A RECIPE for Teaching the Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract

Every individual is responsible for sustainable development and therefore awareness of sustainability should begin at a young age, when mindsets and habits are formed. One form which sustainability education takes is computer-based games. We describe how we used Nicholson’s Meaningful Gamification framework to design For People and Planet: An SDG Adventure, a narrative-based adventure game that teaches middle school children about the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. In this paper, we describe the framework’s six elements--play, exposition, choice, information, engagement, and reflection--and show how our design choices align with these elements.