Facilitation Guide for One Planet

Link to the learning experience: https://pcast9.itch.io/one-planet

Step-by-step guide for implementing the learning experience including:

List of Materials or Resources

For playing the online version of our game, the materials needed will be internet access and computers. Alternatively, the instructor could have a paper copy of the decision tree and lead students through the experience that way if internet access is unavailable.

Description of the Space Set Up (if applicable)

We envision a teacher facilitating this game with their class, so however they would choose to set up their classroom. While this game can be played individually, we envision it being played by the class as a whole together or by groups of students together.

Step-by-Step guide of walking the reader through the sequence of the entire learning experience, from the introductions or ice breakers to the main learning experience, to the closing debrief or reflection

The first screen of the game gives the players a background description that will set the scene for the game. The players will be asked to choose one of three characters: a high school student, an oil tycoon, or a political leader:

You are in the year 2022 in a city called Premier. The climate crisis is accelerating, and our window to do something about it is closing. However, there is still time to avoid a climate catastrophe. Here are your character choices, pick one to continue:

• Student climate activist
• Oil tycoon
• Political leader

After choosing one of the three options, players will face a series of scenarios that will ask them to problem solve about climate change through the various roles they have chosen. For the purposes of today’s demonstration, we were only able to complete a decision tree about the student climate activist, but if this game were to be developed for use in a classroom, the full decision tree would be filled in for each character.

We additionally envision several possible scenarios for each character to make the game replayable. For example, the decision tree we have today is about recycling. There could be other scenarios about conserving water and electricity, air pollution, marine pollution, etc. At the end of the experience, students can reflect together on how their individual actions can make a change.

Here are the questions we’ve come up with so far:

A1: You are a student at Premier City High School, and you were recently elected president of the Environmental Club. One day you are walking down the hallway, and you notice a trash can overflowing with plastic water bottles and other trash. Gross, you think. Why isn’t that plastic in the recycling bin? You look around for a recycling bin, but you realize there aren’t any. You search the whole school, and come to the realization that there is no recycling program at your school. What do you do?

• Ask your principal to start recycling at your school ☑️
• Call out your school on social media for not recycling ☑️

B2: Principal Option

You ask your principal to start a recycling program at your school, but the principal says there isn’t enough money in the school budget for one. What do you do?

• Post on social media calling out your school for not recycling
• Organize a fundraiser to pay for the recycling program ☑️
• Organize a student walk out in protest ☑️

A2: Social Media Option

You share a post on social media calling out your school for not having a recycling program. The next day you get called into the principal’s office, where you are told that the school won’t be starting a recycling program because the school doesn’t have the budget for it. The principal also tells you that your social media post brought a lot of negative attention to the school, and warns you not to do it again. What do you do?

• Organize a walk out to protest the school’s refusal to start a recycling program ☑️
• Take down the post, but start advocating for your city officials to start a recycling program
• Disregard the warning by your principal. This attention you have received so far is too important to give up on yet. ☑️

A3: Disregard The Warning

Your social media account has received 500 new followers with each new post receiving at least 1000 shares. You now have a lot more responsibility as everyone is looking to you for the latest information on the recycling program effort. Do you want to inform your followers that you were given a warning by the administration?

• Yes, they have the right to know the actions of the administration. ☑️
• No, you don’t want to get in even more trouble and the focus should be on the recycling program.

A4: Yes, They have the Right to Know

Congratulations. You have received 500 additional followers. You see a new post being shared by another student in your Environmental Club that the administration isn’t being honest about their budget. The money they could be using to start a recycling program is in fact instead being filtered into the school’s sports programs.

• Share the post ☑️
• Ignore it

A5: Share the Post

Your post has been shared 2000 times, but now you found out the content wasn’t true. The other student had heard it as a rumor and decided to post it on social media. What do you do next?

• Own up to your mistake and tell your followers it wasn’t true ☑️
• Ignore it
• Insist it is true, anything to keep engagement high

A6: Own up to your Mistake

You lost 200 followers and some credibility, but it would have been more if you had ignored it or insisted it was true.

A7: Own up to your Mistake

You are meeting with your Environmental Club and trying to discuss your next move.

• Organize a walk out ☑️
• Organize a fundraiser to pay for the recycling program ☑️

A8/B2: Organize a fundraiser

Your club is voting on which kind of fundraiser they want to facilitate and you are the tie-breaker. What kind of fundraiser do you want to choose?

