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Climate change is easier to study when it's presented as a game, says researcher

Climate change is among the more difficult but important topics to teach to young people. It involves complicated science and data, and it can be really depressing, given the bleak picture it paints of Earth's future.

So how do educators get students more engaged in lessons about climate change? One way that works is to make the lessons into a game.

As a professor of educational psychology, I conducted an experiment that found that high schoolers are more interested and absorb more information about climate change when it's presented as a game.

In the study, 248 high school students throughout the U.S. were randomly assigned to either read a text about climate science or to play a number estimation game—that is, a game in which they guessed 12 numerical facts about climate change. I found that the number estimation game improved high schoolers' climate change understanding, interest in science and willingness to take actions to help solve climate change.

For instance, one question asked: "What is the change in percentage of the world's ocean ice cover since the 1960s?"

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