FutureGuessr

One for KS3 perhaps, or Geography Club... 

Thanks to Joshua Peake for the tipoff to this website on LinkedIn.

This is produced in France.

What if no landscape on Earth was recognisable anymore? 

Inspired by popular geography games like GeoGuessr (65 million players worldwide) and OpenGuessr, FutureGuessr adopts similar mechanics: the player is dropped somewhere in the world in a 360° environment and must guess their location. 

But here, it’s no longer today’s world. 

The landscapes reflect a future where global warming reaches or exceeds +2.7°C by 2100, according to intermediate to high IPCC scenarios. This future, transformed by the consequences of climate change, remains possible if policy efforts fail to drastically and rapidly reduce human-generated greenhouse gas emissions.

Planet Planners on Roblox

 

Roblox is a very popular game. For several years, Helen Young has been working with the BBC and several companies to produce some immersive geographical experiences based on the game engine to add to BBC Bitesize's offerings for students.

Details were published here of the results of all that work.

Planet Planners on Roblox is a new geography game from BBC Bitesize delivering learning mapped to the KS3 geography curriculum (and equivalent) in an immersive and engaging way.

Planet Planners on Roblox offers a new way for students aged 11-14 to learn about some of the world’s most pressing challenges – from preparing for natural disasters to managing large cities.

A decision-making game with geographical thinking at its core, Planet Planners on Roblox develops essential skills like teamwork, time management, resilience, critical thinking and strategic planning as well as an understanding of human and physical geography.

It is accessed via Roblox – an immersive platform for 3D experiences. 

To learn more about Roblox and how it can be used in education, visit Get started with Roblox Education [External link].

To learn more about game-based learning and how it can support your students, read our article: What is game-based learning and how can it benefit your students?

Within the game students can learn about human and physical geography by making decisions in real-world locations.

• Play solo or collaborate in group play mode.
• Aim to balance the economy, environment and social health, whilst remaining in budget.
• Make choices through voting and actively engage in activities such as gathering data, building and packing supplies.
• Receive a star for each metric if they perform well and stay within budget.
• See and feel the impact of their choices through changes to the environment and core metrics.
• Receive a report at the end of the scenario showing how they performed and outlining key decisions made.
• Replay scenarios multiple times, encouraging reflection and exploration of different options and perspectives.

Within the game, there are 6 topics, with 12 individual scenarios to choose from. 

The links below will take you to teacher notes for the relevant scenario. I helped to shape these.

Tectonic hazards: Volcano preparation | After the earthquake
Coasts: Erosion | Nature and tourism
Urbanisation: Environmental consequences | Managing high-income country (HIC) cities

Weather and climate: Extreme weather | Low-income country (LIC) climate change [Coming autumn 2025]
Population and migration: Increasing immigration | Dealing with emigration [Coming autumn 2025]
Food and water: Producing food | Conserving water [Coming autumn 2025]

I had a play earlier with the coastal erosion scenario.

You're dropped into a coastal village which is very nicely created. Here's just part of it...

You have to chat to NPCs and make decisions based around a budget and decide whether to act immediately or wait...

Here's my feedback for my first attempt, where I lost a bit of time due to unfamiliarity with how Roblox works... I didn't do too badly on my scores and made some reasonable choices, but unfortunately ran out of budget...

I can of course go back and play it again to try to improve my score - and spend a little less.

Why not install Roblox and give it a go?

Townscaper - browser option

I missed this exciting additional option for creating visually beautiful towns as a mindfulness or creative exercise...

Townscaper is a game created by Oskar Stålberg. I have the original STEAM game which was launched in October 2021.

The game can also be played in a browser.

The only restriction is a smaller grid and no save function – other than that you can let your imagination go wild. As the browser option has a smaller grid, your cities will not be as impressive as the ones you can make with the full version on Steam, which is still available for just a few pounds.

Have a go, and thank me later :)

GeoGuessr

I've just sorted a PRO subscription to the GeoGuessr site for the department. Several students requested it a while back.

I used to play this when it first came out in 2013. It was developed by Anton Wallén, and was originally free, but has moved to a subscription based model and now has a thriving community and a whole range of boards and challenges, including trying to identify countries in a streak as well as a daily challenge.

There is also the option to create your own map using the Map Maker tool.

There are lots of sites giving tips on how to identify countries from a range of clues.

It also makes use of Google Street View, which doesn't cover the whole world of course. A map of the coverage is here.

Interestingly, the game gained a lot of additional popularity during lockdown when people started playing it as a way of 'travelling the world'.

This article looks at the value of playing the game, particularly during lockdown.

There are some very sophisticated groups out there such as GeoTips, who have their own Discord server for keeping track of activity and World Record attempts.

There are also Twitch streamers who play the game live, perhaps in Battle Royale mode, where you compete against other players to identify locations the soonest.

Any other GeoGuessr tips and ideas welcome.

