2007 Urban Science
Based on our pilot study (Ecology 2020), we decided to make some exciting changes to the game design for the 4-week long summer version of Urban Science.
Some of the highlights of the new software include:
1. Email and blog communication between players, planning consultants, and non-players characters
2. 3D build outs of players’ plans into Google Earth
3. Integration of numerous software programs to create a realistic urban planning office environment
The young planners at Urban Design Associates were excited to see their work in print. Susan Troller from the Capital Times wrote this article about Urban Science, and the Wisconsin State Journal covered the game twice, once during a site visit and once during the mayoral presentation.
Simulating cities with census data
Games and simulations offer players the unique opportunity to create and recreate scenarios and the impacts of their decisions without any ‘real world’ repercussions. However, the assumptions embedded in those simuations (i.e. the ability to play Godzilla in SimCity) are just that, assumptions, and are full of personal and political biases. In an effort to move towards a less biased model, geographers at the University of Leeds are developing a simulator that uses data from the 2001 census to model the attributes and behaviors of over 25 million households. According to an article in the NewScientistTech, the data is used to analyze multiple scenarios to predict urban planning effects. According to developer Mark Birkin, “It works through hundreds of variables and projects the effect of policy change 10 to 20 years into the future.”
Reality — Augmented, Alternate, and Otherwise
Another post by Henry Jenkins drawing on epistemic games and related ideas. He doesn’t have David’s name quite right, but the ideas are spot on:
David William Schaffer has used the term, epistemic games, to refer to a style of educational gaming where players are asked to deploy the tools and knowledge which might be used by professionals as they confront real world problems. So, he develops games where kids learn geography by working as urban planners or composition by playing at being journalists. These games encourage kids to trace information across multiple sources and media platforms, mixing things they have learned through digital and mobile media with things they have learned through direct observation of the real world.
Play@Pyle
David Williamson Shaffer recently spoke at the http://engage.doit.wisc.edu/sims_games/playatpyle.html event at the University of Wisconsin:
Digital Zoo for elementary schoolers
Until now, we have run the Digital Zoo game with students at a Middle School level. We are curious about how the differences between Middle School and Elementary School students 
in computer literacy, attention span, and other areas of development will cause this epistemic game to look different when played by a younger population of student. What adaptations will we need to make in order to give elementary schoolers access to the same engineering content and practices as the middle schoolers had? We are planning to run a version of the Digital Zoo game with a class of 23 4th and 5th graders from a Madison K-8 school. This version will run for three days early next spring. We are also planning a version for a group of 2nd graders who are part of an Elementary Science Club that meets on Saturdays. This version will run later in the spring of 2007.
