a result, students play not only “just for fun”, but also to actively participate in their learning process and acquisition of new knowledge, skills and competences in environmental issues.