✏️ Did you play a board game about Hong Kong ecology recently?
Board games are undoubtedly a very popular leisure activity in Hong Kong. No matter if you are gathering with friends, go for outings and camping, or simply killing time, board game is a fun and relaxing medium. Various social venues, such as cafes and party venues, own a surprising collection of them. The common board games in Hong Kong are mostly upon game boards or card games, where the former includes the Monopoly and the Game of Life that accompany us in childhood and adolescence; the latter includes UNO, Legends of the Three Kingdoms, and Werewolf. Our national quintessence Mahjong is actually a kind of board games too!
Board games and education may seem to be very distinct from each other. Being a leisure item, will board game be popularized in local teaching?
✏️ What elements are required to design a board game being fun and applicable for environmental education?
Friends who like board games would definitely love to develop an interesting board game themselves! One of the psychological theories is called “flow” (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). The theory suggested that if the challenge of the board game is high and the player’s ability is low, the player the player will be anxious and worrisome; if the challenge is low and the player’s ability is high, he or she will feel either relaxed or bored. But if the challenge of the board game equivalent to the player’s abilities, the player will gain satisfaction and sense of achievement in the process, and engage in the game without being aware of changes in time and environment, which can bring people into the state of flow. This defines a good board game!
While the good qualities of a board game are being understood now, yet how to practice preaching through the game? Game-based education also exhibits a number of design principles. Games need to be set and focused on specific learning goals. The design must establish action principles and designate restrictions, and at the same time intercept certain degree of competition, to underlay challenges in the game, while retaining and relying on imagination to induce decisions and motivations in due course. Nevertheless, the game allows players to experience real-life phenomena in a safe way and encourages learners to adopt different processing ways in the game. The purpose of all the above principles is to educate through interesting means, stimulating players’ learning motives and reflections, thus strengthening the learning effects (Gao, 1996).
In 2019, we organized the “ECF Hong Kong Ecology Board Game Ambassador Scheme” that trained teams of tertiary students to deepen their interests and awareness on biodiversity conservation in Hong Kong. They then became the ambassadors of Hong Kong’s eco-board games, dedicated to promoting the application and development of local board games in environmental education.
In the initial stage, tertiary students acquired systematic understandings of the practice of environmental education board games from scratch, an overview of Hong Kong’s local ecology, and game design, while increasing students’ interest in related topics through multiple lectures, workshops and outdoor investigations.
After the training, each group of tertiary students matched with their ecological experts on their ecological research topics, and readily exchange ideas with board game design and graphic design consultants. Through meetings with experts, prototypes trials, the team gained first-hand experience, thus concurrently making amendments and revisions to advance the ecological knowledge application and the entertainment of the games.
At last, five eco-board games were successfully developed and were displayed at Public Game Trial of Environmental Education Board Game cum Closing Ceremony. Environmental education co-workers and teachers had the opportunity to share with them their respective working expertise to match the needs and feasibility of applying on environmental education. The systematic discussions compiled new ideas and opened up diverse opportunities for Hong Kong’s game environmental education.
Board games do have their unique charms to present each and every player with the natural environment and knowledge through the gaming process. There are endless possibilities to unearth for board games to be a medium for environmental education. If you conceive a novel and innovative idea to integrate environmental education and board game, you are most welcome to contact us to create a brand new board game together!
Reference:
- Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Csikzentmihaly, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience (Vol. 1990). New York: Harper & Row.
- 高豫. (1996). 迎接電腦遊戲時代, 新新人類新新文化---電腦遊戲在兒童教育的新角色