Objective:
Educate college students on the effects of their daily decisions on the environment, specifically focusing on how these choices impact their local enviornment and the broader global context.
Intended audience: college students uneducated about sustainability
Example: Stanford students
Simulation Flow:
- Current Campus Exploration:
- Scenario: Begin with a virtual tour of the Stanford campus as it currently stands, visiting key locations like the Main Quad and Tresidder Union.
- Task: Observe and interact with elements that display current environmental data such as energy usage and waste production.
- Interactive Element: Clickable hotspots provide real-time data and explain the significance of these figures in the context of campus sustainability.
- Learning Outcome: Gain an understanding of the current ecological footprint of the campus and recognize areas of environmental concern.
- Daily Decision-Making:
- Scenario: Faced with a series of everyday decisions that students commonly make, such as choosing a method of transportation or selecting food options in the cafeteria.
- Task: Make choices and see immediate virtual feedback on how these decisions affect environmental data like carbon emissions and waste.
- Interactive Element: Simulate decision-making scenarios with visual prompts and immediate data visualization feedback.
- Learning Outcome: Understand the direct impact of personal choices on campus sustainability and learn about environmentally friendly alternatives.
- Future Campus Impact:
- Scenario: Fast forward to see how the cumulative effect of these decisions impacts the campus environment over the next few decades.
- Task: Explore various future scenarios that range from a highly sustainable campus to one that has suffered from poor environmental decisions.
- Interactive Element: Navigate through time using a virtual time machine interface, observing changes in the campus landscape, weather patterns, and student activities.
- Learning Outcome: Visualize the long-term consequences of today’s actions, highlighting the importance of sustainable practices and proactive environmental stewardship.
Feedback and Impact Assessment:
After each decision point and future scenario exploration, users receive detailed feedback on the outcomes of their choices. This feedback includes graphical representations of changes in carbon footprint, energy savings, or increases in waste, providing a clear link between actions and their impacts.
Global Perspective and Individual Agency:
The experience concludes by zooming out to a global perspective, demonstrating how similar decisions on campuses worldwide contribute to global environmental changes. Users are then encouraged to commit to sustainable practices, both at the university and in their future careers and communities, underscoring the role of individual agency in global sustainability efforts.
This structured flow not only educates users about the environmental impacts of their everyday decisions but also empowers them with the knowledge and motivation to make more sustainable choices, thereby fostering a more environmentally conscious campus community.