The Plastic Pipeline | Game & Outreach
The Serious Games Initiative communicates science and policy complexities through the world’s most dynamic medium: gaming. For the Plastic Pipeline product, we are using this medium to make the extremely complicated, multi-variable issue of plastic pollution easy to access. Key to this is making part of the lifecycle of a single-use plastic transparent and tangible, such as how plastics are produced or what happens to them once they leave the consumers hands. But another key to this is helping players to understand the multiple courses of action that can be taken to help build solutions to this problem. By empowering learners we hope to bolster solutions.
We are partnering with FableVision Studios, a leader in game-based learning, to develop this game. Currently, we are in the digital prototyping stage and looking for educators to collaborate with for prototype testing.
Past Work
Video games are being used to save the planet. Traditional communication efforts to help people understand what drives environmental problems can sometimes fall short. Games are being used to help make research on leading environmental issues, like ocean plastic pollution, conservation, and climate change, come to life. By putting the control in the hands of the public, new games are connecting the dots and motivating players to get involved. Join us as we learn more about these games in-action, their impacts, and how they are engaging audiences to learn, act, and grow into environmental do-gooders.
Learn more
The premise of the Fiscal Ship is to help players learn about national budget policies and the national debt. By passing legislation, players create their own plan but can only win if they also successfully navigate us out of national debt. Based on Congressional Budget Office data, this game has been played over 1.2 million times worldwide in middle school classrooms and the halls of Congress.
Play the Game
In this edition of Wilson Center NOW we speak with Elizabeth M H Newbury, Director of the Serious Games Initiative for the Wilson Center, on how she leverages games as a tool for public communication of science and policy research.
Watch the interview
Reflections on National Video Games Day, and how this is an opportunity to show the power of games to bring people together.
Learn more