Twenty-five climate heroes enjoyed a fun Game Day at the University of Groningen on 2 December 2019.
The participants were master students in spatial planning, participating in the course Engaging Society in Spatial Transformations. Our facilitators, Nienke Edelenbosch and Rishi Kumar, led the participants in just over two hours through a highly-interactive team experience. First, the participants were introduced to Minions of Disruptions, a multi-team collaborative board game developed by Day of Adaptation. The participants were then divided into teams of 3-5 players. Each team raced against the clock and against climate disruptions, while interacting with each other to collaborate and influence other teams. After the game session, the participants regrouped for a discussion on the experience and the significance of the game elements for climate change in reality, particularly related to their daily lives, study and future work as social spatial planners.
The post-game survey provided a very positive result: over 50% of the respondents found the experience “exceeding their expectations”. When asked about their take-home messages, below are a few responses:
- Collaboration and strategic decision are crucial to react to climate change
- Climate action involves coping with time and complexity
- As a planner workshops and games seem quite effective to engage with people and communities about this topic
Word cloud of the top three words describing the Game Day experience based on the survey results
Professor Ina Horlings, the lecturer for the course, commented after the event: “the game provided students with a fun and valuable learning situation to deal with the time-pressure and complexity of climate change while collaborating with others. The game is also a creative tool in group discussions about the concrete actions we all can take, adapting to the serious challenges ahead.”
Looking ahead, Day of Adaptation hopes to further engage with University of Groningen and other organizations to empower more climate action through our exciting team building activities.
Want to make better sense of climate change for your organization’s work and staff through fun and relevant discussions? Get in touch with us to host a Dialogue Day or Game Day with support from Day of Adaptation.
Game Day snapshots