• A car wash ☑️
• Dance-a-thon: For every hour you dance, your sponsors will give money. ☑️
• Community yard sale ☑️

C1: Organize a Student Walk Out

Members of your Environmental Club convince their friends to not show up to their classes and instead, protest outside of the school. Local newspapers show up to report on the scene. The administration is upset about the bad press and gives all students protesting detention for not attending their classes. They tell you if you don’t stop protesting, you and your friends risk suspension. Do you:

• Keep protesting. The school is bluffing. Throwing all of the students into detention would make the bad press worse. ☑️
• Stop protesting, there has to be another way that doesn’t risk your friends’ education ☑️

D1: Stop Protesting

With the funding issues your school is facing and the dismissal from your superiors, you decide it is time for the students to do the work themselves. An arts teacher has offered to use class time to learn how to repurpose recyclable materials in creative means.

• Decorating reusable water bottles ☑️
• Use upcycled materials to make a marble/pencil maze ☑️
• Turn old magazines into art ☑️

C2: Keep Protesting

You were correct. After a week of protesting, your friends have received detention, but no one has been suspended. The administration has requested to speak with you to discuss your demands. Do you:

• Meet with the administration ☑️
• Deny the request ☑️

Pop up C3: Deny the Request

All movements for change require the involvement of both grass-roots efforts and those in power. Your distrust for the administration can only go so far before it starts hurting the cause.

• Hear them out ☑️

Ending 1: Dance-a-thon/Car Wash/Community Yard Sale

Success! Your ____ was a hit. You raised enough money to start a recycling campaign at your school made up of both faculty and members of your Environmental Club. The principal thanks you for your hard work. Your next step is to locate your school’s collection sites, decide how you will separate the materials, and identify where they will be disposed.

Remember, just because you successfully started the recycling campaign, it doesn’t mean your work is done. Change happens in the decisions we make every day.

Although this scenario provided was a hypothetical, the change you can make as an individual is real. Students at Vernon Middle School in Montclair, California noticed their school was throwing away empty bottles and cans so they joined a program called Recycle Rally, which helps schools across America compete in recycling competitions. Students were inspired beyond the rally and helped the environment in their own ways, like volunteering at community gardens.

You may think you are powerless, but with the right idea and problem solving, you can help make this world a cleaner, healthier place. Keep up the good work!

Ending 2: Meet with the Administration/Hear Them Out

City officials, seeing the passion students are having for their environment, are reconsidering their financial allocations for your school. Your protest efforts were successful in creating awareness within your community.

Remember, just because you successfully started the recycling program, it doesn’t mean your work is done. Change happens in the decisions we make every day.

Although this scenario provided was a hypothetical, the change you can make as an individual is real. In 2019, then 16 year old Greta Thunberg organized a series of school walkouts in which millions of people participated from all around the world. In Montreal, Canada, for example, several government leaders joined in the protests alongside students. The mayor of Montreal met with Thunberg and discussed the city’s plan to reduce carbon emissions by over half by 2030.

You may think you are powerless, but with the right idea and problem solving, you can help make this world a cleaner, healthier place. Keep up the good work!

Ending 3: Decorating reusable water bottles/Use upcycled materials to make a marble/pencil maze/Turn old magazines into art

Congratulations! You thought outside of the box to make a difference in your community. Even though you didn’t reach your greater goal of starting a school-run recycling program, the first project can often be the catalyst for making change in the future.

Although this scenario provided was a hypothetical, the change you can make as an individual is real. Alice Imbastari, a 10 year-old from Italy, noticed the trash piling up on the Mediterranean coastline near her home in the south of Rome. She first tried to protest like her role model, Greta Thunberg, but after her family wouldn’t let her skip classes on Fridays, she was forced to come up with another plan. Grabbing trash bags, tongs, and rubber gloves, Alice started cleaning up the beaches herself every week, using whatever she found to make crafts.

Alice has since inspired many other students her age and been invited to speak in front of a crowd of thousands of people at the Global Climate Strike for the Future in Rome.

You may think you are powerless, but with the right idea and problem solving, you can help make this world a cleaner, healthier place. Keep up the good work!

Mapping

The map below shows a basic network of the multiple scenarios created to establish agency for the player. Ideally, the network would be more complex, perhaps through AI and/or a moderator. Each decision made by the player branches into another passage that allows the player to imagine scenarios that may inspire them to establish their own initiatives.