Research Publications

Serious games are computer games with a primary purpose other than entertainment. Serious games are frequently used for training purposes, and can be used for educational and research purposes, increasing student interest and level of interaction as well as allowing researchers to collect data about emergent player behavior. The Naranpur Express simulation is based on a previously existing multiplayer role-playing game, where each player manages a small farm in rural India. Player goals include subsistence, upward economic mobility, and mitigation of environmental impact. Hydrologic and agricultural models are used to connect each player's small-scale decisions with their more far-reaching, and often difficult to perceive environmental impacts. This approach allows students to learn by discovery, experiencing first-hand the challenges of overuse of groundwater, fertilizers, and pesticides. Integration of new and rapidly developing social media techniques allows players to discuss solutions to their shared challenges, and help define a set of formal or informal rules governing their community. Previous versions of this game were implemented on paper, or in a spreadsheet run on each student's laptop. However, moving this simulation to an interactive online setting will allow us to study aggregate, as well as spatially varying effects of player decisions on economic and environmental outcomes. By coupling both physical and economic models with the real dynamics of player behavior, and considering the social and cultural aspects of agriculture, we can investigate the decision-making processes that control real environmental outcomes. By varying the types of information available to players, we can investigate how access to different kinds of information drives environmental decision-making. This can help identify key misunderstandings, thereby benefiting education and outreach efforts related to environmental justice and sustainability issues. Surveys collected from the students in a sophomore level course demonstrated that the use of the game positively enhanced student engagement and interest in the course. We adapted the same base concepts to a real-world setting where players must physically collect water from a contaminated surface water source, represented by a swimming pool where many players can access the resource simultaneously, and a clean groundwater source, represented by a barrel where only one player at a time can obtain water from a pump. Additionally, water is recharged to groundwater (i.e., the barrel) at a fixed rate, thus over pumping can cause the water table to drop and cause the well to go dry. Players must therefore grapple between health risks associated with contaminants and the mass balance problems caused by groundwater mining. This version of the game received positive reviews from girls in grades 6-9 participating in a STEM summer camp.