Heidi Coleman
Heidi Coleman
Director of Undergraduate Studies and Performance Programs, Theater and Performance Studies; Founder/Director, Chicago Performance Lab
University of Chicago
Research Project
Climate Games: Transforming Middle School STEM Education through Transmedia Play
Project Team:
2021 – 2022
Illustration by Sarah Gavagan, courtesy of the Fourcast Lab
Key Question
Is transmedia gaming an effective tool for teaching environmental science to middle-school students?
Project Summary
| This project created and evaluated an “Alternate Reality Game” that engaged seventh-grade students from three Chicago schools in a curriculum about climate change and environmental science. |
This project used techniques of gaming, mixed reality performance, and networked media culture to create and evaluate an intervention that engaged middle school students in a curriculum about climate change, environmental science, and twenty-first-century skills. The intervention took the form of a transmedia game with live-action networked elements (an “Alternate Reality Game,” or “ARG”). Project leaders secured participation from three public and private schools at the seventh-grade level as research sites. The project generated empirical data via mixed methods research (quantitative and qualitative) on using game-based learning to educate students about one of the most urgent and complex problems of our time. The grounding hypothesis is that humanistic knowledge—especially linked to storytelling, games, and media—can be used to strengthen STEM pathways. The timing of this project, amid the COVID-19 transition, was especially important, given the search across educational institutions for effective hybrid learning methods. The project aimed to achieve a completed game and a replicable remote learning structure that, in future iterations, can scale to the level of Chicago Public Schools in a citywide game.
Learn more about the research team's Fourcast Lab here.
Research Team
Patrick Jagoda
Patrick Jagoda
Professor of English and Cinema and Media Studies; Co-founder, Game Changer Chicago Design Lab and Transmedia Story Lab; Faculty Director, Weston Game Lab
University of Chicago
Ben Kolak
Ben Kolak
Founder, Truth and Documentary; Independent Filmmaker and Cinematographer
Kristen Schilt
Kristen Schilt
Associate Professor; Director of the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality
University of Chicago
Ashlyn Sparrow
Ashlyn Sparrow
Learning Technology Director and Lead Game Designer; Creative Director, Resilient Games Studio
Game Changer Chicago Design Lab
Sandor Weisz
Project Narrative
Carousel with 3 slides shown at a time. Use the Previous and Next buttons to navigate, or the slide dot buttons at the end to jump to slides.
Middle Schoolers Tackle Climate Change in a New Alternate Reality Game
Middle Schoolers Tackle Climate Change in a New Alternate Reality Game
UChicago News reports on Cene, an ARG designed by the Climate Games research team to teach children creative problem-solving.
Introducing Cene
Introducing Cene
In this video, students and teachers at three schools in Chicago share their experience with Cene, a three-week environmental science module developed by the Climate Games research team.
For a UChicago Designer, Video Games Illuminate Real World Problems
For a UChicago Designer, Video Games Illuminate Real World Problems
UChicago News profiles Ashlyn Sparrow, assistant director of the Weston Game Lab and a collaborator on the Neubauer Collegium Climate Games research project.
How Alternate Reality Games Are Changing The Real World
How Alternate Reality Games Are Changing The Real World
Neubauer Collegium Faculty Fellows Kristen Schilt and Patrick Jagoda join the UChicago Big Brains podcast to discuss their research on alternate reality gaming.
Carousel with 3 slides shown at a time. Use the Previous and Next buttons to navigate, or the slide dot buttons at the end to jump to slides.
Middle Schoolers Tackle Climate Change in a New Alternate Reality Game
Middle Schoolers Tackle Climate Change in a New Alternate Reality Game
UChicago News reports on Cene, an ARG designed by the Climate Games research team to teach children creative problem-solving.
For a UChicago Designer, Video Games Illuminate Real World Problems
For a UChicago Designer, Video Games Illuminate Real World Problems
UChicago News profiles Ashlyn Sparrow, assistant director of the Weston Game Lab and a collaborator on the Neubauer Collegium Climate Games research project.
How Alternate Reality Games Are Changing The Real World
How Alternate Reality Games Are Changing The Real World
Neubauer Collegium Faculty Fellows Kristen Schilt and Patrick Jagoda join the UChicago Big Brains podcast to discuss their research on alternate reality gaming.
Reading List
David Archer
The Long Thaw: How Humans Are Changing the Next 100,000 Years of Earth’s Climate Princeton University Press (2016) ReadBonsignore, Elizabeth, D. Hansen, K. Kraus, and M. Ruppel
“Alternate Reality Games as Platforms for Practicing 21st-Century Literacies” International Journal of Learning and Media 4 (1): 25-54 (2012) ReadChess, Shira and Paul Booth P.
"Lessons Down a Rabbit Hole: Alternate Reality Gaming in the Classroom" New Media & Society: 1–16 (2013) ReadGarcia, Antero and Greg Niemeyer (eds.)
Alternate Reality Games and the Cusp of Digital Gameplay Bloomsbury Academic (2018) ReadHainey, Thomas, Thomas Connolly, Mark Stansfield, and Liz Boyle
ARGuing for Multilingual Motivation in Web 2.0 Handbook of Research on Improving Learning and Motivation through Educational Games (2011) ReadJagoda, Patrick
Experimental Games: Critique, Play, and Design in the Age of Gamification University of Chicago Press (2020) ReadJagoda, Patrick, M. Gilliam, P. McDonald, and C. Russell
"Worlding Through Play: Alternate Reality Games, Large-Scale Learning, and The Source" American Journal of Play (2015) ReadMcGonigal, Jane
Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World Penguin Press (2011) ReadMontola M., Stenros J. and Wærn A.
Pervasive Games: Theory and Design Elsevier/Morgan Kaufmann Press (2009) ReadRatto, Matt
“Critical Making: Conceptual and Material Studies in Technology and Social Life” The Information Society 27: 252–60 (2011) ReadStokes B., Watson J., Fullerton T. et al.
"A Reality Game to Cross Disciplines: Fostering Networks and Collaboration" Proceedings of DiGRA 2013: DeFragging Game Studies. Atlanta, GA, 26-29 August 2013, 1–17. ReadExplore
