Abstract
A “serious game” simulating examples of marine life found at the artificial reef ex-HMS Scylla has been developed to demonstrate the impact of environmental changes. The game has been adapted from prior research into agent-based models of marine ecologies. The design of the game considers the abstraction and presentation of marine life, and the effect of environmental changes. Two simulations are performed: one exposing the ecology to the effects of climate change, and another which simulates the introduction of microplastics. A pilot study measured knowledge-recall for simulations with open and closed-ended questions, user awareness of environmental issues and future game design preferences. This research contributes by both demonstrating the conversion of a complex marine simulation to a game format, and also emphasises the potential of the simulation journey to learning and engagement.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
Here ‘marine biology’ research refers to both biology and ecologies by experts in the field.
References
Susi, T., Johannesson, M., Backlund, P.: Serious Games: An Overview (2007)
Flood, S., Cradock-Henry, N.A., Blackett, P., Edwards, P.: Adaptive and interactive climate futures: systematic review of ‘serious games’ for engagement and decision-making. Environ. Res. Lett. 13, 63005 (2018)
Sun, Z., Lorscheid, I., Millington, J.D, et al.: Simple or complicated agent-based models? A complicated issue. Environ. Model. Softw. 86, 56–67 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2016.09.006
Stone, R., White, D., Guest, R., Francis, B.: The Virtual Scylla: an exploration of “serious games”, artificial life and simulation complexity. Virt. Real. 13, 13–25 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-008-0111-0
Ameerbakhsh, O., Maharaj, S., Hussain, A., McAdam, B.: A comparison of two methods of using a serious game for teaching marine ecology in a university setting. Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud. 127, 181–189 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2018.07.004
Trybus, J.: Game-based learning: What it is, why it works, and where it’s going. New Media Institute 6 (2015)
Veronica, R., Calvano, G.: Promoting sustainable behavior using serious games: SeAdventure for Ocean literacy. IEEE Access 8, 196931–196939 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3034438
Rossano, V., Roselli, T., Calvano, G.: A serious game to promote environmental attitude. In: Uskov, V.L., Howlett, R.J., Jain, L.C. (eds.) Smart Education and e-Learning 2017, pp. 48–55. Springer, Cham (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59451-4_5
Panagiotopoulou, L., Gayarre, N.C., Scurati, G.W., et al.: Design of a serious game for children to raise awareness on plastic pollution and promoting pro-environmental behaviors. J. Comput. Inf. Sci. Eng. 21 (2021)
Narayanasamy, V., Wong, K.W., Fung, C.C., Rai, S.: Distinguishing Games and Simulation Games from Simulators. Comput. Entertain. 4, 9–es (2006). https://doi.org/10.1145/1129006.1129021
White, D.: Developing artificial life simulations of marine biology and exploring measures of complexity. In: 2008 Second UKSIM European Symposium on Computer Modeling and Simulation. pp. 232–235 (2008)
White, D.: Variance in water temperature as a factor in the modelling of starfish and mussel population density and diversity. In: Almeida e Costa, F., Rocha, L.M., Costa, E., Harvey, I., Coutinho, A. (eds.) ECAL 2007. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 4648, pp. 153–162. Springer, Heidelberg (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-74913-4_16
Hiscock, K., Sharrock, S., Highfield, J., Snelling, D.: Colonization of an artificial reef in south-west England—ex-HMS ‘Scylla.’ J. Mar. Biol. Assoc. U.K. 90, 69–94 (2010)
Hiscock, K., Tyler-Walters, H.: Assessing the sensitivity of seabed species and biotopes–the Marine Life Information Network (MarLIN). Hydrobiologia 555, 309–320 (2006)
Wright, S.L., Thompson, R.C., Galloway, T.S.: The physical impacts of microplastics on marine organisms: a review. Environ. Pollut. 178, 483–492 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2013.02.031
Schuman, H., Presser, S.: The open and closed question. Am. Sociol. Rev. 44, 692–712 (1979). https://doi.org/10.2307/2094521
Farrall, S., Bannister, J., Ditton, J., Gilchrist, E.: Open and closed question. Interpretation 3, 2–9 (1997)
Schomaker, J., van Bronkhorst, M.L., Meeter, M.: Exploring a novel environment improves motivation and promotes recall of words. Front. Psychol. 5, 918 (2014)
Westera, W.: How people learn while playing serious games: a computational modelling approach. J. Comput. Sci. 18, 32–45 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jocs.2016.12.002
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
White, D., Stone, R., Cracknell, D. (2023). The Design, Development and Pilot Study of a Marine Ecological Simulation for Education of Environmental Changes on Marine Life. In: Haahr, M., Rojas-Salazar, A., Göbel, S. (eds) Serious Games. JCSG 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14309. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-44751-8_31
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-44751-8_31
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-44750-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-44751-8
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)