Climate Change VR

“Climate change” was a mission designed and implemented in the virtual environment of Quest Atlantis, as part of the EuropeAid project, “Raising Awareness on Development Cooperation”. The particular mission was designed to raise teachers’ awareness on climate change by focusing on the Millennium Development Goal of environmental sustainability. The participants were teachers taking a graduate course on educational technology at the University of Nicosia, Cyprus and the activity was part of their course. The design of the mission was simple in order to help the participants gain experience in the game, since they were not familiar with playing virtual games.

The implementation lasted about 25 days. Participants entered the 3D game as consultants for a company, helping to improve practices around environmental awareness and issues about climate change, as well as ways to find ways to inform other people. Throughout the mission, participants interacted with various NPCs (Non-Player Characters) from which they received information and submitted their work. They also participated in group discussions through forum posts related to several topics about climate change. Each milestone in the mission was reached once participants submitted a quest (a report, brochure, presentation, etc.) they worked on and that was related to each task in the mission.

Overall, participants provided insightful input throughout the discussion boards, as well as creative artifacts for informing other people about climate change. It seems though that there is a need for more active participation, within a context that provides more agency for change, in order to raise awareness about climate change effectively, and in extend to improve and sustain the environment.