Effects of Designing a Narrative-Based Video Game on High School Students’ Climate Change Perspectives

This study examined how high school students’ participation in designing an extended reality (XR) video game influenced their understanding of climate change. The Make Games, Save the World program, supported by a National Science Foundation grant, engaged students, from backgrounds underrepresented in STEM fields, in a year-long, out-of-school initiative. Working collaboratively in narrative and design teams, students created a story-driven game set in a fictional future world impacted by extreme heat and water scarcity. To assess changes in understanding, participants completed Personal Meaning Maps (PMMs) before and after the program. PMMs were analyzed for extent (quantity of relevant vocabulary), breadth (diversity of concepts), and depth (sophistication of understanding). Findings indicated that students doubled the extent of their vocabulary, with consistent gains across initial knowledge levels. The breadth of concepts also expanded, reflecting a deeper engagement with the multifaceted causes and impacts of climate change. Additionally, some students advanced to higher levels of sophistication, integrating complex ideas such as societal impacts and interrelated systems. These results suggest that designing XR games in a collaborative, interdisciplinary setting can promote critical thinking and enhance understanding of complex topics like climate change.