{"id":28088,"date":"2023-03-17t16:30:06","date_gmt":"2023-03-17t16:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/?p=28088"},"modified":"2024-07-18t17:22:05","modified_gmt":"2024-07-18t17:22:05","slug":"board-games-promote-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/story\/board-games-promote-science\/","title":{"rendered":"playing and painting to promote science: board games and art teach conservation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
by grace marie finnell-gudwien<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n it\u2019s board game night. you\u2019re sitting around a table with some of your friends, ready to play the colorful board game laid out in front of you. you all pick your characters and deal out the power cards to help you enhance properties. you then draw your first event cards to start the action. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n but you\u2019re not playing monopoly. your character? earthworm – you name him wormy. your power? tunneling – wormy\u2019s specialty. the properties? porosity, acidity and diversity – wormy digs in on all that. your event card? climate change – one of wormy\u2019s arch enemies.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n you\u2019re playing <\/span>dirty matters<\/span><\/a>, a free, printable board game created by scientists to teach others about soil health.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n \u201cthe original idea came from christina and i during lunch breaks because we both played board games,\u201d said emma \u201cbea\u201d burak, a postdoctoral researcher in sustainable fertilizer management who works at cranfield university. christina van midden is a soil biologist at cranfield university. the scientists wanted to create a way to engage others in soil science and show why protecting soil is important. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n taking their idea, burak and van midden met with nicolas beriot, a soil physics and land management research associate at wageningen university; tanvi taparia, a soil biologist microbiologist at the university of copenhagen; and michael l\u04e7bmann, the research coordinator at svensk kolinlagring, a swedish company that works with soil carbon storage. at an online international conference, the group learned about a grant offered by the british society of soil science for scientists to promote ways to help achieve the <\/span>united nations\u2019s sustainable development goals<\/span><\/a>. two days later, they submitted their grant proposal, beriot said. the group received the 5,000-euro grant.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n coming from a variety of backgrounds related to soil science, the group decided to create two board games. <\/span>dirty matters,<\/span><\/i> the first one, which was led by burak and van midden, focuses on the micro and macro organisms that contribute to soil sustainability and how they impact the soil\u2019s biological, physical, and chemical properties. it is designed for two to six players ages 8 and older and takes about 40 minutes to an hour to play, according to the game\u2019s website. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cmost people see soil and it’s just like, \u2018oh, it’s just dirt gets under your nails, it makes clothes dirty, plants grow in it or whatever,\u2019\u201d burak said, \u201cbut it’s actually really, really complicated and (an) intricate system.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n to design the game, the group considered how different aspects of soil health interact with each other and read \u201cmore literature than what i wanted to read,\u201d said van midden. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cwe were tying it in with these u.n. sustainable development goals,\u201d van midden said. \u201cit’s looking at how could we manage soil in order to meet these goals.\u201d the group portrays these management practices, such as using cover crops and no-till farming, through soil power cards. these cards give players the chance to undo event cards that harm the soil, such as erosion and drought. players win the game by managing healthy soil as a team.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n the group\u2019s second game is spearheaded by beriot, taparia, and loebmann who wanted to bring to light the social, economic and political aspects of soil health and sustainable development. taparia said this second game, sos (save our soils), is not out yet, but will require players to work together to survive on a remote island in a futuristic world facing severe environmental breakdown. in this game, soil and survival go hand-in-hand with cooperative action.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n the board games engage the public in learning and using solutions to win a bigger challenge \u2013 climate change.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n similarly, scientists are using art to engage people with environmental issues. sarah rosengard, ph.d., an assistant professor in the liberal arts department at the school of the art institute of chicago has been using art to promote science worldwide. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\nlearning through playing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
(courtesy of dirty matters)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nconnecting art and science<\/h2>\n\n\n\n