Townscaper

I first came across this game in July 2020 when it was on early access on Steam, and sadly not available for iOS. I coveted it. It's created by Oscar Stålberg.

I downloaded it a couple of months ago, and have finally had a few hours to get to play with it, and it's excellent and very calming.

I shall probably be posting numerous screenshots in different locations over the next few days.

There's a GUIDE here, although you can start playing immediately by choosing a colour, scrolling around the existing town and then clicking in different directions. I love watching the seagulls circling and settling on the rooves as well.

Here's the description on Steam. It currently costs £4.79

Build quaint island towns with curvy streets. Build small hamlets, soaring cathedrals, canal networks, or sky cities on stilts. Block by block.

No goal. No real gameplay. Just plenty of building and plenty of beauty. That's it.

Townscaper is an experimental passion project. More of a toy than a game. Pick colors from the palette, plop down colored blocks of house on the irregular grid, and watch Townscaper's underlying algorithm automatically turn those blocks into cute little houses, arches, stairways, bridges and lush backyards, depending on their configuration.

Carbon City Zero

Carbon City Zero is a new Kickstarter project which is developed by the people behind 10:10 Climate Action. It's a card game which explores the idea of carbon reduction.

We have a copy ordered and it will be with us in a few months time.


Here's the description.

As a newly appointed city mayor you have been tasked with creating a carbon neutral city. It sounds easy, but you'll soon discover that your carbon budgets are hard to balance. Can you hit the zero carbon target before your rivals? The race to become the first zero carbon city is on...

Carbon City Zero is a deck-building game for 2-4 players, in which players develop a sustainable city by building factories, managing people, lobbying government ministers, and raising public awareness. Each player starts with an identical Draw Deck (and a Carbon Level of 40), buying additional cards from a shared Marketplace to create a more sustainable city. Balancing the need to generate income with reducing carbon, players can follow numerous paths to victory, creating synergies between Government, Industry, and Domestic sectors, while avoiding Snags and responding to Global Events. Once a player’s carbon level reaches zero, they win.

The game comes with 100 full-colour cards illustrated by Tony Pickering, a carbon tracker, a 13-page rulebook, and a glossary of the topics introduced.

Available to buy through a Kickstarter project (and also many times more than the 100% funded)
The video tells you a little more.

Shipping January 2020 apparently - although often these projects are pushed back.

Ice Flows Game - teacher pack now available

A good day today, as we finally launch a resource that has been in the pipeline for over a year, and has been tweaked and improved over the last year or so. I've blogged about it here before.

Here's some text from the official press-release.

The Ice Flows teacher resources pack provides a range of resources and suggested lesson plans built around playing Ice Flows game.   The learning outcomes relate to an understanding of the interactions between ice sheets and climate, and the resulting impact of changes in ice sheets on global sea level.  The resources include explainer videos, some skeleton PowerPoints to use as a basis for lessons, plus added extras such as a Spotify playlist.

The resources are aimed at pupils in KS3 in UK Schools, but the main resources are generic enough to be used with any curriculum or age. We also provide information on how the game could be used in line with the UK curriculum for older pupils.

The resources were created in partnership with the Geographical Association, written by Alan Parkinson, Consultant to the Geographical Association, and Anne Le Brocq, Senior Lecturer at the University of Exeter.  The game “Ice Flows” was developed by Dr. Anne Le Brocq at the University of Exeter in collaboration with Inhouse Visuals and Questionable Quality.  Funding was provided by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) through a research grant led by the British Antarctic Survey.

The 2nd version of the website has also been launched, and we've also added a series of instructional videos which help relate the game to the science that underpins it. If you haven't seen it before (or even if you have) head over to the Ice Flows Game website to take a look.







A new page has now been added to the website.
This includes the link for you to be able to download the teaching pack and associated resources.

Any feedback welcome.
Thanks to students from King's Ely Junior who have helped with their feedback when playing the game, and using some of the earlier versions of the resources.

Thanks also to those teachers who came along to the workshop that Anne and I ran at the GA Conference in April 2018

Ice Flows Game - version 2

It's been a while since I saw the first iteration of Ice Flows.
The 2nd version of the website has now been launched, and we've also launched a series of instructional videos which help relate the game to the science that underpins it. If you haven't seen it before (or even if you have) head over to the Ice Flows Game website to take a look.
Coming soon: the official launch of the Ice Flows Game Resource Pack (all 70 lovely pages of it...)

Guess Who or Guess What

❓ Google Slides templates for creating "Guess Who?" https://t.co/3apM2cb3ff and "Guess What?" https://t.co/cowk3w6nsk games for subject area content by @historysandoval #edtech #GSuiteEDU #GoogleEDU pic.twitter.com/HDEzY96WXC

— Eric Curts (@ericcurts) November 20, 2018

Slip, Slide, Collide

One for Year 9 to try out...